XPS 15-9570, Audio crackling and popping

@Dell-Alan D The new Audio-Driver did not solve the problem for me...

Forgive me if I repeat or bring up issues that have already been discussed - admittedly, I'm too lazy right now to go through the thread.

Yes, I got the same problem intermittently, thankfully it doesn't happen that often and simply shutting down the browser or app then restarting resolves the issue.

I wanted to know if it was merely the output through the headphones so I recorded a bit of crackly audio and unfortunately it is also in the recording as well.  Good to know because I do a lot of 'record-what-you-hear.'

I've been cautious about posting this in fear that I'd jinx it but my audio seems to be better now. I've been about a week with no issues with my DAW or Spotify or browser tabs. Ive been switching between them trying to trip up the OS but so far so good.

Now I DO NOT game with this machine and I've DISABLED the Nvidia audio device in the device manager which I believe is a big part of the problem. Having it run along with Intels audio device is either too much for the system or different clock speeds overlap and cause issues, idk. I'm not nearly savvy enough. But turning it off helps. I hope this lasts and a new bios doesn't ruin it.

The situation is ridiculous. I'l never buy another Dell. Period.

I installed Ubuntu, ZERO drivers download, ZERO ""dell"" **bleep** to download, ZERO ""enhancement"". Sound is crystal clear out of the box, as it should be. Apparently this is an impossible results to achieve by a ""big"" company like dell on one of its flagship machine.

There was a new driver released this morning. Has anyone tried it? Honestly I don't dare to install

I installed the new driver (released in 2019 03 22) now and apparently there was no improvement. I tested it with the Waves GTR 3 software with my guitar plugged in, playing in real time, and it generated constant noise (hiss) and occasionally clicks and pops - just as the previous driver did. In the next few days, I will continue using the new diver and will post here if there was improvement in the other software I use.

People, it has nothing (or not everything anyway) to do with the Realtek driver. The same problem persists on external audio interfaces -- I have tried two different. It has to be Windows or BIOS update that fixes it.

This is the key difference. They don't know how to fix the issue, but have no problem continuing to sell it with the same problem. Bottom line is if the Dell staff support isn't coming in here every day with updates & questions for their customers, they aren't doing nearly enough. These people clearly won't respond to their customers or provide fixes, so we need to continue to collect evidence for a . We have plenty of proof of not only the frequency & length of these problems, but their lack of urgency when it comes to fixing them. Without a doubt, it can be proven that these laptops are shipping with defects. They claim they "can't replicate the problem" when anyone who has the computer runs into the problem. It is clear they don't take customer problems seriously, something tells me is something they'll take a little more seriously.

I got my XPS 9570 in January of this year (a few months ago). Absolutely love the rest of the computer, but pretty discouraged with the fact that this machine is sold at such a high price with this obvious sound defect. Tried essentially all of the solutions, but so far the only thing that works (temporarily) is turning the spatial sound on and off every 20-30 minutes or so. I've been following this post for a month or two now, but I figured I'd put my experience out there so hopefully CS at Dell can see after 30+ pages of a forum post that this a very frustrating issue.

Maybe future purchasers will stumble across this huge thread when doing research before they buy and know what they're getting into. I didn't. Don't know if I'd change my decision to get this machine because I love everything else about it, but really this has been quite discouraging... I always viewed Dell as an industry benchmark for computer hardware, but honestly its hard to believe in them now. :( 

As mentioned in the thread previously there is something that seems to fix the issue.

I went to RealTek's website (https://www.realtek.com/en/component/zoo/category/pc-audio-codecs-high-definition-audio-codecs-software) and downloaded the driver straight from them. After an install and a required restart things have been working just fine for me.

I installed this driver about a week ago and have not had any of the audio issues since then. I had previously had the popping/crackling and the bad echo type effect.

For myself (Windows 10) I installed the 64bit driver R2.82 from 2017/07/26, size: 258 MB

I did the same "For myself (Windows 10) I installed the 64bit driver R2.82 from 2017/07/26, size: 258 MB"

This did NOT fix 100%, but mostly helps

I didn't know about these problems until I got annoyed with SupportAssist popping up every couple of days reminding me to update my BIOS and drivers. After the update I get all sorts of distortions. I downgraded the audio drivers first, no luck. Then I manually downgraded the BIOS back to 1.4x and still no luck

Going back to a previous restore point did the trick for me. Lesson learned: never change a running system. Maybe this info helps someone out there.

I tried that for a while, and then after about a week my sound device was suddenly uninstalled and Windows could not find it again, so I could not play audio at all.