NVIDIA Sound Card Version 1.3.18.0 Not Compatible

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Hi. I have the NVIDIA HD Audio Driver 1.3.18.0, GeForce 210 V. 311.06 installed on my computer. I downloaded Audacity and have NOTHING on the drop down menu for ‘Input’ devices. I went to the ‘Sounds’ box and under the ‘Recording’ tab, I checked both ‘Show Disabled Devices’ and ‘Show Disconnected Devices’, and the ‘Stereo Mix’ or ‘What I Hear’ option still does not appear. Huh. The only thing that shows is the ‘Microphone’, which I don’t have installed. I downloaded the RealTek HD Audio for Windows 7 and it did nothing. I suppose because it’s not compatible since I already have the NVIDIA HD Driver. Is there a way to go in to the driver files and registry and change some values from ‘1’ to ‘0’ in the .inf file to allow this to work? I found this good forum with a similar solution
http://stream-recorder.com/forum/help-have-no-stereo-mix-soundmax-integrated-t4912.html?s=400f771624c8eb1c0a7c3cac4f33517b&

I tried updating the sound card drivers and still nothing.
I’m running Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit, SP1. I have a Dell XPS 400.
I have Audacity 2.0.5 from the .exe installer.
Is my particular sound card incompatible with Audacity?
Thank you.

2

Please don’t download generic drivers from Realtek which are not matched with your motherboard. That will only make your problems worse. Uninstall Realtek, completely shut down the computer and restart it.

If the “Microphone” shows in Windows “Sound” and Audacity sees that microphone when you restart it, then Audacity is compatible with that sound device. It is seeing the only inputs that Windows sees. Audacity should be compatible with any built-in sound device.

You should not go messing with driver files and the Windows Registry unless you know 100% what you are doing. In any case the “solution” you refer to is for SoundMax. Changing inf file and Registry values does not enable stereo mix for all sound devices. On some devices, stereo mix is disabled with no method to enable it.

If you would read the Audacity FAQ’s and documentation you would make things much easier for yourself. To record computer playback, please see Tutorial - Recording Computer Playback on Windows - Audacity Manual . Use the Windows WASAPI solution mentioned there, which does not rely on the built-in sound device being able to record computer playback (it uses a built-in “loopback” recording feature built in to Windows Vista and later).

Of course, we assume you have permission of the copyright owners to record whatever content you are intending to record.


Gale

3

Dear Gale,
Thank you for your prompt reply.
I immediately uninstalled RealTek HD yesterday when I realized it wouldn’t be compatible and would have to uninstall my NVIDIA Sound Card for it to install and Audacity to recognize it. Thanks.

I thought there might be a workaround in the .inf file that could simplify things. I do have some knowledge of working with these files, and know how to change those numeric values in Notepad before ‘Saving’.

Lastly, I did indeed read the entire Audacity tutorial for Windows, and I am familiar with that loopback method,
which I also came across in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXRe-5BZXrc

but was hoping to avoid a trip to Radio Shack for the cable. It seems that’s my only option with the sound card I have installed.
It was a matter of ‘trying every possible method first’ before going to Radio Shack.

Thank you for your help and professionalism.

And yes, I do have permission from the copyright owners.

4

Sorry, but that video is very misleading. If you plug the audio output into the microphone port as that video suggests, you will either get (probably distorted) mono or poor quality stereo, unless you have a way to switch the microphone input to line level stereo.

If you have a blue line-in port on your computer you can use that solution with reasonable quality. If you want to hear while recording, you will also need a splitter adaptor to double the audio output, or enable Transport > Software Playthrough in Audacity.

