Device drivers enable the computer hardware in a Dell PC to communicate with the operating system and the installed software. The sound card -- the component responsible for outputting audio ...

About a week after we ran an update on the Alienware M17x stuttering audio problem, Dell's community manager John B. has written in to let us know that the company has posted a fix. It entails ...

By taking the plug out and putting it back in solved the problem. All sound settings in windows 8.1 were set to default, as were all the settings in the dell audio program that was factory installed.

Contact Dell, embarrassedly explain you've no backup, get a part/technician on site, fix the machine, and almost certainly you'll then get access to the data again and copy the data off.