Inspiron 5570 with crackling sound on both speakers and headphones

Hi manimecker,

Thanks for posting.  Apologies that your system is not performing as expected.

Does your system make the noises when playing mp3's or mp4's from your hard drive, a usb drive, or a cd/dvd?
or is the only time you are hearing the noises is over the wifi?  How about bluetooth?  Have you tried it with that?

Here is some information from the Dell knowledge base you may find helpful:

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

It happens the same with Bluetooth speaker connected.

It makes the crackling noises when playing MP3 locally, MP4 videos, using Groove, using Netflix, whatever sound. 

I have to say I downloaded the official Realtek High Definition driver and it resolved my issue for a while, but I think sound quality is worse than when I first turned on my computer, I mean, my Moto G4 Plus has better bass sound with the same headphones, that can't be right.

I already tried everything on your troubleshooter, basic HD driver, letting Windows try to fix it, couldn't fix anything. 

I just did a Factory reset, and issues weren't fixed. 

No idea what to do now.

Same issue with speakers and headphones. :(

Hi Richma,

I started to notice crackling sound on 5579 synchronized with disk activity.

Funny enough, I could hear disk activity with the ear from under the keyboard (it's a feeble crackling sound). This was happening identically on another 5579 I bought, so I really don't think there was anything faulty.

I can definitely say that the sound is the same: I can hear it synchronized when I do a skype call to another pc in the same room. The sound is intermittent and comes and goes (it's linked to disk I/O after all...)

Really don't know what to think. Thought it was worth sharing.

Best

CB

I've already done that before posting, and I actually did it now, and although the crackling moments has decreased, they still come and go. Less than before, but still there.

I've noticed that when I unplug the laptop from the AC adaptor, all of this crackling sounds is gone. All of them. They never sound if the laptop is running on battery. If it's on battery, music sounds great as expected, at both speakers and headphones. As soon as I plug in the AC adaptor, crackling sounds start coming.

DPC scan is actually always yellow, it gets up and red when plugging and unplugging the AC adaptor.

I'm actually waiting to stop using this computer for a while so I can send it to service, I'm pretty sure this has something to do with the AC adaptor or grounding.

I hope that this incredibly annoying crackle and pop audio issue is given very serious analysis by Dell soon. I, too, have this exact issue on my brand new Dell 5570. Unlike many owners of this very fine laptop, I have paid to have it upgraded to the max for my video editing and animation production work, bringing my total cost to well over $2k, not including the even more expensive software packages installed, so I am dearly hoping this issue is resolved. I do not want to have to return this laptop, if at all possible. I have just begun installing all of my software, after Microsoft Windows 10 Professional 64-bit did all of its upgrades. I wish you luck, manimecker, for your (our) issue being corrected soon.

I had, initially, believed the crackling and popping was due to audio/video streamng issues or compression problems, or poor recordings, or limited to specific websites and apps, but I have tried tracking the issue down, even going so far as to open the laptop case and seeing if the built-in speakers were torn or damaged or if there were loose wires, but nothing of that sort was found. All device drivers from Microsoft and Realtek have been installed, but still without elimination of those sounds.

Thankfully, I do not use the built-in speakers for any professional work that I present to clients. I have Bluetooth-connected speakers and quality headsets, as well as excellent plug-in speakers and headsets at my disposal. I have NOT noticed the same crackling and popping, however, when using external speakers and headsets -- it only occurs on the built-in speakers of my new Dell 5570.

I edited my original post from an hour ago to add that I tested out the audio with the power cable plugged in vs. having it unplugged...and got the same results as you did. The crackling and popping completely disappear when the power is unplugged and it returns immediately when I plug the laptop back into power. Could this be a grounding issue or some kind of electrical issue with the components inside of the Dell 5570?

Whatever is causing this, it is very upsetting that my brand new Dell laptop has these audio issues. I can no longer recommend Dell laptops and desktop PCs to others due to this problem and the lack of an immediate resolve of it, unfortunately. Others at the office have been very eager to get my overall opinion of this model 5570 as they are, obviously, in the same business as myself. I have owned several Dell laptops/notebooks and desktop computers over the past 20+ years, and I still have a few of them for home and the office, but this is the second big disappointment I have experienced from Dell and their products in the last few years.

hi @darylwilson@and hi @manimecker

I'm sorry to have to share frustration and nothing more. I continue asking myself what I (we) have paid for.

It should be illegal or at least punishable to commercialize such a system.

Instead, in my case, I've got tech support shutting my ticket because "the only option is a guarantee repair" (on a new laptop).

I've had my problems with vendors along years, but nothing that resembled so much a scam.

Best

CB

"the only option is a guarantee repair"

And of course the warranty only covers hardware failure, so probably no joy with that. The rub is that if Dell knew how to "fix" it, there wouldn't be the problem in the first place. This is why I advise people who get one of these laptops with a noise issue to return it for a refund during the return period, because after that expires you might just own the problem.

Yes Jim, thank you and you're perfectly right.

But the fact that the trouble seems model-wise and not single-laptop-wise is something for which Dell is liable.

We are talking about basics of design here (hear a sound, record a sound...)

I sent back my first laptop, and for the second the tech support never offered me the option, just proposed "a guarantee repair" until the return was no longer an option (10 days in my country).

The sum of all these things goes beyond what should be legal in my opinion.

CB

It seems we have the same laptop, did you have any luck with it? I haven't contacted support for a replacement or fix because right now I'm using too much my laptop to send it for a couple of weeks, but eventually I will do it.

It must be an isolation electrical issue, because it only happens when plugged in with the AC adapter.

I hope they find a real solution for this soon.

I hate to tell you guys, but this tends to happen when you have the power adapter plugged in on almost every laptop. It has to do with grounding. This might not happen if you use an audio interface (USB). It has to do with the way the laptops motherboards are made in that you are basically hearing the electrical current of the charger going to the battery. It might even stop sometimes if it's fully charged. 

Also, I feel this tends to happen with cheaper and/or lower powered headphones, because as of typing this on my 5577 which isn't too far off in specs and using a pair of Sony MDR-7506 headphones, I hear no electrical current sounds. However, if for example using iPhone headphones or headset headphones, I get interference, and I would assume it's because of the headset acting as an external antennae.

Hi @HelgenX
I must say I have this problem indifferently when power is plugged or not.

I can experience this on heavy load, and especially when using microphone + webcam, which could still be grounding but well... it's simply a crappy product to me, in design or production or both (I've posted a frequency analysis to the tech support about this fact... obviously ignored).

I inadvertently came to this forum when researching the same problem with my Inspiron 15 7000 before getting to the right forum for my model. The solution that worked for those of us that have the 15 7000 was to delete a piece of pre-installed software called Smartbyte. It's a networks dynamic bandwidth manager I'm told, but if you've got a home wi-fi network you can do without it (and I've had no network problems since deleting it).

I don't know if it's resident or is pre-installed on the 5570, but if it is you might want to give it a try. You can uninstall it from from 'Programs and Features' in the Control Panel, but that only gets rid of some of the software - which reduced but didn't eliminate the problem in my case. You have to go into the 'Start' menu and look for the folder named 'Rivet' or 'Rivet Networks' and delete the contents there too.

Hope that works for you.