I suggest you save your money. You are on Windows 7, so (as I already said) you can use the Windows WASAPI method mentioned on http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_recording_computer_playback_on_windows.html . Although it is called a “loopback” method it does this in software - there is no need for a physical cable. :wink:

  1. Open Device Toolbar .
  2. In the first (Host) box of Device Toolbar, choose “Windows WASAPI”.
  3. In the second (Output device) box in Device Toolbar, choose the NVIDIA Speakers or Headphones that you are using for listening.
  4. In the third (Input device) box in Device Toolbar, choose the (loopback) input for the same device you chose in step 3. For example, if you chose “Speakers (NVIDIA)” in Step 3, choose “Speakers (NVIDIA) (loopback)” in this step.
  5. In the fourth (Input Channels) box in Device Toolbar, choose mono or stereo.
  6. Start playing the audio you want to record.
  7. Press the big red Record button in Audacity.

Gale

5

You are on Windows 7, so you can use the Windows WASAPI method mentioned on > http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_recording_computer_playback_on_windows.html > . Although it is called a “loopback” method it does this in software - there is no need for a physical cable. > :wink:

Open Device Toolbar .
In the first (Host) box of Device Toolbar, choose “Windows WASAPI”.
In the second (Output device) box in Device Toolbar, choose the NVIDIA Speakers or Headphones that you are using for listening.
In the third (Input device) box in Device Toolbar, choose the (loopback) input for the same device you chose in step 3. For example, if you chose “Speakers (NVIDIA)” in Step 3, choose “Speakers (NVIDIA) (loopback)” in this step.
In the fourth (Input Channels) box in Device Toolbar, choose mono or stereo.
Start playing the audio you want to record.
Press the big red Record button in Audacity.

Thanks for that! You’re awesome and you know your stuff, but apparently I’m missing something. I followed your directions to the letter, but the entire file was blank. I suspected as such when I was recording and there were no audio waves going up and down. The seconds and minutes were ticking by, but nothing was being recorded.
Sorry, but this software is new to me and I’m missing something?

6

Recheck the steps.

What are the chosen input and output devices in Device Toolbar?

Where were you playing the audio you were trying to record?

Did you have it playing loud enough that you could hear it?

Does your Dell have a blue line-in? Some images of that model show a line-in and some don’t, and its specs I have seen don’t mention audio at all.

Did the machine come supplied with Windows 7 by Dell, or did you add Windows 7 yourself?



Gale

7

Recheck the steps.

What are the chosen input and output devices in Device Toolbar?

Where were you playing the audio you were trying to record?

Did you have it playing loud enough that you could hear it?

Does your Dell have a blue line-in? Some images of that model show a line-in and some don’t, and its specs I have seen don’t mention audio at all.

Did the machine come supplied with Windows 7 by Dell, or did you add Windows 7 yourself?

First of all, thank you for following through on this. Some forums don’t really care, or they take forever and ever to reply, so thanks.

Audio Host is Windows WASAPI. Output Device is labeled ‘HF2701 NVIDIA High Definition Audio’. Input Device is also ‘HF2701 NVIDIA High Definition Audio’. Input Channels are 2 Channel Stereo Input.
The confusion may have lied in the fact that you wrote above to use the “NVIDIA Speakers” in the Input and Output Device drop-down. I used the NVIDIA drop down for the Input and the Output, but my NVIDIA is my Sound Card. My speakers are Boston Acoustics. I changed the Input and Output to ‘Speakers (High Definition Audio)’ and kept the Audio Host and Input Channels the same. When I tried to record that way, there was a loud, high pitched buzzzing noise over the music! Yikes.

I’m trying to record something off Facebook that someone posted a while back. It’s not a YT link. It’s some sort of built-in FB media playe. Here’s a link to it. It’s a backing track only, without any vocals!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1466422669033

It was playing plenty loud enough.

On the back of my tower, there are three in-line inputs. Left to right they are blue, green and a pinkish color.

I purchased this computer from someone a couple years ago used. I don’t know if he installed Windows 7 Ultimate or if it came with it.

Thanks.

8

I have a Firefox Add-On called “FlashGot”. I played this Abbey Road backing track in my browser and was able to download the corresponding MP4 file through FlashGot. Audacity can open this MP4 file and export its audio as FLAC, WAV, or whatever format you prefer. The output is as loud as desired (or allowed by your hardware).

