Category: Geeks r Us
Hi again,
First, I don't have the standby and hybernate options when I go to shut down my laptop. They are not in power options either. That's a lot of shutting down and rebooting.
Second, no matter what I set my time to, Windows is showing Pasific time. I think it's confused with the daylight savings time.
The time thing fixed itself, but here's something else. I don't have stereo sound. Is it a driver I'm missing? The sound card is Sigmatel Audio.
From what I gathered, you are using dell, which means dell mobo/bios
So, I suggest you go to dell and get the proper driver for that sigmatel audio, uninstall the current driver, then install that driver.
When you reinstalled windows as a fresh install, how did you format the hd?
Please give as much detail in order for me to understand and diagnose the issue with the lack of restart missing shortcut. Of course you can do a command line restarts, but I doubt you want to be doing that.
It may sound silly, but there are different ways one can reformat an hd, and an os is very particular on how an hd is treated prior to installation...
Oooo, I feel dumb right now. The headphones were not plugged in correctly which was why I wasn't getting proper sound.
I don't know how the hard drive was reformatted because a technition did it. I didn't ask how it was being reformatted. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful. The only thing I see are turn off, restart, and shut down. In that order. I was told that the standby was greyed out.
I also need to install the display driver for jaws intersept to work correctly, but I don't know what it's called. I'm going to have to look on the Dell website for the name, then install it from the CD.
well... see if you can find out the serviced tag and then use the driver download link, enter in the service tag and your system configurations should appear with the corresponding drivers.
The reason I asked about the reformating of the hd is due to the fact that many people are under the impression that a quick format would do to reinstall and OS. Naive notion, but there you are.
Quick reformats should only be reserve for data storage hds onley. Hds with os, installed programs, and especially large database drives should be thoroughly reformated. Perhaps even a low level to be certain.
I had assumed that you had checked the plugs. :)
I installed the display driver from the website, however, it says it's incompatible when I go into display settings. Probably why Jaws vid intersept still wont work. Is it safe to uninstall the driver, then install from the CD?
I read that vidio drivers need to be installed in order for standby to work. So I fixed one thing at least, and caused another problem.
1. uninstall the driver through the hardware manager. You might see 2 video drivers there, uninstall them both.
2. restart your system, windows will install a temp vid driver, see if your jaws work, if not, use the built ms sam sapi audio if you are unable to see the screen to navigate. It is crap, but it will do in a pinch.
3. Install the driver from the cd and restart. If jaws is running, it will complain about installing vid intercept, do so and it will automatically restart. If not, restart again, and try the jaws vid intercept installation again
4. Finally, if all fails, reinstall jaws.
If that still didn't work, reinstall jaws.
@skp I bet you were reading the posts and crindging about how crappy the tech was since he didn't install gpu drivers - I kno I was.
@op:
1: Get a pare of eyes
2: Device manager > view > show all devices
3: Remove display and audio drivers
4: Reboot; cancel hardware dialogs; you won't have sound.
5: In this order, install chipset, video then audio drivers.
Drivers can be found at
http://support.dell.com
Reboot, everything should be ok.
@skp I used to think the same as you regarding full formats, but I asked a guy thats done data recovery for longer than i've been alive and all a full format does in addition to the quick format is basicly a chkdsk. If I have time on my hands I usually slave and do a low level.
I didn't install chipset drivers. Does that mean I have to redue everything? Hmmm. Maybe i should leve things alone for a while.
d3n is right, I had assumed far too much. Then to learn the a so called "tech" reformatted and reinstalled your OS, drivers, so inadiquately that even any half witted A+ certified technition could do in their sleep is ludacrous.
I do hope that dell techs are not payed based on the number of clients they can serve in a given day like directTV does. If so, then cutting corners are as common as breathing. Which in turns gives us techs (I'm not a geek) :P, a bad name. If they can spend 15minutes at your house, then run off to do likewise when a job demands at least 2 hours you can imagine the result.
reformatting an hd, reinstalling the OS, drivers, updates, and programs takes up at least 2 hours if you are streamlined, have all the software on hand, and is connected to the net.
1. Os takes about 30 to 50 minutes based on your computer
2. Dells drivers don't have a "smart installation" structure where you can just hit, "install all drivers" and have the system go through and install automatically. Yes, I have built computers who's mobo manufacture made it that easy to install the drivers. Also, the order of the driver installation is crucial to the proper functionality of your system. Therefore, not only do you have to manually install each and every driver to your components, you must install it in order. I recall spending about another 30 to 40 minutes on those drivers, what with the multiple restarts.
3. finally, for the tech's part, it is crucial to test and make sure that all components are running properly. They should have a check list to verify.
Its the third step that people tend to cut the corners on. *sigh*
After all that, you must take over and do the window updates, install ms office, etc.
All that process should take another hour at least depending on your connection speed.
I had to be somewhere so that's why the tech guy didn't stay the whole 2 hours.
Time to redue everything as soon as I find a sighted person.