I recently bought a Dell Dimension E521 with the new windows vista on it.Vista was too hard for my mother to understand and work, and I actually wasnt too impressed by it, so I Erased the hard disk, and reinstalled Windows XP on it(with SP2) and now it is not reading my sound card.I have a sigmatel sound card. I have dowloaded the drivers from dell, but it did no good. All the sound card is showing under my hardware list is ' pci device". I have tried everything I know.Anyone got any ideas??? Have you RUN the Add New Hardware Wizard from the Control Panel?

You can let Windows search for drivers or specify the location of the driver manually.I have already done all that, and even with the driver downloaded from delll and I specified the folder it still doesnt want to recognize the sound card.Its like its not even there. I am wondering if the card is compatible with xp or is more towards vista? Did the sound card come with the computer or was it added aftermarket?It came with the computer.I had the same problem with an old IBM pl300 but it was easy to resolve once I downloaded the driver.As soon as i installed the driver, the PC automatically installed the soundcard. This sound card on the dimension e521 was the one built in by dell. The PC is brand new, but I did not like vista.I tried it for over a month and decided to swith back to XP PRO. I am pulling my hair out, I have built several pc's and never had a problem that I couldnt fihure out, But this really is stumping me!!! I've been to the Dell site and seen the driver there for your Sigmatel sound card.

I can't be 100% sure, but it may not install itself automatically like most other software does.

You may have to figure out where the driver installed itself and manually run the Install New Hardware Wizard and direct Windows to the proper location to install your driver.

There's PROBABLY a Dell/Driver directory on your local drive where you can find the driver...so tell windows to look there. Again...it depends on where the driver was installed when you unpacked the download from the Dell Support page.

If worse comes to worse...you may need to contact Dell. We all know how much fun that is.

I'm assuming this computer is still under warranty?

Good luck.Yeah it was but dell didnt like the idea that I downgraded to xp, they said i should have shipped it back to them and let them instal xp for me(of course for over $100) and they kind of got crappy. I have the driver, and when it unzipped it said some files could not be unzipped, and then after all was done it said the driver was not supported by my system. My sound card is Sigmatel 9227 CODEC (7.1 Channel audio). I just dont understand. I have directed the install hardware wizard to both the dell folder and the folder the driver was ibstalled on. Would i need to maybe unistall the unknow pci device, then reinstall it? I have all the audio codecs showing on the list, but no device.Like I said dell didnt like it when I told them I erased the HD and reinstalled XP myself. Thanks for all your help man, but I am still so stumped. I t has benn driving me crazy for 3 days! I am a bug gaming fan and MUSIC collector,, and cant do either!
What you can probably try is this:

1) Download the driver to your Desktop.

2) Shutdown your computer...and unplug it from all peripherals, as well as disconnecting the power cord.

3) Press the power button in on your computer and hold it in for about 10 seconds to duscharge any remaining electricity from the motherboard.

4) Open your case and remove the sound card...making sure you protect the computer from ESD...Electrostatic discharge. Touch the exposed metal on the case...to protect static electricity from damaging your printed circuit boards.

5) Plug eveything back in and boot the computer back up.

6) Unpack the driver you downloaded to your desktop. Hopefully it will install with no issues this time.

7) Repeat steps 2 and 3.

8- Open your case and reinstall the card...following the ESD tips in Step 4.

9) Plug everything back in and reboot your computer.

10) Keep your fingers crossed.

Post your results.