9

I have a Firefox Add-On called “FlashGot”. I played this Abbey Road backing track in my browser and was able to download the corresponding MP4 file through FlashGot. Audacity can open this MP4 file and export its audio as FLAC, WAV, or whatever format you prefer. The output is as loud as desired (or allowed by your hardware).

Sorry. I played around with Flashget/Flashgot and when I tried to download the mp4, I kept getting an error message stating it “does not support protocol”. Maybe it was the ‘facebook’ part of the URL? I don’t know. Anyways, after several unsuccessful tries, I uninstalled it and removed the add-on from Firefox. My default download manager is back. Thanks, though!
I’m still hoping to catch it with Audacity for the high bitrate audio quality.

10

First, FlashGet and FlashGot are not the same application.

And it seems you are not following proper steps to download this file. Here is how this works with FlashGot:

  1. Go to https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1466422669033
  2. Click to start playing the video.
  3. On the bottom right corner (on the far right of the Firefox status bar), right-click the FlasGot icon. Then left-click the video name.

The download should start (you’ll see a green progress bar in the Firefox icon on the Windows Taskbar).

I have redownloaded it to make sure. It does work!

11

That may depend on the Firefox version or preferences. On my machine the icon appears at the right hand end of the Bookmarks toolbar.

12

Unfortunately I can’t see what inputs and outputs you have (unless you would like to go to Help > Audio Device Info… in Audacity, Select All, copy the information there, then paste it in here).

I understand the XPS 400 is a desktop model but sometimes even desktops have built-in speakers.

The idea of the WASAPI host for recording computer playback is that in the output box of Device Toolbar you need to choose the playback device that you are using - whichever device that when you drag a file into Audacity and play it, lets you listen to the file.

Then you set the input device to the exact same device you chose for output, except it will have (loopback) at the end of its name.

I don’t know what your “Speakers (High Definition Audio)” are - are they built-in speakers? Could you record the music by choosing “Speakers (High Definition Audio)” for output and “Speakers (High Definition Audio) (loopback)” for input, the only problem being the buzz?

And if in Device Toolbar you choose “HF2701 NVIDIA High Definition Audio” for output and “HF2701 NVIDIA High Definition Audio (loopback)” for input, you only record silence, correct?

Note that you need to set the Windows default playback device to the one from which you are going to attempt the Audacity loopback recording. Right-click over the speaker icon by the system clock, then choose “Playback Devices”. If the device you want to use is not default, right-click over it and choose “Set as Default Device”.

OK then you can record computer playback by connecting a stereo cable from the green to the blue, and setting the Audacity input to line-in for whatever sound card those inputs are for.

As far as I can see, XPS 400 is quite old, and was originally provided with Windows XP and Windows XP audio drivers.

Dell don’t seem to offer Windows 7 audio drivers for the machine, which makes it harder to work out what are the correct audio drivers you should be using.


Gale

13

Just to note that Audacity as shipped cannot import MP4 files on Windows. To import MP4 files, add the FFmpeg library to your computer: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#ffdown .


Gale

14

If you download the video then this will be the same quality as the file on the server.

If you record the audio in Audacity you will lose a little quality because the audio will be converted to analogue in order to play the stream then back to digital when it gets recorded into Audacity.


Gale

15

First, FlashGet and FlashGot are not the same application.

I’m fully aware of that. Flashgot is a browser add-on and Flashget is a download manager. I could NOT get Flashgot to work in my browser.
Also, I use the Firefox built-in download manager. This one:

http://blog.mozilla.org/theden/2013/06/03/using-the-new-firefox-download-manager/

