Buzzing/stuttering during audio playback on xps 13 9333

Dell XPS 17 L702X laptop - uninstalling the Dell Support Assist and Dell Support Agent as suggested just did the trick for the audio stutter problem. Thanks! 

Thank you, Terry. I appreciate Dell's acknowledgement of the problem.

After this experience, I am leery, and I imagine many of the others here likewise are, of reinstalling SupportAssist, since I depend on properly functioning audio for much of what I use the computer for. Could you tell us a little about what SupportAssist is: Is it new? What is its purpose? How does it work, and does it always run (and hence use resources), in the background?

I'm definitely not averse to having a good support tool, but ...

Randy Gibbons

Thanks a lot !  

I had had the same issue with Dell XPS 15 L502X running windows 7 64 bit.

I uninstalled both Dell support assist and Dell support agent and now it has been fixed. 

Thanks Terry.

XPS L502X user with the same problem. After a few days of restarting routers and servers thinking it might be a wifi problem, I stumbled across this forum, thank goodness.

I applied your hotfix and it was sorted in seconds (but how many 10's of thousands of machines must be affected?).

THANK YOU WildManYeah !!  

I had the exact same problem with playback stuttering and buzzing.  (For both video and MP3)  Took me several days to find this thread.  Dell Vostro 3750.  Win 7 Professional, SP 1. 

Uninstalled both Dell Support Assist programs and the problem went away *immediately*. 

MAJOR FAIL FOR DELL.  I know *I* am seething angry at you, and I think there's probably many more like me.  I've spent *hours* trying to correct this problem, and off the suggestion of other threads, removed and reinstalled tons of drivers and even my bios.  Shame on you Dell.  You never even sent an email out warning people of this problem. See if I buy a Dell the next time...

SupportAssist for PC’s, tablet and laptop provides our customers with the most up to date system information and optimal health diagnostics, as we continue to evolve our support technology. SupportAssist has expanded capabilities and updates will display under this new software release. It is designed to help you streamline your support experience and reduce downtime. SupportAssist is a full featured automated, proactive and predictive support tool available for PCs and tablets. This tool is available for both consumers and commercial users, but features are based on level of support agreement with Dell.

SupportAssist is similar to MyDell with the addition of auto dispatch, and for systems with ProSupport and ProSupport Plus, auto case creation. New SupportAssist features will include software fixes (Click2Fix), video stress diagnostics, new technology diagnostics.

The SupportAssist team appreciates you bringing issues and feedback to our attention and will strive to address them openly and quickly. Dell Tech Support can help you through chat and phone.

Regards

Aniruddha S

I also experienced the hiccup/stuttering problem during video and audio playback beginning  a little over a week ago. Uninstalling the above listed programs has indeed cured THAT problem.

But to test whether I had fixed the hiccup/stuttering problem, I opened YouTube and streamed a couple of music videos. To my surprise the audio hiccups were gone, but now 1080p video is choppy/laggy.

It should be noted that about the same time the hiccup/stuttering problem popped up, I also noticed a significant increase in fan noise. Even after fixing the hiccup/stuttering problem, the fan seems to be running more often now than ever before...sometimes even after a fresh boot with minimal programs/processes running. 

According to Task Manager, I'm using between 15-20% processor on "Windows Modules Installer Worker"

What is this Installer? And is it at all related to the software I needed to uninstall to fix the hiccup/stuttering problem?

Apparently when the Support Assist and Support Assist Agent were installed, the Dell Software & Utilities program which ran diagnostics for support assistance was removed. Or perhaps that happened when I uninstalled the above two modules. Is there any way to get the Dell Software & Utilities programs back as they were when I bought the PC? I found those utilities useful on occasion. Thank you.

I had the same issue with my XPS 17 L702X which had the video and audio freeze at exactly 1 minute intervals, for a couple of seconds. I spent a few hours checking the event logs, and disabling start-up items, but nothing worked. I finally found this post, and applied the hotfix. The hotfix worked to fix the issue.

I, too, was having the same horrible issue of a "buzzing" sound.  It would occur  intermittently - approximately every 15 seconds - upon audio feedback.  Taking the advice found here in this community, and uninstalling Dell Support Assist, my laptop is back to normal.

Interestingly, this problem popped up out of the blue two days ago, when I began listening to a program on YouTube.  Though I've had this Dell laptop for almost a year, the problem never surfaced. 

By the way, I don't know about anyone else's experience here, but every time I go to the Microsoft website and search for solutions, nine out of ten times I come up empty.  It was only after coming to this Dell community and searching for "buzzing sounds" did I find the solution.

Again, thank you to everyone here who posted.

Thanks, had the same problem. After deinstalling the problem was solved.

Hope DELL will come with a good solution soon!!

i followed your method However while installing the hotfix It says SupportAssist not installed.

Please HELP!!!

thank you, thank you!  this was an awful frustrating problem.  I watch a lot of instruction videos and continuing education programs for my profession and i was about to have a nervous breakdown every time that hairsplitting screeching sound just burst out during the videos.

I do believe that  is probably my fix as well because the buzzing and freezing (every 60 seconds on the dot I must add) began the same day the software was installed.  However when I tried to uninstall via the control panel I got an error message....Error 1721 "There is a problem with this window installer package.  A program required for this install to complete can not run.  Contact your support personnel or package vendor.  Action Stop Service, location C:\Program Files(x86)\Dell\SupportAssistAgent\bin\CustomInstallActions.exe, command:StopService"...hence, this post.  Any suggestions?