TB16 Docking station speaker noise

The front and back audio ports are different.  I believe the front one is for a headset with microphone and the back for speakers (2 channel it appears).  Maybe when you plug into front and back, some connection is not being seen correctly in the port making the noise.

Hi Axl Jay,

Thanks for posting.  Apologies that your system is not performing as expected.

Does the system make the noise when it's not connected to the TB16?  Have you run a systems diagnostics yet?  Please run Dell SupportAssist, paying attention to the audio tests.  Make a note of any error messages encountered and post back. If there are none, then it could indicate there's a software or driver issue.

Here is information from the Dell knowledge base you may find helpful:

How to Use and Troubleshoot Dell Thunderbolt Dock TB16

If you still require assistance and the system is under warranty, you may contact me privately. Be sure to include your personal information (name, address, telephone, email) and your computer's service tag number in your message. Thanks.

If there is no warranty, then you could contact our Out of Warranty team to get a quote for a paid service request. 

When you plug your speakers into the back port do you get the Waves popup which asks what you plugged in?

I haven't tried my front port yet with the speakers but I will try headphones first and then the speakers to see what mine does.

I just did the firmware update for the TB16 and it took quite a while.  First it went through some type of process from the Desktop and then rebooted and went through a normal looking Bios update.  I saw the USB ports were updated along with a couple of other things.

Edit:  I have now tested my external, powered speakers in both the front and back audio port and have not noticed any strange sounds.  The TB 16 was designed to work with my XPS 13 9365 so it may just be more compatible.

@robert p 

I ran the support-assistant diagnostics and they reported no issues.

@Saltgrass 

I tried to update TB16 firmware but it keeps giving me error:

I already installed latest tb controller driver version:

Why am I receiving the error?

I cannot yet see the error you showed in your attachment.  The driver versions you show are different than mine, probably because we have different machines.

The Dock firmware update I was referring to is on the TB16 download page and shows as 1.0.2, not the 9570 download page.  I cannot say whether you need that firmware or not, but when I installed it, the current and new version was shown and mine was out of date.  It takes quite a while to complete so make sure your system will not be powered down during this time.

Another thing to note is on my system, I see a TB update for 4.33.05 but my system stays on 4.33.04 even after the update.  Possibly the 04 version is for the newer 9365s.

I ran a few more tests and the problem actually occurs only when TB16 is charging my laptop. Same issue occurs connecting the speakers directly to XPS while TB16 is charging. The noise is mitigated if laptop is charging from its own adapter.

That makes me think about poor design choices: audio jack too close to ThunderBolt port on XPS, and too close to power plug on TB16. At this point I don't think of any way to fix it, so I decided to unplug speakers from TB16 and using my USB audio device (plugged to TB16).