When I couldn’t get Flashgot to work properly, I downloaded Flashget to replace my default download manager, thinking maybe Flashgot wasn’t compatible with my Firefox built-in download manager.
I read the entire Flashgot and Flashget tutorials. I am PC literate. First of all, there was no Flashgot icon on my browser’s Google toolbar. I had to drag and drop it in there from 'Right click on Menu Bar/Customize. The fact that I have a Google Toolbar on a current version of Firefox may be the problem! I have Firefox 23.0.1. I do a workaround whereby you open Firefox’s install.rdf file in Notepad and change the MaxVersion to the latest Firefox version to allow it to still work in Firefox. ‘install.rdf’ is located here. Go to AppData >Roaming > Mozilla> Firefox > Profiles > Default Profile > Extensions and look for the directory where the Google Toolbar is installed. Mine is located at {3112ca9c-de6d-4884-a869-9855de68056c} directory. It’s located in there.
You later said that the Flashgot icon is in your status bar. I have a status bar in the lower left corner of my browser right above the task bar. I think you may possibly have been referring to the Add-on bar? I’ve seen the status bar also called the add-on bar, when in fact they are two different things, but I knew what you meant. I went to View and checked Add-on bar and dragged the Flashgot icon to the lower right corner, as you said, and followed your directions, and it still would not work! After I started the video, I right-clicked on the icon and the ‘Abbey Road Medley’ was not there. I don’t know why. i must have tried a hundred different ways to get that thing to work (alt-click, Tools/Flashgot/Flashgot options/Single download). I added mp4 under the ‘Downloads’ tab in Flashgot options dialog box. Those are just a few of the ways I tried to get it to work, but to no avail. Thanks for your tips on that, I really did appreciate it. I gave it the old college try on two different occasions on two different days. It was one obstacle after another after another after another. It might be that Google Toolbar in Firefox? Who knows. Maybe I’ll revisit it later. Thanks.
By the way, I was finally able to download that mp4 and then convert it to mp3 (not in Audacity). It sounds great.

16

So, please say how since there is so much detail in this topic already about using browser extensions and download managers. FlashGet?


Gale

17

The idea of the WASAPI host for recording computer playback is that in the output box of Device Toolbar you need to choose the playback device that you are using - whichever device that when you drag a file into Audacity and play it, lets you listen to the file.
Then you set the input device to the exact same device you chose for output, except it will have (loopback) at the end of its name.

Yes, I did that.

I don’t know what your “Speakers (High Definition Audio)” are - are they built-in speakers? Could you record the music by choosing “Speakers (High Definition Audio)” for output and “Speakers (High Definition Audio) (loopback)” for input, the only problem being the buzz?

And if in Device Toolbar you choose “HF2701 NVIDIA High Definition Audio” for output and “HF2701 NVIDIA High Definition Audio (loopback)” for input, you only record silence, correct?

Gale,
Yes to both of those questions, and it’s a very LOUD, high pitched hum.

Note that you need to set the Windows default playback device to the one from which you are going to attempt the Audacity loopback recording. Right-click over the speaker icon by the system clock, then choose “Playback Devices”. If the device you want to use is not default, right-click over it and choose “Set as Default Device”.

i performed a ‘Test’ on both, and the ‘Speakers (High Definition Audio)’ are my Boston Acoustics speakers, and the ‘HF2701 NVIDIA High Definition Audio’ are the built-in speakers on my monitor. They suck. The 'Speakers (HD Audio) are my default.


Hypnotized wrote:On the back of my tower, there are three in-line inputs. Left to right they are blue, green and a pinkish color.

OK then you can record computer playback by connecting a stereo cable from the green to the blue, and setting the Audacity input to line-in for whatever sound card those inputs are for.

I may have to try this method.

Hypnotized wrote:I’m still hoping to catch it with Audacity for the high bitrate audio quality.

If you download the video then this will be the same quality as the file on the server.
If you record the audio in Audacity you will lose a little quality because the audio will be converted to analogue in order to play the stream then back to digital when it gets recorded into Audacity.

Oh! I see. I was finally able to capture that mp4 and later convert it to mp3 with very little, or no loss of quality using Freemake http://www.freemake.com/. I somehow was able to capture the mp4 when I had Flashgot installed. I ended up downloading it through my Firefox built-in downoad manager, with the help of Flashgot. Sorry, but I’m not quite sure how. I believe it was when I went to Tools/Flashgot/Single Download? Something like that. I don’t really know how exactly how I managed to accomplish that. Sorry. I uninstalled it after that. It was too much hassle. It wasn’t a simple click or two type of operation, or at least not with my browser.

