I have just bought a new laptop from Dell. They told me that it would have an Audigy soundcard in it, but I can find no evidence of this in the system. There are no programs, and no mention of the soundcard in the hardware configuration. There are also no extra ports for audio connections. Also, the sound from the internal speakers is pretty unimpressive. I imagine that the soundcard would improve this. Am I right? So can I be confident that they did not include the soundcard with my system, or am I not looking in the right place?

Two things, first, if your computer makes sound at all it must have a sound card (however in laptops the sound processing hardware is usually built in, not on a "card" as in desktops). You should probably have some sort of input output ports though for connecting external speakers and a microphone. They look like standard headphone jacks. My second comment: I remember reading recently about a Dell laptop buyer who upgraded their laptop to have "Audigy Sound" when they bought it. It turned out that there was no physical difference between it an the standard laptop, just a different piece of software. I can't remember all the details, but you might try searching Google, or digg.com for the story. PS: What laptop model did you get? -Ryan Adams http://members.cox.net/rtadams89/

Thanks Ryan It is an Inspiron 6400. I am worried because I cannot find any such software on the system, despite doing a search on the hard drive for "creative" and for "audigy". Also, the sound from the internal speakers is quiet and unimpressive. Am I right in thinking that the sound from these would be improved with an audigy soundcard?

Have you tried to double click on the horn icon near the clock and checked to see what the levels are on whatever you are trying to run? Sometimes they are set really low and just a bit of adjustment will bring up the level. Also, the sound on laptops is never really loud and actually pretty tinny sounding because the internal speakers are so small. I've found that just plugging in some powered external speakers will also help alot, especially in the sound quality. Good luck. Hopefully my advice will help you...Please post back with your results....thanks

"It turned out that there was no physical difference between it an the standard laptop, just a different piece of software" Inspiron 6400 specification details.

"Am I right in thinking that the sound from these would be improved with an audigy soundcard?" as said above, its all about the speakers

Thanks for the link. If all this is true, then Dell have been openly lying to hundreds or thousands of customers, selling them the software for a device that they had promissed but not installed. In my case, they didn't even manage to send the software... I sent them a very strong email explaining the situation and how poor their customer service had been, and threatening to generate some bad publicity for them, and I received 3 calls back very promptly, suddenly concerned about my problem having ignored it until now. They are going to send me some "quite costly" speakers to make up for their oversight. Maybe this is a better option for me, especially if the soundcard will not improve the sound that is coming from the notebook anyway.