XPS 9570 Buzzing and Thunderbolt Woes

Hi Microlino,

Thanks for posting.  Apologies that your system is not performing as expected.  

When you say "pretty loud (and annoying) buzz".  Just how loud is it?

Can it be heard over a normal conversation?  Can it be heard in a classroom?  How about a Restaurant or coffee shop?  If not, then it's probably performing as designed.  If the noise is louder than those described, then you may wish to contact us for a Service Request.  

Here is information from the Dell Knowledge Base you may find helpful:

How to Identify and Resolve Noise Issue on Dell Laptop PCs

If you still require assistance and the system is under warranty, you may contact me privately. Be sure to include your personal information (name, address, telephone, email) and your computer's service tag number in your message. Thanks.

If there is no warranty, then you could contact our Out of Warranty team to get a quote for a paid service request. 

Just got a new XPS 9570 last weekend and, when in my office, I plan on using it as a desktop replacement.
So I purchased a StarTech Thunderbolt 3 Mini Dock to connect my two external 4K monitors, USB audio and Ethernet:

• When I connect the dock drivers are downloaded from (I'm guessing) Windows update. Looks like everything's OK but when I run the "Thunderbolt Software" I get a "This Thunderbolt application is not in use anymore and can be safely uninstalled" error (so why install it in the first place?).
• The two monitors and the ethernet work perfectly (wow!), but unfortunately the USB audio (NAD D 3020) comes through with noise and statics, practically unlistenable. If I connect the USB audio directly to one of the USB A ports on the laptop it works beautifully.
• After a bit of googling I learn that Intel is transitioning to UWD drivers. So to fix the USB audio static problem I decide to install the latest TB firmware and unified drivers. The XPS 9570 support page still has the older 17.4.77.400 (of course, why keep it up to date, right?). I find the newer 1.41.484 at the XPS 9380 support page.
• After updating the drivers to 1.41.484 via Windows Device Manager the "Intel Software" control panel is still nowhere to be found. Trying to manually install it from the Microsoft App Store gives me a 0x803FB005 error.
• Clean up everything with "pnputil -d". And after Windows automatically reinstalls version 17.4.77.400 I try to flash the latest firmware 4.33.23.002 only to be greeted again by the "This Thunderbolt application is not in use anymore and can be safely uninstalled" error message.

At this point I don't know which TB driver to use, which TB firmware I'm at, the "Thunderbolt Control Center" is still missing and the USB audio still not working.

• Constant motherboard buzzing.
• Keyboard that came with "K" and "L" keys lacquered together with the frame (and now scratching when I press them).
• Uneven keyboard backlighting (with a darker band in the middle).
• Screen with noticeable bottom light leak.
• Thunderbolt not working.
• Support page not maintained.

Wondering if it's not the time to return everything, get my $2,000 back and stop this grief.

Manufacturing date: October 2018
BIOS: 1.7.0
OS: Clean Windows 10 Enterprise

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@robert p wrote:

Hi Microlino,

 

Thanks for posting.  Apologies that your system is not performing as expected.  

 

When you say "pretty loud (and annoying) buzz".  Just how loud is it?

Can it be heard over a normal conversation?  Can it be heard in a classroom?  How about a Restaurant or coffee shop?  If not, then it's probably performing as designed.  If the noise is louder than those described, then you may wish to contact us for a Service Request.  

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Can it be heard at a restaurant of coffee shop? Probably not.
But I don't work there. I work in a relatively quiet office where, instead of focusing on what I'm doing, I'm wondering whether my new laptop came with an HDD or a SSD /s. Or worse, a cap will blow up and catch fire.

For what it's worth I have 2 brand new Lenovo T480's with the same "This Thunderbolt application is not in use anymore and can be safely uninstalled" error.