Inspiron 15 5000 Gaming Audio Popping

Same problem here with an Inspiron 15 7000 series, and it also start last night.  I've tried a bunch of fixes (reinstalling realtek driver, changing betwen realtek/default audio driver in the driver manager, etc.) but non of them worked, I'm pretty sure now that it's some update (windows/nvidia/realtek) what is messing up with the sound, I've never been able to do the regedit fix because I don't have the Power Mgnt folder.

What now?

Hello. I had gathered some info from owners of the Inspiron 7559 model for the Choppy/Skipping Audio FAQ. That model had 2 noise issues. The first was a staticy pop noise, and the other was hissing. The threads about that model sometimes got them mixed up, and wasn't always clear to me which issue was fixed by a given solution, so can't say for sure which "solution" was for which issue.

The Registry edit that is included here will not work with newer models because those keys were eliminated by Realtek, but there are some other things you could try.

>> "Updated the BIOS - Et voi là! Works like a charm now" -- posted by guillermoares

>> "My solution was to go into the audio options Speakers / Headphones Properties, Advanced and change options to 16 bit DVD quality and it seemed to clear it up...." -- posted by cstan1972

>> "What I did was: Control Panel>Hardware and Sound>Sound>Playback>Right click on Realtek>Properties> Level> and set the level of the internal sub woofers to 80%." -- posted by aphan97

>> "So far, its working flawlessly!" [He downloaded a driver directly from the Realtek site] -- posted by Wmohammed

>> "The solution to this problem is to turn off the power management settings on the Realtek HD audio driver. To do this, you must tinker with the registry. I broke it down into these steps:

1) press windows button + R 

2) type in 'regedit' into the prompt

3) click on HKEY_CURRENT_USER

4) go to REALTEK ---> AUDIO ---> RTKNGUI64 ----> PowerMgnt

5) on the right hand side of the window, find 'enabled' 

6) modify the value to 0

7) restart computer" -- posted by juicetin

>> "The...pop...noise gone off when I turned off the Maxxsense.

Option 2, reduce the speaker & system volume to 50 with Maxxsense on.

Besides the above mentioned, the power option did cause an effect, things gone worst when it's at power saving mode; it's almost fine when setting it to balance mode." -- posted by JW81

>> "...My components had to be replaced." -- posted by Edib Z

>> "You can fix the audio popping issue by opening the Dell audio suite from the task bar and clicking advanced and then power management and making sure the slider for the power management auto shutting down audio is set to off." -- posted by MOOGLEYS 

>> "The drivers from the Realtek site fixed this issue but made the volume level go down a good bit for me at least. There's a new driver to download on Dell's site." -- posted by MsGems on 3/18/2016

>> "The solution is to turn down the subwoofer volume to about 6 or 7.  Next either disable the MAXXAUDIO enhancements, or play around with them until the popping goes away." -- posted by eggbert74

>> "I went into the Dell Audio software (type Dell Audio into the start menu) and disabled Maxxsense and that fixed it for me... every time you open up Dell Audio it turns Maxxsense back on which is the cause of the static buzzing sound that happens in audio fairly often for me, so be mindful of that." -- posted by rapn3rd

>> "Go to the Enhancements tab of the Speaker properties and uncheck all boxes."

@AGT_MD"I have the same problem with my computer a new Dell inspiron 15 7000 gaming. It makes cracking sounds..."

Hello. Unless I really misunderstood this thread, your crackling sounds are not the same problem.

@AGT_MD"The only thing that worked was to switch to the default Windows Sound Driver but the audio Quality has dropped considerably. I contacted Dell Support and they offered to change components but I am not sure if this is the right solution."

If it makes the noise with the Realtek driver but not with the native driver then it is a software issue. This is common among the Inspiron models. Browse through the Recent Issues FAQ and you can see why I say that.

@AGT_MD"Hope it helps anyone with the same issue.."

I really wish I could add it to the FAQ but Dell has moved the forum to a new platform and it is now impossible to go back and edit any posts from before the change.

Thanks for sharing.

I experienced popping / noise problem since March 27, but I realized when the battery level below 15%, all the problem was gone. When the battery charged over 15-20% and above, the popping problem came again. I have made report to DELL Indonesia (my country) and they keep told me to update the BIOS, Audio, and IME chipset driver. Everything's done so far but nothing work. Maybe, DELL Intl can check why these problem gone IF the battery level below 15% (without being charged). 

Thanks and keep waiting for DELL's official solution.

Charlie

[Update]

Thank you @Jim Coates!!! I just turn MaxxxAudioPro on and off a couple of times, and the popping noise is now gone, I hope it never comes back, but for now I'm covered. I hope it works for someone else, because nothing else worked for me. (I leave MaxxxAudioPro on).

[Update Part 2]

The noise returned, after restarting, every time I play an audio or video file. Then I decided uninstall everything that had to do with Realtek in the device manager.

After rebooting, I get a crappy sound (kind of mono), but anything better than a sound with noise. After a few minutes the system asked me to restart due to new installed updates (realtek). I restarted and suddenly had realtek and maxxaudio again but without the noise. Restart several times to be sure, but this time everything seems fine. (Finally) :')

Good luck to everyone with this problem, I hope this helps a little.

Uninstall smartbytes please

Uninstall smartbytes in control panel

I don't know you.. But I love you! Thank you so much! @PBSkywalker