Inspiron 15-7???, buzzing/crackling sound on gaming

Hi there,

I purchased my Inspiron 15 Gaming 7567 two months ago and few last day all audio has some periodical scratches included. I spent all day to find solution. I have tried every advice from web but without luck.

I updated or reinstalled every single driver, BIOS, even tried latest drivers from Intel, Realtek, switched to native microsoft hd audio drivers, messing with power saving settings - but nothing helped. 

Problem in my case was solved by uninstalling (preinstalled) Smartbyte software application, which should help with network traffic optimization by mangling with sockets priority. In my laptop its process "rivet networks dynamic bandwidth manager" took in average 4-5% of CPU time. After unistallation CPU is idle and no more audio problems. I think personally this software is not needed for typical home wifi networks and its safe to remove it.

Hope this will help someone.

Thanks so much for the great Smartbytes information. My Inspiron 5000 was doing exactly the same noises that you described except every song I played off of my hard drive sounded like a vinyl tune with a huge scratch on it. EVERY SONG and even songs I played from Youtube.

After seeing your comments I went to Control Panel and found Smartbytes and  noticed another file called Smartbytes Drivers and Services and noticed it was included in an update from 3/27/2018 about the time I started noticing the "Scratch". I uninstalled both the Smartbyte application and the Drivers and Services file and guess what.......no more issues with audio noises. Absolute pristine audio now. Whoever "owns" the Smartbyte and Drivers had better start checking them out and correct this issue.

Thanks so much for your comment again.

For me, the crackling had been going on for several days and was becoming very annoying. I just found this forum topic and looked for Smartbytes. Couldn't find it in the Control Panel but I did find a Smartbytes diagnostic program from the start button. On running this, I noticed that the crackling had gone. I've since found Smartbytes in the Apps & features part of the system settings app, but, now that the crackling seems to have gone, I'm not sure whether to uninstall Smartbytes.

This solution worked for me.  Thank you!

Uninstalling SmartByte solved the problem, instantly. Same as someone mentioned above, this issue happened about a month ago, and the latest smartbyte installation was also about a month ago! Thanks.

Thanks soo much!! I had the same issue with my inspiron 7370, hope the word spreads, cheers!

Worked for me, thanks!!

Finally!

In the start menu you can launch SmartByte. There is an on/off switch. Turning it off worked for me. 

Thanks all.

That fixed mine! Thanks for tracking it down! 

Turning off SmartByte worked for me, too! Press the Windows button (or click the Start menu), type "smartb", select SmartByte, let the app start, then flip the switch in the top right corner to Off. That's it! No more static or crackling every second or so.

The Dell technician came twice in trying to fix my issue: first to replace the speakers, then to replace the motherboard. Didn't work obviously, so I would have had to send in the computer to the Dell depot. I was not thrilled.

So glad this resolved my issue - thanks all!

Hi,

Turning off SmartByte solved my audio issue too!

Thanks a lot!

The Scratchy sound started again today.

Apparently the Smart(NOT)Bytes reinstalled itself 7/9.

So I uninstalled again. 

DELL really needs to kill that App. Or make them fix their Audio Bug Effect!!

There is another thread where a poster states SmartByte  is being reinstalled.  My question would be how did you uninstall the driver.  It is an optional driver and should not automatically be selected for reinstall.

Are you using Support Assist and the Dell Updater plug-in for that or the separate Dell Updater.

Does the June Update not correct the problem seen by many of us, in the May update?

That's the solution!!  Remove the Smartbyte software!  Thanks for the heads-up.

After wasting an afternoon updating, de-installing and re-installing drivers, unplugging and re-plugging peripherals, speakers etc. it turns out it was just this pointless piece of software. I don't even know what it's supposed to do! my network functions fine without it!

I did find though that uninstalling it from 'Programs and Features' in the Control Panel only gets rid of some of the software - which reduced but didn't eliminate the problem. You have to go int the 'Start' menu and look for the folder named 'Rivet' or 'Rivet Networks' and delete the contents there too.