XPS 15 9550 Headphone jack noise

Hello Sungscs

Thanks for writing to us. 

How is the audio from internal speakers, if its the same then its the audio card problem on motherboard. 

if it works perfectly from internal speakers, then the jack is faulty.

You can try updating audio drivers and BIOS and observe for any changes.

Regards

It's working fine now... I'm not sure what's going on with this sound card/speaker? Such an awesome machine with the cheapest speaker and sound card/driver issue is just ruining the experience!

Will there be anymore updates? Static from speaker is pretty well known issue which hasn't been resolved yet even with all the latest updates including BIOS.

Nice to know its working fine at the moment.
Dell is continuously working on releasing patches for any known issues. We don't see for this particular machine at the moment though. Should there be any they will be automatically pushed via windows updates.

Do send  us your system tag#, name and email address via personal message by clicking on my name in blue to update  . Should you have any questions do give us a shout. 

It doesn't seem to be the headphone jack issue... i can still hear the static here and there through internal speakers as well as bluetooth speaker. 

I had same issue with my 1st XPS 15 9550 thinking it was faulty and ended up returning it to exchange for current one.

It has to be the sound driver issue... I know there was some update with BIOS that's suppose to fix this issue. I'm sure there was little improvement but problem has not been remedied completely...

Please escalate this issue and push update for XPS 15 9550 users... this is huge disappointment for machine that costs over $2000!!!

It has to be the sound driver issue.

Hello. You can test that theory by switching between the Realtek audio driver and the Windows native audio driver. If you hear the noise with only one of the drivers, then it is at fault. If you hear the noise with both drivers then there is some other reason for the noise. Here are a couple of methods for switching drivers.

1. Open the Device Manager (find it in the Control Panel, or type devmgmt.msc into the search box).
2. Expand the "Sound, video & game controllers" and right click on "Realtek High Definition Audio".
3. Select to "Update Driver Software".
4. Click on "Browse my computer for driver software".
5. Click "Let me pick from a list of drivers on my computer".
6. Put a check in the box "Show compatible hardware" if not already checked.
7. In the list of devices, click "High Definition Audio" (the native driver).
8. Click "Next".
9. On the Update Driver Warning box, click "Yes" (install the driver).
10. Restart the laptop if prompted. If not prompted, you might not need to restart.
[To get back to the Realtek driver, do it again but reverse the names in steps 2 and 7.]


================================================================================
The above method does not always work with Win10. The other way to switch to the native audio driver is to remove all of the Realtek driver files.

1. Open the Device Manager
2. Expand the Sound, Video & Game Controllers section.
3. Right click on the Realtek and select to uninstall.
4. Put a check mark in the option to delete the driver software, and then ok.
5. Restart the laptop and go back to the Device Manager and check again for a Realtek driver. Keep uninstalling & restarting until Realtek no longer appears under Sound...Controllers and "High Definition Audio Device" appears in its place. "High Definition Audio Device" is the name of the native driver.

[The reason you might have to go through the process more than once is because the driver files for more than one Realtek driver could be on the hard drive. When a Realtek driver is removed, the next one gets installed if Windows can locate the files. Windows installs its generic driver only after all Realtek files have been removed.]

Hi there Jimco,

Thank you for your insight on trying to narrow down the issue. I have tried your method and I can't really tell the difference. Static from headphone somehow been fixed but I do still here popping/crackle noise time to time, not only through internal speakers but through my bluetooth speakers/headphone as well. It has to be the driver issue, I really can't see how all three sound devices could be defective. I guess my only solution would be to have Dell push some kind of update on this matter :(

Thank you again for your reply!

I've had both my motherboard and sound card replaced and the problem is still there. Running the latest BIOS and driver version.

Today, I've got confirmed by Dell's email support that new motherboards are in the making, and those should solve this problem. So the crackling noise seems to be caused by the motherboard and I guess the issue can't be solved with a BIOS or driver update. The support representative couldn't provide me with an estimation of when the new motherboards will be available, so let's hope that'll be soon...

Any new information on this topic? I just picked up an XPS15 (9560) and have the same audio interference through my headphone jack.

Any new information on this topic? I just picked up an XPS15 (9560) and have the same interference through my headphone jack.

I would like to know if there is a good solution for this problem as well. XPS15 9560 and I have this issue as well. Basically makes listening to music a real bother. For a $2000 laptop, why is the audio not figured out yet??