Latitude E6400 Vista - IDT Audio popping and crackling with working fix.

Update to audio pop: before doing "ATA mode" I would try this below to see if that fixes it for people.

Looks like my original still exists (but a lot less noticeable), I still get an audio pop about once in a minute. I was able to re-pro this on demand when I "connect to network" (from wireless) and then click the refresh button.
I read 'DavidMX' post from another forum, and then I disabled the 802.11a band for the Wireless N card, and I have not pops from what I can tell anymore.. now the computer runs like I would expect it so. btw I have the Dell Wireless WLAN 1510 Half MiniCard (4322) N card.

Applying R190228 also helps. Using latest drivers to update SATA drivers does not!!!

I've had this problem with my E6400 since last September.

I opened a support case and they told me to reinstall Vista. I thought it worked but after a while I noticed the crackling again.

I then tried a whole load of things as detailed in the following blog post:

http://gnawgnu.blogspot.com/2009/01/dell-latitude-e6400-sound-problem-fixed.html

None of the ideas worked for me so I opened another support case. They are now replacing the motherboard.

Is it possible that these types of audio problems could be caused by the video driver?

I don't have information specific to the E6500 but video drivers are one of the known causes of skipping in Dell laptops.

Choppy/Skipping Audio Workarounds

Is it possible that these types of audio problems could be caused by the video driver? 

I have the Latitude E6500 running Vista Ultimate SP1.  The video chip is the nVidia Quadro NVS 160M.  When I roll back my video driver from the 7.15.11.7607 A01 to the standard VGA driver in Vista, the popping and skipping are no longer apparent in music.  Of course, I lose some of the functionality offered by the nVidia driver.  

I've had the same problem with my e6400 out of the box.  I've tried all of the forum suggestions within my ablility with no resolution.  The closest was disabling the esata which seemed to decrease the amount of popping.  I'm wondering if you have a dvdrw drive.  I went into BIOS and turned off the enable module bay under miscellaneous devices and the popping and hiccuping stopped.  My friend the computer software designer who talked me into getting this computer has the same computer but with a little different configuration.  We put his cdrw-dvd rom and downloaded the drivers and  no popping.  I believe the sound was even better.  We reinstalled my dvdrw and the popping and hiccuping returned. Dell is sending me another dvdrw.  We'll see if that fixes the problem if it doesn't I'll probably have them downgrade me to a cdrw-dvdrom optical drive.

Dell sent an engineer to replace the motherboard - that didn't work.

Now they are replacing the computer and taking mine in to look at it.

They seemed sure that the motherboard was the problem, then the WIFI, then they gave up and wanted to see the machine.

This seems to have worked for me. I am now listening to second song with no cracle or pops. I have battled with this issue and now I can blindly install Vista and Drivers on E6400. :). My drivers and sequence are as follows:

BTW - Principle No 1 - Install ONLY what you need. So I have not installed everything DELL (Duh) recommends. Not even NSS.

HDD Mode is IRRT (i.e. AHCI with RAID)

Installed sequence and drivers are:

1. R182522 Chipset.exe
2. R195365 Display.exe
3. R207267 Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver+Application.exe
3.1. iata87enu Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver+Application.exe
4. R204518 NIC Ethernet.EXE
5. R206244 IDT Audio.EXE
6. R194579 Intel WiFi 5300.exe
7. R202446 Touchpad.exe
8. R206690 Dell ControlPoint Security Manager Driver.exe
9. R190974 Intel 825x Gigabit Platform Application.exe

PLEASE NOTE THE STEP 3 WHERE I INSTALLED NEW VERSION OF INTEL MATRIX STORAGE MANAGER DRIVER AND APPLICATION. STEP 3 IS DRIVER FROM DELL AND STEP 3.1 IS DRIVER FROM INTEL. YOU NEED TO INSTALL ONLY ONE OF THEM AS BOTH INSTALL SAME VERSION OF THE DRIVER.

After installing FRESH Vista and drivers in above sequence, I found same problem of crackling and popping.

However, after reading above post, I decided to DOWNGRADE the Intel Matrix Storage Driver to R190228 Version, which installs 8.2.2.1001 version of the software. I enforced the downgrade process in Vista.

Since then no major cracling noticed. I am using the BOSE Headphones and I can confidently say that problem is 99% gone. I must have heard two minor cracks (just like old vinayl record playing in between) but nothing major. Fingers crossed.

So overall, clean installation - no ControlPoint Application OR NSS - only above simple drivers and then downgrading to R190228 seems to have worked for me. At least now. I shall keep you posted.

Rgds, Sharad

Hello everyone - I am adding a note to confirm that above solution works as far as my laptop is concerned. I can re-produce the problem by simply installing the new Intel Matrix Storage driver. Moment I uninstall the and re-load 8.2.2.1001 version of the driver - problem goes away.

Partially confirmed: downdrading Matrix storage driver to version 8.2.2.1001 after 8.7  more or less fixed the problem. Its still there but occurs so rarely that it hardly annoys anymore (meaning I can finally listen some music without being irritated to nuts). All drivers were upgraded to the latest version before downgrading.

I downgraded the intel matrix driver and it did help, but I still get the popping.  I'm curious if anyones tried to  change the operating system.  I have vista 64 and I'm thinking of changing my operating system to windows xp or windows 7.  Any thoughts?

Thks,

Lenny

Lenny,

I've heard some reports that with Windows 7, the problem is eliminated.  I haven't tried it yet, as I'm waiting for the released version of Win 7 rather than the beta.

However, you may want to try upgrading to the latest Intel matrix storage driver (8.8 ) from the Intel site: They are here: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldId=17412&lang=eng

Many have had great success eliminating the audio problems after upgrading to this version.  I have upgraded; it helped alot, but did not eliminate it.

Hope you have better luck.

Calvin

Thanks's to Calvin for the tip. Installing 8.8 > 8.2.2.1001 indeed seems to make the problem even less apparent at least for me (I had a fair success with downgrading already). Again, its not all gone but occurs much, much less frequently. 

However, you may want to try upgrading to the latest Intel matrix storage driver (8.8 ) from the Intel site: They are here: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldId=17412&lang=eng

In my case, this has improved. It's not 100% perfect now, but much better. I also found out, switching on / off WLAN using the E6400 hardware switch on the right hand side, interrupts audio for a moment.

Addtnly, I had this problem mainly with last.fm player - but not with Windows Mediaplayer. Strange enough...

Thanks!