As far as I can see, XPS 400 is quite old, and was originally provided with Windows XP and Windows XP audio drivers.
Dell don’t seem to offer Windows 7 audio drivers for the machine, which makes it harder to work out what are the correct audio drivers you should be using.

Interesting. I suspected that.

Just to note that Audacity as shipped cannot import MP4 files on Windows.

Found that out.

Robert2 wrote:3. On the bottom right corner (on the far right of the Firefox status bar), right-click the FlasGot icon.

That may depend on the Firefox version or preferences. On my machine the icon appears at the right hand end of the Bookmarks toolbar.

Since I use the Google Toolbar in Firefox with the workaround I mentioned, I have no Flashgot icon on my Bookmarks toolbar either. I dropped and dragged it on to my Google toolbar, and whenever I clicked on it, I’d get a dialog box to ‘Run’ the Flashget install, even though I already had both Flashgot and Flashget installed! Go figure! It was weird.

I may purchase the Stereo cable and try that method. It seems to be the only way I can get Audacity to work on my system. Lord knows I’ve tried everything else. You’re awesome, Gale. Can’t thank you enough. You deserve a muffin basket.

Lastly, as requested, here is that Audio Device Info from Audacity Help Section.

==============================
Default capture device number: -1
Default playback device number: 1
==============================
Device ID: 0
Device name: Microsoft Sound Mapper - Output
Host name: MME
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 2
Low Input Latency: 0.090000
Low Output Latency: 0.090000
High Input Latency: 0.180000
High Output Latency: 0.180000
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
    352800
    384000
==============================
Device ID: 1
Device name: HF207-1 (NVIDIA High Definition
Host name: MME
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 2
Low Input Latency: 0.090000
Low Output Latency: 0.090000
High Input Latency: 0.180000
High Output Latency: 0.180000
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
    352800
    384000
==============================
Device ID: 2
Device name: Speakers (High Definition Audio
Host name: MME
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 2
Low Input Latency: 0.090000
Low Output Latency: 0.090000
High Input Latency: 0.180000
High Output Latency: 0.180000
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
    352800
    384000
==============================
Device ID: 3
Device name: Primary Sound Driver
Host name: Windows DirectSound
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 2
Low Input Latency: 0.000000
Low Output Latency: 0.120000
High Input Latency: 0.000000
High Output Latency: 0.240000
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 4
Device name: HF207-1 (NVIDIA High Definition Audio)
Host name: Windows DirectSound
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 2
Low Input Latency: 0.000000
Low Output Latency: 0.120000
High Input Latency: 0.000000
High Output Latency: 0.240000
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 5
Device name: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
Host name: Windows DirectSound
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 2
Low Input Latency: 0.000000
Low Output Latency: 0.120000
High Input Latency: 0.000000
High Output Latency: 0.240000
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 6
Device name: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
Host name: Windows WASAPI
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 2
Low Input Latency: 0.000000
Low Output Latency: 0.003000
High Input Latency: 0.000000
High Output Latency: 0.010159
Supported Rates:
    44100
==============================
Device ID: 7
Device name: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device) (loopback)
Host name: Windows WASAPI
Input channels: 2
Output channels: 0
Low Input Latency: 0.003000
Low Output Latency: 0.000000
High Input Latency: 0.010159
High Output Latency: 0.000000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 8
Device name: HF207-1 (NVIDIA High Definition Audio)
Host name: Windows WASAPI
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 2
Low Input Latency: 0.000000
Low Output Latency: 0.003000
High Input Latency: 0.000000
High Output Latency: 0.010000
Supported Rates:
    48000
==============================
Device ID: 9
Device name: HF207-1 (NVIDIA High Definition Audio) (loopback)
Host name: Windows WASAPI
Input channels: 2
Output channels: 0
Low Input Latency: 0.003000
Low Output Latency: 0.000000
High Input Latency: 0.010000
High Output Latency: 0.000000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Selected capture device: 7 - Speakers (High Definition Audio Device) (loopback)
Selected playback device: 6 - Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
Supported Rates:
    44100
Unable to open Portmixer
18

Where do those Boston Speakers connect to your computer? Are they USB speakers?

