NEWBIE....laptop no audio!!!

help!! i just changed my japanese laptop to english not knowing that all the drivers were preinstalled. i mailed the company and they said that there is no way i can download it through the internet because it was only preinstalled. so now my new changed laptop has no audio.

i was thinking if a usb external sound card can help. and if it can, can someone pls suggest what are the things to consider in choosing the appropriate usb sound card.

by the way, here is the model name of my laptop and maybe if you know where i can download drivers for this please tell me. thanks in advance.

help!! i just changed my japanese laptop to english not knowing that all the drivers were preinstalled. i mailed the company and they said that there is no way i can download it through the internet because it was only preinstalled. so now my new changed laptop has no audio.

Have you asked whether they can supply installation disks? Some manufacturers will (at a price)

i was thinking if a usb external sound card can help. and if it can, can someone pls suggest what are the things to consider in choosing the appropriate usb sound card.

We would need to know what you are intending to use the laptop for, what OS it uses and so on. General advice is to go for a known specialist make such as m-audio, Edirol, Tascam and so on and then choose depending on the connectors you want to link to and general useage decisions.

by the way, here is the model name of my laptop and maybe if you know where i can download drivers for this please tell me. thanks in advance.

I see no model name and number. Also, does the laptop's internal soundcard identify itself in any way in the Sounds section in Control Panel?

thanks for the reply and sorry, i forgot to put the specs...

PCJ-LL9009D NEC Lavie
1.5 Ghz P4
128 RAM

help!! i just changed my japanese laptop to english not knowing that all the drivers were preinstalled. i mailed the company and they said that there is no way i can download it through the internet because it was only preinstalled. so now my new changed laptop has no audio.

Have you asked whether they can supply installation disks? Some manufacturers will (at a price)

i was thinking if a usb external sound card can help. and if it can, can someone pls suggest what are the things to consider in choosing the appropriate usb sound card.

We would need to know what you are intending to use the laptop for, what OS it uses and so on. General advice is to go for a known specialist make such as m-audio, Edirol, Tascam and so on and then choose depending on the connectors you want to link to and general useage decisions.

by the way, here is the model name of my laptop and maybe if you know where i can download drivers for this please tell me. thanks in advance.

I see no model name and number. Also, does the laptop's internal soundcard identify itself in any way in the Sounds section in Control Panel?

yeah i tried mailing them...they seem to have this computer generated replies telling me that there is no installation disc included in it upon purchase as it was preinstalled. i really dont understand why in the world does that happen since there are no downladable drivers in their website too!! so they said no, there is no disc even at a price....

my laptops specs are...

PCJ-LL9009D NEC Lavie
P4 1.5Ghz
128 RAM

i only use it for regular use. and because there is no sound at all, i cant even watch any vids or even msg alert.

pls help me dude. someone told me that buying an external usb drive will solve this freakin problem. now the only thing i am thinking is that there are no requirements needed for those usb external drivers, right? and if it has, what do you suggest for my specs.

thanks alot dude...waiting for your asap reply....

I suspected it might be an NEC machine, which is partly why I answered. I am similarly trying to find drivers for an NEC PetiScan Japanese scanner.

You didn't say what Operating System it had. From the spec, I would suspect it might be Windows 2000 or a very early Windows XP machine. It really has barely enough ram to run well with XP. What operating system have you installed?

My understanding of NEC LaVie laptops is that they have a specifically developed bios for the Japanese market and then specially developed versions of drivers. I'm not sure in what way they are special, but suspect the drivers themselves will be the same under the hood, but will have installation code that looks for certain, perhaps Japanese, phrases in the bios and or the OS. Your machine seems to be a LaVie LL900. I notice that there is an NEC Versa 900. Maybe they are similar as they seem to be of the same generation, but I really have no idea. There are Versa 900 drivers on some of the NEC support websites.

I honestly think you will waste a huge amount of time on this without getting very far. Before getting any other hardware you do need to establish that all the basic functions of the machine work well. Do the usb ports work correctly? For on-board audio, you may well need motherboard drivers as well as the audio drivers, and you may well find that you move from one problem only to hit another one.

NEC seem to me to be a company that has many products made only for the internal Japanese market. These seem often to be really interesting things full of unusual or even experimental ideas - my scanner certainly was in its day. But support for the home market Japanese products appears to be non-existent.

If the usb ports are OK, then I still think you need to say what you actually want to do before you can get advice on usb audio devices.  Bear in mind that few, if any, usb audio interfaces have any inbuilt loudspeaker, so you need to look at what headphone connector you use, what you want to connect to, whether you want a microphone input and so on.

I'm sorry this is rather negative, but maybe someone else can help more.