XPS 15 9500, speakers crackle

I had the same problem and here is how I fixed it.

Open Device Manager
Scroll down to Sound, video, and game controllers
Uninstall:  Intel Display Audio  and  Realtek
Reboot

Speakers not sound normal.

Hi All, I have the same problem on my New Dell 9500. Windows sounds on speakers sound very poor even by the standards of 1980. The rest seems fine and is not bothering me much. I feel that it is only a specific audio frequency range where this issue is present, I as said everything else seems fine. Not having this problems on external speakers. Tried @NotD3LL's solution however the issues is still here. Can we please have the audio quality on our laptops better than on the 100$ laptops? Please! I love this laptop so much however this specific audio/windows sounds issue is ruining my enjoyment of such a marvel of a laptop.

is it too late to return your laptop for another one?  I had the same problem with the trackpad and exchanged it.

Is your touchpad now fine and not wobbly anymore? This audio crackling/distortion issue is most likely caused by the Realtek Audio driver itself. Download the older driver suggested by user @robjs2020 in this thread https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-15-9500-speakers-crackle-2/m-p/7755916/highlight/false#M74513 . This older driver from 2017 is removing the issue however there are 2 problems with it. 1 - The audio becomes flat (I will personally prefer that to the poor quality I have at the moment), 2 - Windows replaces it straight away with the newer version and brings the issue back. If you want to try it for yourselves, install it and immediately when the installation finishes after the restart test the windows sounds - they will sound without any distortion/crackling. Few minutes later windows will automatically install the newest driver without asking you and the issue will be back.

Glad to hear at least the touchpad is fine now. Looking forward to mine being replaced tomorrow.

In terms of sensitivity when touching it with the palm, just found out that there is in fact a "Palm Rejection" feature.

If I touch mine with my palms it does not react. Are you saying yours is reacting? You might want to open a separate thread to troubleshoot that. Tested my touchpad for a good couple of minutes now, no issues with my palms touching it. Hope you can sort out yours.

By the way... if you do install the alternative driver and are happy to live with the not so good sound but without the crackling, I think these instructions may stop the Dell driver from being reinstalled by Windows: See https://www.laptopmag.com/uk/articles/disable-automatic-driver-downloads-on-windows-10 for instructions

Some reddit posts to add to those:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/h186da/issues_with_the_dell_xps_15_9500/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/hy807q/anyone_have_speaker_issues_xps_9500/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/h8w9ch/poor_audio_quality_xps_15_9500/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/hbwslj/dell_xps_15_9500_sound_crackling/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/jrn6km/xps_15_9500_disappointing_trackpad_and_speakers/

https://www.reddit.com/r/DellXPS/comments/hi79n4/dell_xps_15_9500_buzzing_speakers/

@robjs2020 Thanks.

Yes that helps to stop the drivers being automatically updated by Windows. However the audio quality of non-XPS9500 drivers is so flat, with zero bass and very low volume. I would say it is equality bad just in different way. Can't think anyone would accept this as a solution, definitely not me.

Just to clarify for everyone, all the 3 Realtek XPS 9500 Audio drivers available on dell.com/support are having the same distorted audio issue. This suggestion implies installing non-XPS9500 drivers that don't cause the distortion however the audio quality drops to the Nokia3310 level.

UPDATE:

I have been battling this for about a week solid. I have the issue so severely that I only had pure static with no audio coming through my speakers, regardless of what I was playing, any audio immediately would cause me to cringe in pain from it. I found that simply rolling back the realtek drive removed it without a drop in audio quality! I'll keep you all updated if it tries to auto update and returns.

the process (TL;DR):

start > Device manager > sound, video and game controllers > right click "Realtek(R) Audio > Properties > driver > Roll back driver > restart computer

Let me know if this works for ya'll!

@Sindolo 

Thanks for your suggestion however this did not work for me, still distorted/crackling audio.

In fact, all of the XPS 9500 Realtek drivers that are available on Dell.com/support are having the distorted/crackling audio.

I am a bit sceptic to be honest that you have a driver that is not causing crackling audio.

1. Could you please check this video and try to see if your windows sounds are clear or crackling? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czAXJaGYJsE

2. Could you let us know what Realtek driver version you are using at the moment?

3. Also, try to play any audio on your inbuilt speakers, then just mute the sound and check if you have static noise.

Thank you.

It seems to specifically be from 350-900 Hz 

Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXu61z8yiMc&ab_channel=SonicElectronix