XPS 17 9710 left speaker not working

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Update = After completing troubleshooting, a DELL-Cares agent setup a part replacement.

I have a bit more information to share on this: this issue seems to occur sometimes after headphone usage. I suspect it is a driver issue of some kind with the following mechanism. The following is just a hypothesis:

1. speakers start an audio stream as usual, work fine, outputting sound from all 4 speakers.

2. headphones are plugged in. Sound is output to stereo channels for 2 headphones (equivalent to 2 speakers)

3. headphones are removed. Normally, the drivers should go back to outputting sound from all 4 speakers. However, in certain cases I think what happens is that audio outputs from only two speakers because it is still being treated by the drivers in the same way as the headphones. re-opening a browser and going to youtube or another video service seems to successfully re-initiate the audio stream to be properly output from all 4 speakers.

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@Douglas Black wrote:

re-opening a browser and going to youtube or another video service seems to successfully re-initiate the audio stream to be properly output from all 4 speakers.

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I like your creative thinking but think about this: Even a Windows restart isn't fixing it!

The issue started to appear on my XPS 9710 AFTER a mainboard swap. I'm running the exactly same software configuration as before (rolled back a system image taken from before the "repair") thus it can't be the drivers, it must have something to do with the new mainboard or it's firmware.

Since going in the bios fixes it but only temporarily, I suspect a firmware/hardware related issue, it surely can't be soley the drivers or else much more people would be affected of this. (there are many but not that many)

Thanks for the reply. You are right -- this doesn't reliably fix the issue at all. I just had the tech come and replace both speakers + palmrest of the laptop, and the left speaker immediately stopped working after switching the audio output from HDMI-out back to the internal speakers. Going into the BIOS doesn't fix it -- only running the full uninstall/reinstall of the realtek drivers brings the sound back.

This is very frustrating.

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@Douglas Black wrote:

I just had the tech come and replace both speakers + palmrest of the laptop, and the left speaker immediately stopped working

This issue has been carried over from XPS 9700 series and it should be established by now that swaping the speakers doesn't fix anything, how come nobody at Dell is on top of such things?

From all I've read it's probably a power issue of some sorts, the left speaker array goes to sleep but fails to wake up (unless entering bios), the audio driver then reroutes the left audio channel through the lower second right speaker

I may have found a solution, at least the speaker hasn't failed for several hours by now (and I'm running the exact same programs as yesterday when it basically failed "right out of the door" everytime Windows was starting up or just shortly after)

DISABLE these two settings and report back if it improves/fully resolves the issue for you:

1) TaskManager\Autostart -> disable WavesMaxxAudio Service Application

2) Windows Settings -> Sounds -> Advanced -> Under the Advanced tab, uncheck "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device"

Background: There appears to be a "configuration conflict" between WavesMaxxAudio Pro and whatever application is trying to use the audio device. Note: Don't uninstall WavesMaxxAudio Pro, just disable the service application in Autostarts. I did fully uninstall it before and the left speaker still kept failing.

Thanks for the post, I will try that. We are disabling the startup of the Waves MaxxAudio Service Application, yes?

edit: unfortunately, when I did this and restarted, the left speaker was dead again.

We may have found a solution: For me, disabling "allow applications to take exclusive control of this device" in the sound control panel for the device, resetting the audio in BIOS, but ENABLING the Waves Service Application autostart has kept my left speaker going for several days now. 

@Douglas Black I've been having the same issue too.

My original setup had zero issues, but they had to replace the motherboard a few weeks ago. 

Since then, I have had the left speaker issue too. 

They replaced both and the issue still continues. 

When it's connected to a power source both work, but when not connected to a power source the left one doesn't work. 

The tech that came to my office to fix the speakers mentioned if this doesn't work, it could be a faulty motherboard. 

Now, I'm waiting for a motherboard, which is on backorder. 

Never mind. Literally 20 minutes after writing and posting this, my left speaker is gone again. No idea.

Well, the new (refurnished) replacement laptop's speakers work, at least. Unfortunately, my microphone does not -- the hardware is nowhere to be found.

The mic is enabled in the BIOS and the windows settings.

Update = After completing troubleshooting, a DELL-Cares agent setup a part replacement.

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