Windows 10: Dell G7 Internal Speakers Disabled

When I turned on my G7 running Windows 10 today, there was a red X on the speaker icon and it said "No audio playback devices detected" or something along those lines. I tried Method 1 at https://www.techworm.net/2018/10/no-audio-output-device-is-installed.html . This made headphones show up on audio devices, but not the internal speakers. In device manager > System Settings I scanned HD Audio Driver for hardware changes, and it reinstalled Intel SST which had disappeared during the earlier step. Now the red X is back, and headphones no longer work. I'm back at square 1. All audio drivers are up to date. How do I get the laptop to recognize its own speaker or headphones?


Another question I have is how do I enable the "what audio device did you plug in" dialog box? I clicked "Don't show this again," thinking it would automatically switch to headphones or internal speakers when I plugged or unplugged. It doesn't, and I always had to go into sound settings to change devices. That was before the red X problem, and assuming that can be fixed I'd like to undo my choice not to see that dialog box.


Thanks,

Kent

:)

 

How to disable the internal speakers when connecting external speakers?

The instructions for connecting headphones/external speakers inplies that the internal speakers in my HP Envy 23-d260qd computer will be disabled when the headphones/external speakers are connected. This is not the case - both the speakers and the
headphones work together, thus defeating the purpose of headphones. There seems to be some suggestion that this problem has been caused by an update to Windows10. I have been connecting of headphones or external speakers and would mechanically disabled the
internal speakers as happens with molst audio equipment. Any advice will be much appreciated.

 

Disable internal speaker only on Windows 10 Dell

First, try to update your audio drivers. This can happen with some Realtek audio solutions when the Realtek drivers aren't installed.

If that doesn't work you can completely disable the internal speaker in the BIOS. On Win 10 machines you can get into the BIOS starting in Windows.

1. Open Start Menu
   
2. Navigate to "Settings"
   
3. Select "Update and Security"
   
4. Go to "Recovery"
   
5. Scroll down and select "Restart Now" under the Advanced Startup header.
   
6. Click Troubleshoot
   
7. Click Advanced Options.
   
8. Click UEFI Firmware Settings
   
9. Click Restart
   

BIOS menus vary widely from computer to computer so I can't give a walkthrough of where to find the setting to disable the internal speaker, you'll have to poke around a bit to find that.

 

Disable internal speaker only on Windows 10 Dell

I have a Dell Optiplex 9020 I will often use with headphones (so 3.5mm front panel jack), however it seems to share the volume and audio "device" with some internal speaker within the box.

If the headphones/external speaker is removed it switches back to its internal speaker with the same volume level (so terrible if the machine is then left locked and some browser ad, application, etc. decides to make noise).

This is similar to on my phone, etc. only there Android remembers the volumes seperately (so device volume muted, headphones at whatever) which works just as well as disabling.