XPS Desktops

[billyjk]

In week three of ownership of an XPS 8950 (i7, 32GB, 3060i, 750w) and it's been a good experience. From the start, I noticed that the Tidal PC app would disconnect during music playback about every 3-5 minutes, and remain in a disconnected state. My audio pipeline is XPS 8950, Yamaha/Steinberg ASIO driver, USB out, USB in on Yamaha DAC/amp - home WiFi network. This combo of audio hardware/software/network, and their settings, worked perfectly with my previous laptop since joining Tidal last January.

At first, I faulted the Tidal PC app, as it actually disconnects, and throws an error "Chosen audio output has been disconnected". Nothing is disconnected as far as I can tell. I have been working with the Tidal tech team to diagnose this problem - no fixes yet.

But, over the past few weeks, I've tried other audio apps, such as FooBar 2000, Tidal Web App, and Tidal Android app (running on Win11) and while these apps don't "disconnect", there is a noticeable audio dropout of about 1-2 seconds on the same cadence - about every 3-5 minutes. Maybe these other apps "handle" the dropout better than the Tidal PC app?  They have a dropout, but then keep playing - the Tidal PC app remains disconnected.

This leads me to think that there's something happening with the XPS 8950 that is causing the audio disconnects/dropouts. So now I am looking into every setting that could cause a sleep or similar-type state in the XPS 8950 USB ports, interfaces, everywhere. A quick look into online posts, and I see a history of XPS 8950/XPS 8940 issues with audio, and people talking about the GPU drivers causing similar issues.

First, I am going to exhaust all possible settings that could lead to an idle or sleep state, causing the disconnect. After that, I am up to whatever you folks suggest. Maybe this has been resolved already?

I really need to be able to listen to audio for more than just a few minutes without dropouts. I've been able to do this for decades, on far less capable/expensive hardware. If I can't make this happen, I'll be returning this machine.

TIA for any help you can provide!

[Tesla1856]

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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.

[mixmkr]

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 

[Tesla1856]

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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).

[GoodieBR]

Hello,

I was experiencing a similar problem with my XPS 8950 (i7-12700 / RTX 3060) since I bought it, mostly when listening to music or watching YouTube videos.

I just want to point out that stopping and disabling everything that starts with "Dell" and "Killer" on Windows startup and services has solved the problem for me.

For a while.

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?
2. Adding a PCI-E or USB sound processing card will eliminate these problems?

Thanks in advance.

[kras1]

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.

[Tesla1856]

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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. 

[billyjk]

@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.

[GoodieBR]

@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.

[kras1]

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. 

[billyjk]

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.