My Sound System is acting weird !!!

Hello everyone, I came across a very weird issue that already has wasted lots of my time and energy, With no luck. I hope you can help me with this. This is what happened :
Few months ago my Dell E6420 laptop soundcard (IDT/ Nvidia) got an issue and stopped playing sounds from its built-in speakers. Since I'm student and very busy to college and since I use my laptop intensively for my coursers, I didn't get a chance to take it somewhere to fix it, But I've been using USB headphones since then and it was working perefect ! Then suddenly 3 days ago, it stopped to play sound with headphone as well !!! I haven't installed any third-party software other than Clipboardmaster which has nothing to do with speakers, and I have installed some Chrome extensions (Which I know has nothing to do with messing up with windows drivers). So When I open Device Manager, in Sound section, "ADS instant HDTV PCI" has error. I had it uninstalled and installed again , But No luck. I read in one forum that if I uninstall it and restart system, it will automatically fix it, But not only it didn't But also it didn't even re-installed it automatically, And I had to add it manually again, Which still has error (Yellow mark). I used windows troubleshooting and it gives me Error 10 (Can't start the device for ADS instant...).

And the funniest part, When I accidentally used a old headphone with audio jack, It is working !!!!!!! So here's the summary :

THE LAPTOP HAS NO SOUND OUTPUT, NOT PLAYING SOUND WITH USB HEADPHONE, BUT PLAYING FINE WITH AUDIO JACKED HEADPHONE !!!!

Unfortunately my old headphone (jacked) is very old and noisy, So I can not use it for my college and I need to use the USB one.
I'd appreciate any suggestion, But for the sake of wasting my time and yours, please read my scenario completely and don't repeat the same solution which I've already tried and not worked. 

Thank you in advance

Edited by Apex54, 15 October 2024 - 09:57 PM.

While I can't help with your laptop, something similar happened with my Desktop.

 

It turned out that the PSU was beginning to fail and the sound was the first indication, flaky USB connections followed.

Download and install Speccy - https://www.ccleaner.com/speccy

Run it, and then go to File and Publish Snapshot. Post the resulting link in your next reply

Download and install min-toolbox from here: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/minitoolbox/
 

 
With the following:
 
Last 10 error messages from the logs
Installed Application
Problematic Devices 
List users and partitions

Hello cryptodan. Thanks for the help. Here is what you suggested :
 
http://speccy.piriform.com/results/DYU3VqQcUQQuCVq7NsLOKGB
 
Minitoolbox output : (Sorry I don't know how attach a file here?, So I just pasted it !)

 

Edited by Apex54, 15 October 2024 - 10:00 PM.

Hi:

Whatever else is going on with this system, you are out of free space on your OS boot drive (only 5 GB free).
Even Windows 7 - which is obsolete & for which support ended years ago - needs at least 15-20% free space.
I suggest that you free up space by deleting user data, uninstalling unneeded programs, clearing temp files, etc.

As far as your audio problem, it's possible that a hardware component may have failed on this very old kit.
https://www.dell.com/support/contents/en-ai/videos/videoplayer/how-to-run-dell-hardware-diagnostics/6079790501001#:~:text=At%20the%20Dell%20logo%20screen,press%20enter%20to%20begin%20EPSA.

Respectfully submitted

Edited for typo

Edited by MoxieMomma, 15 October 2024 - 10:24 PM.

Download and install Speccy - https://www.ccleaner.com/speccy

Run it, and then go to File and Publish Snapshot. Post the resulting link in your next reply

Download and install min-toolbox from here: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/minitoolbox/
 

 
With the following:
 
Last 10 error messages from the logs
Installed Application
Problematic Devices 
List users and partitions

 

 

I am still waiting on your suggestion to my problem @cryptodan 

What usb headset do you have?

@cryptodan, I use a good Logitech headphone, It's not one of those cheap ones, Also I checked it with my friend's headphone, the same result !

Also the above links which you sent me are Not working.

Can ypu provide the link to the Logitech Page, because I want to see if you are using a usb to 3.5mm adapter as those can become problematic.

The Link to the Dell Support Page isnt working?

@cryptodan, No there is No USB to 3.5mm adapter, it's just USB, and as I said there's nothing wrong with the headphones, I tested them on another PC and they worked.

 

No, none of the 3 below links which you send working :
Arch Desktop - https://termbin.com/epij
Arch Laptop - https://www.termbin.com/dnwk
Ubuntu Server - https://termbin.com/zvra
 
Also I would like to know what outcome did you get out of all the tools and apps that you asked me to install and run ??

 

Thanks

@cryptodan, No there is No USB to 3.5mm adapter, it's just USB, and as I said there's nothing wrong with the headphones, I tested them on another PC and they worked.

Also I would like to know what outcome did you get out of all the tools and apps that you asked me to install and run ??

Thanks

Those tools were used to see what hardware you had and what errors.

Now that you say these are usb only that means that likely there is operating system corruption.

The headphones had they been 3.5mm jack only that could be better diagnosed. But the usb means there is deep operating system corruption. You might need to perform a repair install or run somethings like

sfc /scannow
Dism

Run linux from a live session to test your usb ports and audio from it.

 

 

 

If the USB ports are fully functional what would be best imho, source an external USB storage device, save your personal data to it then use the Dell recovery partition to start afresh, it would mean that you would need to instal a load of Windows 7 updates but you would at least have the required storage space available.

Also have a read here

https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/install.html