XPS 15-9570, Audio crackling and popping

I have an almost new XPS 15-9570. The crackling is sporadic an so disturbing. The Audio delay playing Videos in Netflix/YouTube etc. makes it unusable. I have some Dell Computers and never had an issue like that. And I bought a Dell because I don´t want to have an issue lake that.

The new realtek Driver did´t help. The Change of the wlan Card to last Intel didn´t help.

If the Audio would work, it would be a great Laptop, so it is Nothing worth for me.

@Anonymous,

Has already been tried in my case and leads to no success.

today the audio driver didn't recover properly from standby (modern standby). It started with heavily distorted audio until it crashed (red checked dot on the volume icon). I had to disable and re-enable the soundcard from device manager to restore audio.

New driver, new trouble! :Cool:

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@st-kovalenko wrote:

@Dell-Alan D,

To date, I have assumed that all XPS 15 9570 have the problem. But as I could learn, that's probably not the case? I contacted the user @chainstair, he says that he has no problems with sound.
Will that help you? Do you need further information or is this already known?

I use my notebook with HiGoing Bluetooth 5.0 transmitter, and so have never had the problem. But if I use the built-in speakers, after a few minutes / hours I have the problem that I hear the crackle and pop. I recorded the sound, that sounds like this to me: Audio recording

Do other users have such a sound or is it different?

My system:

 (Google Translate)

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@st-kovalenko that's interesting that your system doesn't emit the crackling sound via the bluetooth device. I have had other responses where the user has had wired and bluetooth headphones paired with the system and the crackling is also replicated through the bluetooth connection.

To confirm, regardless of what you files you playback on the system, i.e Windows sounds, mp3 stored on the system, or streamed audio i.e YouTube, Spotify, if you have the bluetooth received connected you don't get any crackles?

How are you connecting the bluetooth transmitter to the system, is it via the 3.5mm stereo port?

Would you be willing to disable the bluetooth on your system and then use it normally, without the external bluetooth transmitter connected, and confirm whether you still hear the audio crackling.

Alan

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@beefjerky wrote:

I want to make sure it is known since I don't see it mentioned, but the Precision 5530 also has the same issue. I'm not surprised since they're nearly the same except for the GPU (Quadro vs GeForce). Will the fix also be applied to the 5530 if/when it's found???

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@beefjerky thanks for this info, I haven't noticed the same sort of response around this issue on the workstation forum. So far , the updated driver has only been released for the XPS, even though the driver is the same. I would expect the updated driver to be rolled out to the Precision, unless the fix is not related to the audio driver and is found to be caused by something else.

Alan

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@Axl Jay wrote:

today the audio driver didn't recover properly from standby (modern standby). It started with heavily distorted audio until it crashed (red checked dot on the volume icon). I had to disable and re-enable the soundcard from device manager to restore audio.

New driver, new trouble! :Cool:

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@Axl Jay no one else has mentioned having this issue. I suspect it's an isolated issue and nothing to do with the driver having issues. I would suggest either rolling back the system or trying a clean install of the driver again. It could come down to your Windows install being corrupt.

Alan

@Dell-Alan D 

I have the notebook now more than month and hear every day musik over the bluetooth receiver, and have no problems with. I have never heard strange noises in the configuration.
That the other user over his external sound card also unwanted noise hears I also read, but he has a USB sound card, if I have the right thing. Unfortunately, I do not have a USB sound card to try it out. But I have the docking station BT16 I will try it.

The sound sources are often different (YouTube, Local mp3, Livestream's).

I connect the Bluetooth receiver wirelessly to the system, not the 3.5mm stereo port.

Even if there are no external devices connected to my notebook and the WLAN / Bluetooth card is completely disabled, I continue to have unwanted sounds in my internal speakers. The audio record I uploaded in my last post from 02-15-2019.

Honestly I have not tried the 3.5mm stereo port until today. Today I plugged in headphones for the first time. I had to connect them several times, because they are not always recognized ... Although the window of MaxxAudioPro come up the headphones did not always sound immediately. Another Problem?!

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@Dell-Alan D wrote:

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@beefjerky wrote:

I want to make sure it is known since I don't see it mentioned, but the Precision 5530 also has the same issue. I'm not surprised since they're nearly the same except for the GPU (Quadro vs GeForce). Will the fix also be applied to the 5530 if/when it's found???

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@beefjerky thanks for this info, I haven't noticed the same sort of response around this issue on the workstation forum. So far , the updated driver has only been released for the XPS, even though the driver is the same. I would expect the updated driver to be rolled out to the Precision, unless the fix is not related to the audio driver and is found to be caused by something else.

Alan

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Thanks for the reply. I suspect many Precision users don't use the built-in audio often, me included. However, it is easily noticeable when I do use it. A workaround that worked for me is to set the output format to CD Quality (44.1KHz, 16bit). In my case, that seems to avoid the problem.

Please do make the team working on this aware that the issue also occurs on the Precision 5530.

Thanks!

