XPS 9550 Headphone / audio issue

I have exactly the same problem. I only noticed now as I hadn't tried plugging anything to the headphone jack in

I also have another audio related issue - when playing a video (ie youtube) and holding the keyboard button down for increasing or reducing screen brightness, the audio crackles...

Does anyone else also have this issue? is this another driver issue or is this related to defective hardware?

(the other unsolved problem is the intel graphics driver consistently crashing)

I 'think' I was able to fix it by disabling literally every Dell service within Services and rebooting... Haven't had the issue since. BUT - I did notice that the Dell software would let you select if the device was a headset, headset with mic, speakers, or even LINE IN or some other option, so it seems like it's a dynamic port, so I guess the software is fairly complex / has bugs or something. The method I'm using seems to treat the port as just a headset port, and still uses the laptops built in microphone. 

But, for the vast majority of our use cases, we probably just want to plug in ear buds and this lets you do that just fine - and the stupid BIOS message goes away as well. I'll just use this method for the next couple months while they hammer out the issues with the software across the board. 

Obviously you need to know what you're doing if you disable every Dell service, as well as manually check for updates, etc. 

I'm have problems as well with Dell Audio. The internal speakers work just fine. Actually they sound great. BUT as soon as I plugged in my headphones the sound is muffed, has a distorted hiss like a cheap audio recorded cassette tape. I tried everything including removing the Dell Audio program and drivers but I got the same issue. Thinking it was the headset I tried several kinds and to no avail. So I purchased a new Bluetooth headset with NC and I am having no issues with all the software, Realtect and dell drivers re-installed. So my guess is the jack itself is the problem. Pisses me off. So now I have to call Dell support. Hope I get someone that knows what I'm talking about and someone that speak good English or French. I just hate getting support personnel that are hard to understand. ***. Anyways I'll post what came out of this. I'm thinking this was done purposely so that we can buy Bluetooth. 

Hi papagman,

The BIOS on the 9550 was updated this week and 1 of the updated features was Audio performance. I'd suggest updating to the latest version here

Hi, after updating the bios, reinstalling the realtek driver and doing the F2 "restore settings" thing, I still have been unable to fix this issue. 

Are there any ideas for how to fix? it seems like this issue is affecting many different customers in the same way

Well I did upgrade the bios and I'm still having same issue. Seem that I'm not the only one having some kind of issues with there audio. Hopefully Dell can find a solution soon. We shouldn't be having issues with such expensive machines.

I still have this issue as well. I've installed the latest BIOS and reinstalled the latest audio driver. Sometimes disabling and re-enabling the Realtek device in device manager fixes it, but other times nothing but a restart will fix it. So obnoxious - makes the audio jack useless because you can't just plug headphones in and have it work.

This does not fix the issue even updating the audio drivers.

I'm still having the  same issue. Pretty frustrating after a couple months of having my laptop and can't do something as simple as plug in headphones without an issue. 2 grand, and I can't plug in headphones...

I also tried doing all the driver updates I could find on dell's site.

Well I said I was going to post an update regarding the headphone plug in audio problem. So far it's the same. I when as far as resetting my laptop to factory settings and went as far as removing/reinstalling every drivers associated with the audio and still am getting the same results. I have no issues using Bluetooth headphones but as before the plug-in issues are still the same. I'm going to wait it out until there's a fix. I can always send it back since I have the premier protection plan but I'm sure they will send me a unit with the same issues. Hopefully DELL can get this resolved.

Having similar problem here with all the latest drivers from DELL installed.

Mine works this way - turn on the laptop - the speakers play the sound. Insert the headphones into jack - headphones play sound. Remove the headphones - (dell audio comments that i have removed headphones)- speakers do not play sound. insert headphones back - headphones play sound.

As if on a hardware level audio does not switch from jack back to speakers. very frustrating.

Experimented with the drivers -intsalled the basic ones from Realtek Site. No luck. Same stuff.

Reversed the drivers back to the basic Microsoft ones - also no luck. Even when putting the headphones back they do not play sound. Although not having that nonsense software like SUPER DUPER MAXXX AUDIO with stupid notifications and switches is really neat.

Why we even need all this stupid software which is clearly bugged, unuseful and eats our performance out? the OS has all that!

Didnt expect these kinds of problems from such company as DELL with this level of laptop. 

Had an A**r before this laptop, and didn't have these kind of problems. So surely didn't expect this from DELL.

I continue to have this exact problem. I've updated to the most recent drivers on the support page, and also tried drivers straight from Realtek. Basically the only way to switch between headphones and speakers is the restart the computer. Ridiculous.

We need an official response to this from Dell support.

I just installed the latest BIOS update (v1.1.19) and I'm still experiencing the same problem.

Having to sleep/wake the computer or do a full reboot just to get audio working after plugging the jack in is not a lot of fun.

Dell, we're patient, but this has been happening for quite a while and this is your top of the line laptop we're talking about. Can you please fix this one soon?

I agree! I was hoping this was fixed in the latest BIOS, so I was really disappointed when I went to test it. If I boot up with nothing plugged into the headphone jack, speakers work fine. When I plug in my headphones, those work fine too. But once I unplug something for the first time, neither headphones or speakers will work until I reboot. So frustrating!!

At this point I'd prefer to do away with the "smart" feature of the jack that detects what's plugged in, and just have it be a "dumb" jack only for headphones.