Pixel Bunneh

Have you recently upgraded your system to Windows 7 in an attempt to rid yourself of the Vista blues? Good move, except that many manufacturers aren’t supporting their hardware. Both Gateway and Dell have dropped the ball, and as far as I know no other company has stepped up to the plate to get good drivers for Windows 7 implemented.

Meanwhile, Sigmatel has been purchased by IDT, and does NOT support end user drivers.

So, if you’re speakers aren’t working after upgrading to Windows 7, here’s what you need to do:

Go to Microsoft’s Windows Update Center. Yes, you read that right. And yes, you will probably have to use Internet Explorer if you want the site to determine your hardware.

To do it manually, type in “high definition audio device” into the search box. You’ll get a long list of drivers, just scan down and put both 64bit drivers for Windows 7 in your cart, then download them.

After trying umpteen zillions of drivers trying to get these speakers to work, the older of those two drivers finally did it. And, they work better than they did under Vista (headphone and mic use is now seamless).

Note: do a full uninstall of your existing driver from the Device Manager, then reboot prior to installing the new driver. You’ll have to reboot after the install also.

Good luck!