XPS 15 9500, Realtek driver 6.0.9210.1, static

Question

Ok, this is the second time I have been bit by Dell SupportAssist updating the Realtek audio driver on my XPS 15 9500 where the update causes the audio to no longer work! Is this only me experiencing bad audio driver updates on the XPS 15 9500?

After the update to 6.0.9210.1, A10, when playing back any audio the speaker would output nothing but "white noise" / static! After several reboots, same thing. I have the latest BIOS, and all other updates identified my SupportAssist installed as well.

Using the Device Manager, I removed the following (did not uninstall drivers, only removed devices):

Sound, video and game controllers->Realtek Audio
Audio inputs and outputs->Speakers (Realtek Audio)
System devices->Intel Smart Sound Technology (Intel SST) OED

The Rebooted and allowed the system to discover and add those devices back. This seem to solve the "white noise"/static, but the Waves MaxxAudio Pro would NO longer show my Bluetooth Headphones. I attempted to forget and re-pair the headphones with no luck. Waves MaxxAudio Pro seemed be broken and I also noticed the application lost my Equalizer settings as well.

Eventually, had to use Windows 10 System Restore Point to roll back my system prior to the audio driver update and was able to get the audio back working. This is the SECOND time I had SupportAssist update the Audio Driver with the same results (earlier this year)! At this point, I cannot ever trust having a Dell Audio Update on my XPS 15 9500?

Would like to hear if others have experience bad problems with audio driver updates? Thanks.

DELL-Cares · Answer

Thank you! We have received the required details. A system restore was done. But could you have simply rolled back the Realtek audio driver to 6.0.9098.1 in the Device Manager?

4Sluth · Answer

NO, can't roll back because the realtek driver trashed the os and had to reinstall windows 10, which wiped out the older drivers for rollback.  On top of that, the boot is impossibly slow.

4Sluth · Answer

I had the same problem only worse. The realtek driver update makes startup next to impossible. In my case it also trashed the OS

You can get older realtek drivers here, such as 6.0.8978.1 which seems to be OK

Microsoft Update Catalog

Chops42 · Answer

4Sluth... yes, after I installed the older version 6.0.9098.1, I then uninstalled the Dell Update so there would not be any automatic updates. I am running Windows 10 Pro, so I also went into to the Group Policy to set the "Do not include drivers with Windows Update" to make sure Windows update does not try installing an updated version.

Note, I did notice that when Windows installed the newer version (instead of the Dell one), the Restart boot seemed to be ok, but the MaxxAudio Pro would no longer recognize my Bluetooth Headphones. This is why I set the Group Policy.

DELL-Chris M · Answer

This issue was escalated. They were able to replicate the issue. We are working towards a new driver that should be web posted in December.

Al Neuman · Answer

I had the same problem. The problem is MaxxAudio Pro. You need both MaxxAudio Pro applications even though they appear redundant. Remember, you’re system/sound will run fine without those two bloated apps. When you reinstall those two apps, your problem will be resolved.

azdust · Answer

There are other issues with the Realtek audio driver.

I had a major issue with sound latency (lag) when connecting an XPS 17 (9710) to an external monitor with speakers (Dell S3221qs). Sometimes there would be a five second delay, sometimes almost a 30 second delay. HDMI or Displayport cables made no difference.

Unfortunately, I was never able to resolve the issue. so I returned the unit to Costco because sound is a fundamental issue that has to work.

You can see a YouTube video of the issue here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZpRU-VzAkE

4Sluth · Answer

What is the status on the promised fix to the Realtek driver?  The Realtek drivers issued over the past  1 1/2 years have all had problems such as noise, no audio, delayed audio, no output to audio jack, impossibly slow startups, corruption of the OS and an inability to integrate correctly with MaxAudioPro.

wiz101 · Answer

As of December 2021 the very latest Realtek audio driver 6.0.9257.1 fixes the slow start-up. Download and install 6.0.9257.1 via Dell Support-Assist app and the slow start-up problem vanishes.  Wiz

XPS

XPS 15 9500, Realtek driver 6.0.9210.1, static

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