My cousin ordered a Dell monitor SX2210, a 21.5″ 16:9 model with a webcam, dual mike-array, FullHD resolution, HDMI connector, and (supposedly) speakers built in.

Getting the webcam working was a no-brainer, but strangely I had massive problems getting the internal speakers running.

After fiddling around for a while with the soundcard’s internal settings under Windoze XP (which I thought might have been incorrect, altho the old monitor’s speakers were working well,) I had the idea to connect my iPod to check whether the speakers are working at all — duh! No sound output at all. 🙁

So obviously the speakers were broken. Consequently, we called Dell to inquire about this. And now comes the unbelievable…

The guys at Dell told us there is no speakers built into the monitor.

Can you believe that?! There’s a connector that says “Audio in,” and even on Dell’s web site it says under “Built-in Devices” (and not under “Connectivity!”): Audio in/out (“in” supposedly for the speakers, “out” for the built-in mike).

We talked to several tech and customer support reps — all of them insisted that there is no error on Dell’s side. “The website is correct,” they said. One even said “If you want a monitor with built-in speakers, you need to order a TV set.” I replied “But you do have monitors for sale that have speakers built into them.” After that, there was silence on the other end.

Anyway, the end of the story was that we had to order a so-called “Display SoundBar” that you mount at the bottom of the monitor. And, of course, we had to pay for shipping again. No way would Dell drop the shipping charge.

Thanks, Dell, for that unpleasant experience!