Sound Card replacement, Dell Laptop

[peeyush.ag1]

My Dell-Inspiron-3542 sound device is not working; the laptop is not in warranty. The external speaker also didn't work, while the speakers are otherwise working correctly on another device. The earphones are also not working. A day before this problem started occurring, an anti-virus seem to have removed some registry files from my laptop.

An expert did software-troubleshooting (uninstalled, deleted and then reinstalled the latest driver from Dell website using auto-detect method) and then he pried-open full inspection of the laptop and said that some water has damaged the circuit. He is suggesting to change the mother-board.

Since sound-card is mounted on the mother-board, it is not possible to replace only the sound card. Can any simple external USB-based sound-card work?

 

[Corwin65]

if you use an external one, you'll need to use speakers or a headset.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

By all means use an external sound-card, but don't expect it to fix your laptop's built-in speakers because it won't.

External speakers are required for the external sound-card.

 

[peeyush.ag1]

By all means use an external sound-card, but don't expect it to fix your laptop's built-in speakers because it won't.

External speakers are required for the external sound-card.

Thanks Phil. Will any external USB sound card work (along with external speakers)? Am in India.

 

[Corwin65]

Yes, there are some very inexpensive ones and I've used them before.