XPS 8950, continuous audio dropouts

@billyjk  YEA!  Glad you got your sound problems resolved. 

If you uninstall the NVidia driver, it's likely to come back again next time you get an NVidia GPU driver update, so leave well enough alone. It won't hurt anything. You might also get Realtek and Waves again via Windows Update.

IMO, you don't want/need any of those Dell or Killer/xTend Services.  YOMV.

You can manually look for driver updates from time to time, using your Service Tag at Dell's support site. So do you need SupportAssist/Dell Update looking over your shoulder and pestering you? And you certainly do not want SupportAssist managing a BIOS update for you.

Look at the functions of all those Killer/xTend services shown in left panel in services.msc... Do you want Intel/Killer harvesting Analytical data from your PC, managing internet bandwidth usage (which I suspect is the culprit in your audio lags) etc, etc?  And as I said, on my XPS 8930, Killer internet works better without their junk getting in the way.

Suggest you image your boot drive and save the image on external media, to be safe, before you start re-enabling the junk. Macrium Reflect (free) is a good choice, but you can use any imaging app you prefer. Regardless of what imaging app you use, be sure to have the app create a bootable USB stick that you'd need to re-image the boot drive, if that's ever necessary. Just keep in mind the image you create today is only up-to-date today...

BTW: How do you know we don't live in same zip code? Guess you could just drink the (extra) beers in my honor...

@billyjk  Keep in mind it's not quite so simple..

Next time Windows Update force-installs an "Intel Corporation - Extension" chances are it may be a Killer software update (Intel owns Killer now).

And every time one of those Extensions gets installed on my XPS 8930, all the Killer/xTend services I previously disabled in services.msc magically get reset to Automatic startup. Windows Reliability Monitor shows that Killer software and drivers were installed on same date that "Extension" was installed.

The last go round only fixed a bug in Killer Intelligence Center, but Device Manager says the same Killer Ethernet driver that was already installed here (v9.0.0.50) got (re)installed on the same date that Extension was installed.

So if your audio starts acting up again, check to see if all that Killer stuff is still disabled or not. It's an endless game of whack-a-mole...

None of this has worked for me.  It seems the 3060ti seems a common component in all theses cases 

@mixmkr  Unless you're using sound over HDMI (or DP), it seems hard to explain how the GPU is causing the audio to drop out...

If you physically remove the NVidia card from the motherboard and connect your monitor to the onboard Intel Graphics port, do you still have the same problem?

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@mixmkr wrote:

None of this has worked for me.  It seems the 3060ti seems a common component in all theses cases 

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I suggest you start your own thread.

There is nothing inherently wrong with Nvidia 3060ti cards.

Check my thread back in Mar/2022...one of the first noting audio issues.  While youre checking you might also find solid reasons to get on your knees for Nvidia 

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@mixmkr wrote:

Check my thread back in Mar/2022...one of the first noting audio issues.  While you're checking you might also find solid reasons to get on your knees for Nvidia 

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I didn't remember that was you (but we are trying to help many people here) but I notice you stopped participating in your own thread.

We have been trying to help several XPS-8940/8950 owners lately with various issues including Latency. If you are still having issues, say so over there and we can try to help you.

I still say there is nothing inherently wrong with 3000 series Nvidia cards or drivers in general. That is not to say you can't have a broken/flakey card and or managed to find a glitchy driver release. Maybe you should try a clean-install of the Nvidia WHQL Studio-Driver?

Personally, I can't really even see Nvidia being involved with Latency or Audio-Dropouts unless you running your primary audio over HDMI (like to a Monitor/TV-with-speakers or using an AVR-Amp).

I have a SoundBlaster Z series installed in my 8950 and I have never had any audio issues. Waves audio and the Realtek stuff is disabled in the services menu and device manager. I am not claiming that this would solve the issue some are having with the audio, I am just stating that this is what I am running and have no issues. I have a 8950 with 12700k, 32Gb ram, and 3060Ti GPU.

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@GoodieBR wrote:

XPS 8950 (i7-12700 / RTX 3060)

Eventually, Dell SupportAssist came back to notify me of some driver updates. It was re-enabled against my will in services and startup, and the audio dropouts returned. I had to disable everything all over again.

Therefore, I have two questions:

1. Is it possible for Dell to figure out what is causing these interrupt problems that affect audio playback on its software and fix it?

 

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It's possible but not likely. It's just "very heavy". I'm not sure, but I think they figure the average user has plenty of cpu-cycles to spare. 

Since it's not required to run Windows, it would be more obtainable to completely uninstall Support-Assist. Be sure the related Processes and Services are completely gone afterwards. 

@GoodieBR 

Yup - same experience for me.  As the OP here, I thought this might be a one/done kinda thing.  But, those Dell services have a way of coming back into the mix.

Just this am, I was streaming Tidal as I work - as I do every day - but today the stream was interrupted.  My 8950 couldn't find the DAC.  Ugh.  Same old problem.

I checked my services and needed to re-kill the Dell services.  These services becoming re-enabled was probably due to me running a Dell update for the 8950 a week or two ago.

I find the Dell TechHub service to be the worst one for audio dropouts.  That one remained disabled, but other Dell services came back to life after that update.

I guess all future Dell updates need an extra step of disabling all Dell services afterward.

@billyjk 

Maybe we could try @Tesla1856 's suggestion and completely uninstall SupportAssist and its dependencies. But I fear that we might miss some important driver and – specially – BIOS updates by doing that.

The weird thing is that I never had problems like these on my old XPS 8700; never needed to disable SupportAssist, and even ran it monthly to check for new updates and "optimize" the performance.

Maybe the problem is with Windows 11 or the Realtek drivers, who knows? The fact is that I am starting to consider buying a PCI-E sound card.

I would uninstall Support Assist, in fact that was one of the first things I did when I got my PC. Windows does a pretty good job of updating drivers using WINDOWS UPDATE>ADVANCED OPTION>OPTIONAL UPDATES. When I want to check for specific DELL updates, I go to the Dell Support page and then enter the service tag into the search box and then select my PC and then go to the DRIVERS and DOWNLOADS tab. A list will come up with all drivers and downloads for your specific PC and then you can choose what to install or not install. 

I thought I had uninstalled the Support Assist app, but I didn't.  I just disabled all related services.  I check for updates at the Dell site every week or so, so there's no need for me to have this Dell app.

Uninstalling now.

Also, just as a reminder for anyone having audio drop-out issues, consider also disabling services from Killer, Realtek, and Wave.  These all can interfere with proper audio operation.

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@GoodieBR wrote:

@billyjk 

1. But I fear that we might miss some important driver and – specially –

2. BIOS updates by doing that.

3. The weird thing is that I never had problems like these on my old XPS 8700; never needed to disable SupportAssist, and even ran it monthly to check for new updates and "optimize" the performance.

 

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1. Anything you need will come from Windows-Update.

2. I just go check myself (manually) once a year.

3. Today's Support-Assist is different that the one you ran back then.