XPS 15Z Audio issue

I am having the same issue, I called support and through DellConnect the representative uninstalled the Realtek driver. It worked for a while and now it is happening again. Do you have FastAccess (face recognition software) installed in your computer? For some reason I think the problem might be associated with it, or not, I am not sure.

I am calling support again, for now try reinstalling the driver, it helped for a while.

Can someone help with this issue?

Thanks.

I am still having the same issue and no I do not have facial software installed will try reinstallation of software

mmcintosh:

I spoke to support again and the representative stated that this is now a "known issue". It is not the Realtek driver, according to him the speakers are the culprit in this case. A technician will be sent to change them, I'll let you know how that goes in approximately three or four days.

nievenero

I installed the latest drivers and the sound now works I will see how long it last if this is truly a hardware issue.

I received my 15z today and had exactly the same issue. Downloaded latest audio drives and problem was solved.

Yes, I've had no audio problems since removing the existing drivers and installing the latest drivers from the Realtek site

I don't think it is a hardware issue any longer, the technician changed the speakers and the computer still had the issue. We were told to uninstall the drivers and use the Microsoft drivers instead, which was not a real solution since the sound was less than desirable. I requested a system exchange and at first they were reluctant. I am expecting a new system soon. Hopefully this time it would be fine; it is a hassle mainly because I use the computer for work as well. It is the first time I have a problem with a brand new system from Dell  and l'll give it another try.

Has the reinstallment of the drivers solved the problem for those who previously posted in this thread?

That might be the solution, Dell support was using the driver in their Drivers and Downloads page, not the Realtek site.

Thanks.

I am sorry to read that you all have been having these sound issues. I have been contacted by engineering regarding the problem. They tell me that a new audio driver is being released June 28th. I will provide the link to the driver as soon as it becomes available.

Thank you

TB

It looks like engineering has posted the new driver today.  Here is the link

If you haven't tried it please do and let me know if it corrected the sound problems.

Thank you

TB

Thanks Terry B, the new driver corrected the sound problems.

Nope! Still have crackles and stutters during audio playback. Come on Dell, get it together, this is supposed to be a premium laptop.

I'm in the process of building this machine from scratch without Dell bloatware. Will post the results once I've have a good listen.... hope it fixes it.

I am also having issues even with the new drivers. My audio crackles to the point that I can't even watch videos or listen to music. Please fix this!

Well I've finished the full re-build of my laptop and transferred all my music over. It would seem that the problem has gone away, although I am still testing to be absolutely sure. One thing to note is that on my rebuild I have only installed the software that was available from the Dell support website, so there are a few things missing but they are not things I care about or use anyway.

I do want to mention though that I do NOT think this is a sound driver issue. I had the same crackling and distortion in both the following scenarios:

1. Internal sound card, headphone jack to amplifier.

2. External USB sound card, directly connected to my amplifier.

If it were a driver issue on the internal sound card, then scenario 2 would be fine, but it wasn't, it was terrible.

It sounds as though the music is being held back, like it can't get enough throughput or bandwidth to be processed quickly enough. It's very difficult to describe, but sometimes I could here the music slow right down, stutter, crackle, then carry on again. Very strange. It also seems to occur more if I am copying files, have been playing music for a long period of time, and it even stuttered every time a notification popped up from the system tray.

I work with Dell hardware every day, I manage a network of 100+ staff, all Dell equipment, so for me it is perhaps a little easier to diagnose these things, but in this case I can't actually put my finger on the problem, I just know that a full rebuild has resolved it (so far so good!). I do think however that it is not a sound driver issue, but rather interference from another software component.

PS. The problem was far less pronounced (but still existed) using Winamp. Windows Media player was just about unuseable.

swhite78, I was thinking the same thing and I think you are right. At first I thought it might be the NVIDIA drivers I pulled from the nvidia site since it's newer than the dell support drivers. But I didn't think that was too likely since they specifically list support for the xps 15z.

HOWEVER, just now I tried playing some music and there was no problem! Suddenly I realized what changed. I disabled my wireless adapter to use my wired for some file transfers. Does the problem go away for anybody else when you disable the wireless adapter?  (you can do this in the network and sharing center under "Manage network connections" )

It also got worst after I upgraded my wireless driver to the driver dell released just yesterday. I didn't make the connection until just now.