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@SuzieG27 wrote:

Hi Alan,
I also have an XPS 15-9570 that I purchased in January.  I too am having periodic issues with audio popping and crackling.  I would love to be involved in whatever troubleshooting you are a doing to address this issue.

Thanks,
Suzie

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@SuzieG27 thanks for offering to contribute to the investigation. I'll drop you a private message with the information I require.

Alan

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@LaughingJohn wrote:

I wonder if the audio popping, which I also have, and the keyboard issue are both related to the high DPC latency. It sounds too much of a  coincidence.

I have a Qpad gaming mechanical keyboard plugged directly into the laptop and it's unusable at times. The keyboard lags and repeats and the mouse pointer stops moving, sometimes for quite a while  The key backlight also flashes occasionally . It does feel like some sort of low level interrupt. 

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@LaughingJohn as I understand it, the DPC latency is being investigated as part of the research. The keyboard latency should have been improved with the BIOS updates that have been released.

Are you running the latest BIOS on the system?
Do you have problems with key presses on the internal keyboard also?
Do you connect your keyboard to the system directly or via a docking station?

Alan

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@st-kovalenko wrote:

@Dell-Alan D 

I have the notebook now more than month and hear every day musik over the bluetooth receiver, and have no problems with. I have never heard strange noises in the configuration.
That the other user over his external sound card also unwanted noise hears I also read, but he has a USB sound card, if I have the right thing. Unfortunately, I do not have a USB sound card to try it out. But I have the docking station BT16 I will try it.

The sound sources are often different (YouTube, Local mp3, Livestream's).

I connect the Bluetooth receiver wirelessly to the system, not the 3.5mm stereo port.

Even if there are no external devices connected to my notebook and the WLAN / Bluetooth card is completely disabled, I continue to have unwanted sounds in my internal speakers. The audio record I uploaded in my last post from 02-15-2019.

Honestly I have not tried the 3.5mm stereo port until today. Today I plugged in headphones for the first time. I had to connect them several times, because they are not always recognized ... Although the window of MaxxAudioPro come up the headphones did not always sound immediately. Another Problem?!

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@st-kovalenko thanks for the feedback. Can you help with some additional details please - 

a) What bluetooth devices are you pairing with your HiGoing receiver, are they bluetooth headphones or speakers?
b) If you pair either of those devices directly with the laptop do you then get the crackling audio through the paired device?

c) With regards to the headphones not being recognised, I wonder if that's connected to the problems you had previously with the audio driver crashing. Have you tried uninstalling the audio driver and then reinstalling it?

Alan

@Dell-Alan DThanks for coming back to me - I have a separate thread for my issues, but to answer your questions:

Are you running the latest BIOS on the system? Yes - all windows/dell updates applied including the latest Audio drivers.

Do you have problems with key presses on the internal keyboard also? TBH I haven't used it much to know but it's present on both a logitech wireless keyboard and a wired QPAD mechanical keyboard both of which were in use successfully with my old laptop.

Do you connect your keyboard to the system directly or via a docking station? I have tried both and the problem remains either way. The problem also affects the mouse, again both wired and wireless.

Other symptoms include popping in my USB headphones and the backlight on my QPAD keyboard flashing occasionally as if losing power.

I turned off c-state control based on another user's suggestion and all seemed fine yesterday and so far today. My QPAD keyboard is the worst affected but I won't be able to test that in anger until Thursday when I work from home.

My understanding is that that C-State is handled by ACPI so I'm not sure if it's the c-state code that is directly causing my problems or whether the c-state swaps might be being affected by a latency inducing bug elsewhere in the ACPI.

Possibly unrelated but I'm also getting errors in the event viewer like this one:

ESIF(8.4.10501.6067) TYPE: ERROR MODULE: DPTF TIME 85466514 ms

DPTF Build Version: 8.4.10501.6067
DPTF Build Date: Feb 16 2018 13:31:38
Source File: ..\..\..\..\Sources\Policies\ConfigTdpPolicy\ConfigTdpPolicy.cpp @ line 354
Executing Function: ConfigTdpPolicy::synchronizeConfigTdpPlatformSettings
Message: ConfigTdp not supported.
Policy: ConfigTDP Policy [0]

a) These are speakers

b) Yesterday I heard the music over half the day with headphones (wired, 3.5 stereo) and noticed at first nothing. Only that you are not always recognized when connecting. Whether I connect headphones or speakers via cable should have no difference.

c) You have confused me with other users, with me the driver is not crashed. As I said, I have no problems with external speakers, no matter how they are connected (Whether cable or Bluetooth does not matter).

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@st-kovalenko wrote:

a) These are speakers

b) Gestern hörte ich die Musik über den halben Tag mit Kopfhörern (kabelgebunden, 3,5 Stereo) und bemerkte zunächst gar nichts. Nur dass Sie beim Verbinden nicht immer erkannt werden. Whether I connect headphones or speakers via cable should have no difference.

c) You have confused me with other users, with me the driver is not crashed. As I said, I have no problems with external speakers, no matter how they are connected (Whether cable or Bluetooth does not matter).

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@st-kovalenko thanks for the reply and apologies for the confusion.

Alan