XPS

[the.rem]

Hello,

I have a dell XPS 15 9570, and I have big issues with on board and external audio.

HW Spec:

Dell XPS 15 9570, i7 8750H, 4K screen, 16g ram /512g ssd, qualcomm Killer wifi and then intel AC-9260, nVidia 1050 Ti with latest WHQL drivers, bios v1.2.2, all drivers to date as of 2018/15/07

Symptoms:

- audio cracks and pops with system audio when watching videos, listening to mp3/flac, playing games with built-in card,

- audio cracks and pops with  external ASIO soundcard (focusrite scarlett 18i8 2nd gen) when running pro DAW software with 256 samples buffer @48Khz or 512 buffer @96Khz

This can damage external speakers and makes the machine unusable for live audio or even standard multimedia use.

What I did:

- applied all tweaks recommended by my external audio card's manufacturer https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207355205-Optimising-your-PC-for-Audio-on-Windows-10

- ran LatencyMon and found that TCPIP.sys and ndis.sys were causing 4ms DPC latency spikes, followed by ACPI.sys 2ms and dxgkrnl.sys 1.7 ms

- swapped  the qualcom card for an intel AC-9260 which eliminated totally the TCPIP.sys and ndis.sys spikes

- now ACPI.sys and dxgkrnl.sys are still causing 2ms DPC latency spikes

- audio glitches are still present

- disabled all peripherals except for keyboard, integrated graphics, trackpad, screen and storage (I disabled wifi, bluetooth, webcam, nvidia graphics, fingerprint reader, ACPI battery manager, cardreader, fall accelerometer, screen touch, etc.)

- disabled Speed-Step/ SpeedShift and Turbo-Boost, disabled virtualisation support in the BIOS to try to minimize randomness in the behaviour

- disabled fastboot

- ACPI.sys latency is still culminating at 1.7ms and causing audio dropouts with either built-in or external USB asio interface

- I've opened a support ticket over at dell with my premium support, the ticket was automatically closed a week later without anyone getting in touch with me.

I've run out of options and am looking for help.

[RGBR]

Can anyone recommend another Windows portable laptop that works well with audio ? I don´t want to buy a gamer laptop (weight), and would not like to switch to mac... After several months waiting for Dell to fix this audio problems, with the latest BIOS update (1.10) maybe got a little better, but didn´t solved the audio problems for me. I´m thinking of selling my XPS 15 9570 and buy another brand. Thanks.

[SergioXPS9570]

I'm having the highest DPC  Latency numbers ever with BIOS 1.10 it actually became much worse than before.

Something is very very very wrong...

[Caustix]

Try https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/Win-10-Home-High-DPC-latency-XPS-15-9570-ACPI-sys/td-p/6113042#.X... I have applied the BIOS upgrade and have actually factory set everything and well, I've not.... erhm.... it seems I am fixed. Dell XPS 15 i9 9570 32GB

[Jonah66]

This is so nice to see in LatencyMon. I use an Audient iD22 external audio interface instead of the onboard Realtek ALC3266-CG. I now have no crackling and no drop outs. Also, I replaced the internal WiFi card for an Intel 9260 because I was getting latency spikes on Ndis.sys of 3.0 ms.

[RGBR]

I´ve recorded a video showing one problem that I have: Dell XPS 15 9570 audio problem with Waves GTR 3, noise when AC adapter is plugged https://youtu.be/ndsO0mOYB1M

[sumone74]

So after checking a few forums, I found this: 'The fix for the latency and a lot of the other audio issues is for Dell to stop pushing <profane> BIOS updates. Either give us fan curve control or bring the fan curve back to what it was in 1.3 and either completely revert the power limit to what it was in BIOS 1.3, or at least give us more headroom on it. Even giving us a choice between better cooling vs quieter fans would be fine. Just give the owners of these laptops the fan curve we want, the fan curve that will actually make the laptops usable. I'm assuming they ruined the fan curve and power limit to try and make the laptop "quieter" while maintaining the temperatures they had previously, which is completely <profane>. It's a (supposed to be) high performance laptop, most laptops are going to be at least a little noisy when cooling hardware like this. But they decided to gimp our computers instead and essentially make useless these laptops for any sort of professional workload or even just gaming sessions depending on the game you want to play. Even video/audio hobbyists, people that make videos or audio of some sort, this has ruined it for because the performance is nowhere near where it should be and they've introduced massive latency due to the power limiting they've done which is heavily affecting audio. I'm waiting a little while longer to see if they put out a fix for all this nonsense, before I call and start asking for either a new unit with BIOS 1.2/1.3 or a complete refund so that I can take my money to another manufacturer such as Acer, because from what I've heard, the Acer Predator Helios had some heat problems and power limiting issues as well with it's i7 8750H and guess what? They pushed out an update that fixed it. Gave Helios owners the option to ramp up the fans and they fixed the power limiting issue (aka brought the power limit back to what the Dell laptops had in BIOS 1.2/1.3). If I get a refund, I'm going to Acer or another manufacturer that's handling this properly. I personally wouldn't mind hearing my fan work all day long so long as these spikes are removed, I'd love to roll back to another version of the bios but now it seems I cannot do so, unless others know of a way round this block from version 1.10

[Hurricane1949]

Your rose colored glasses view of the world is belied by the fact latency has been a known problem with both the 9560 and 9570 for years. You obviously have no dependency upon audio playback. Some of us do, and with no priority being put on latency by Dell, you tell me why in <profane> one shouldn't be upset. And skip the "life is good" <profane>.

[Aleksandeus]

Hi,

I have DELL 5587 G5, and the DPC latency is enormous! My audio interface is ZOOM UAC-2 and I use CUBASE 10, have no issue with audio when I work on 512 buffer, but 256 is not good. Can you tell me which steps you took to have those DPC values? Beside changing Wi-Fi card. 

Thank you very much

[DellRowBoat]

Its obvious DELL need to implement a hardware recall to fix the latency on XPS Models such as the 9560. BIOS fiddling is going nowhere. Apparently (via Tweet) the next model (after 9570) will address latency, but how is this going to fix the current issues for customers?

[AlexisMef]

I wish I could have my money back from Dell, and buy another brand of Laptop. NEVER AGAIN. My Inspiron is USELESS for any Audio Related Work, also <profane> for Gaming without Stutters. Their strategy is pretend it never happen. and launching a new model. I have done videos showing the issue, sent everything they asked, and they just let people´s topics go into oblivion.