NevadaDave

I really need help with this - I finally got a USB wifi dongle working, so sound is the last barrier to overcome. Is there a wizard out there who can help?

Well... I'm trying to run 10.4.6 on a Dell D620, but lack of sound (despite repeated attempts and a variety of recommended "fixes") and lack of network access (onboard Broadcom chipset refuses to be recognized, despite everything I've tried) make it, at most, a pretty paperweight. OTOH, Ubuntu 11 installed on the same laptop, no problem, very quick, and EVERYTHING WORKS! OS X may be a nice OS (and I have used my son's iMac a bit, and it's OK) but the hackintosh route is just too hardware sensitive, in my very limited experience. Perhaps later I'll try a later OS version (Leopard or Snow Leopard) and see what happens.

OK, I am totally stumped here... I have 10.4.6 on a Dell D620 with Sigmatel audio chipset. So far, nothing has worked to get sound, including a USB device (Lexicon Alpha). I have tried to follow the use of the VoodooHDA.kext, but still no good. Here's the story so far: I downloaded VoodooHDA.kext.2.7.2-10.6.zip and extracted it in Windows XP. I also downlaoded and extracted VoodooLoader_Installer.zip and VoodooPatcher.zip.
When I boot to OSX, I get the extracted folders & drag them to my desktop. I also removed the AppleHDA.kext from the extensions folder. Now what? I tried putting the VoodooHDA.kext into my System\Library\Extensions folder & rebooting - nothing changed. I ran the Voodoo loader - nothing changed. I tried running the patcher, but if I drag the VoodooHDA.kext onto the patcher icon, I get asked for permission (no problem) but then I get rotating circle cursor and the ystem is hung up solid - can't select any other windows, can't shut down (unless I hold the power button long enough to force the BIOS to do it). rebooting afterward still shows no audio devices.
Is this just a Tiger issue, or is there something else I'm missing.
I realize that this is a hack - but it's really frustrating not having basic functions like sound and network capability. I'm open to advice here!

Also - when I run the system profiler, that kext does not show up in the list