How do you enable stereo mix or wave out for sigmatel audio in windows 7 pro 64bit?

Answer 1

When I first bought my Dell XPS 410 in 2007, I was disappointed to discover that recording digital audio that plays through the speakers was disabled. I was also misled into believing that it was something specifically done by Dell on their hardware/onboard video. This was not the case. Some 2 1/2 years later while randomly searching about the problem again, I discovered that you could edit the registry, which was a universal solution. Stereo mix was always possible, just hidden by being removed from the registry. With a few edits, you could go to your audio control center, and enable stereo out, wave mix, "What You Hear" or whatever it is called now.

Well, when I upgraded to Windows 7 Professional 64, I once again, was unable to record sound. This was incredibly disappointing because I mistakenly assumed that this problem would have been resolved with a new OS, but apparently, it is a problem specifically with SigmaTel. They have, for all intents and purposes, abandoned their hardware and do not make software for 64bit OS.

Discussing the problem with other users who are aware of the issue, I nearly came to the conclusion that it may very well be impossible to do because of the difference between 32bit and 64bit drivers, but fortunately, I have found a "ghetto" solution.

Apparently, IDT has taken over for them and does make software for them. I tried several different ones, and the only one that looked like it was going to work, would repeatedly tell me to uninstall the SigmaTel drivers, even though they already were. When I looked through the drivers, ini files, configs, etc, I saw within the readable text, options for digital input, stereo mix, etc, so I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that these drivers would work, but the constant hurdling I have had to do didn't stop there, and I was not able to install the drivers.

Through more searching, I found a way to get around this disaster.

I installed the specific driver in related links, which apparently designed for headphone jack monitoring, plugged my speakers into the headphone port, and it worked, and then later tried my speaker port after changing some settings. I tested using a high quality audio recording program, and I was able to record through the speakers successfully.

I will continue to search for real, legitimate drivers that you don't have to jump through hoops just to get what you want, and when I do find them I will post the update here. I hope this helps the many people who have this problem at least for now, or maybe someone can modify the drivers further to work for the normal speakers that don't have the headphone redirect.

After you install this, all the standard options that should never ever be disabled or hidden, will be available, and all you have to do is right click and enable. This is years of off an on frustration, that I never thought would return, and did, vanquished.