Be careful, unless you like toolbars and possible home page/search engine redirection.

It’s far safer to install FFmpeg ( http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#ffdown ) to import MP4 videos or M4A audio into Audacity, and to install LAME ( http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#lame ) to export MP3 from Audacity.

I’ve edited that down to show that you don’t have any recording devices enabled in the Windows system mixer (such as line-in or microphone or stereo mix) - this is what the “Default capture device number: -1” means. The WASAPI inputs never show in the Windows mixer as they are just an internal capture by Windows.

So you won’t be able to do any recording with a cable.

To see if you have any usable input devices, go to the Recording tab of Windows Sound (next to the “Playback” tab where you tested playback). Right-click over empty space, choose “Show disabled devices” then right-click again and check “Show Disconnected Devices”. Then right-click over any devices that appear and choose “Enable”. Then restart Audacity and post the new Audio Device Info.

This doesn’t explain why choosing the Windows WASAPI | Speakers (High Definition Audio Device) | Speakers (High Definition Audio Device) (loopback) combination records a buzz with the music and the Windows WASAPI | HF207-1 (NVIDIA High Definition | HF207-1 (NVIDIA High Definition (loopback) combination records silence - unless of course you had not changed the Windows default playback device to NVIDIA when you had Audacity set to record from NVIDIA.

Suppose you make HF207-1 (NVIDIA High Definition the default Windows playback device (right-click over it in Windows “Sound” and choose “Set as Default Device”). This means the browser plays to NVIDIA. Restart Audacity. Play your browser audio then record in Audacity using the Windows WASAPI | HF207-1 (NVIDIA High Definition | HF207-1 (NVIDIA High Definition (loopback) combination.

If this records, the actual recorded quality should not be that bad (unless the device or its drivers are broken). If it recorded, change the playback device in Audacity to Speakers (High Definition Audio Device). What does that sound like?


Gale

19

Hypnotized wrote:i performed a ‘Test’ on both, and the ‘Speakers (High Definition Audio)’ are my Boston Acoustics speakers, and the ‘HF2701 NVIDIA High Definition Audio’ are the built-in speakers on my monitor. They suck. The 'Speakers (HD Audio) are my default.

Where do those Boston Speakers connect to your computer? Are they USB speakers?

The Boston Acoustics are plugged in in the back of the tower to the Green input. The monitor with the built-in crappy speakers are plugged in back to the Blue line-in.

Hypnotized wrote:I was finally able to capture that mp4 and later convert it to mp3 with very little, or no loss of quality using Freemake > http://www.freemake.com/> .

Be careful, unless you like toolbars and possible home page/search engine redirection.

Yeah, I know. When I installed Freemake, I opted out of all the crap. I also ran MalwareBytes and removed any trace of malware of spyware. No toolbars. No browser redirect. I actually clean up people’s PC’s on the side, and know to get rid of that stuff. Thank you for the tip! I was looking for a FREE converter, and could only find Freemake. I’ll check out the other one.

It’s late and I’m tired. I’ll reply to the rest in the next couple days.

You rock, Gale.

20

The Boston Acoustics are plugged in in the back of the tower to the Green input. The monitor with the built-in crappy speakers are plugged in back to the Blue line-in.

Normally, the built-in speakers of a screen monitor are connected through audio cable between the socket on the rear of the monitor (which is Line-In) and the computer audio outlet (which is Line-Out).

It seems you are connecting your “crappy speakers” to a Blue Line-In when they should be connected to a Green Line-Out…

This might be the cause of the “very LOUD, high pitched hum”…

If you still want to use your “crappy speakers”, you could try plugging them into the black “Surround” connector, or the yellow Center/subwoofer (Center/LFE) connector at the back of your PC. Have a look at page 3 of the Dell™ XPS™ 400 Service Manual (“Back View of the Computer”).


HTH.
Robert