Dell XPS 15 - L502X - Some crackling sound coming from the speakers while playing Audio files/Video Desktop and Internet

I have uninstalled the mcAfee s/w and the sound problem went off, i have tested by playing more than 10-15 songs continuously. This is the initial observation. Now i am installing Mc Afee again and checking whether the problem reappears again. Will Update you soon. Cheers !!!

Hi Kamresh,

That's great news. Let me know the outcome of mcafee re installation. Anyway dell suggested mcafee antivirus for xps. So even this has fixed. They have to fix the issue with mcafee

Thanks

Hi Rajeev, My observations are that the problem is with the mcafee firewall, when i reninstalled mcafee the problem reoccured, when i disabled firewall, the problem went off, while the dell executive has asked me to replace the audio card. This will be done by tuesday..Lets wait for that solution from dell.

@ Rajeev & Kamaresh. I bought same XPS17 with same config what u have. Im also facing the same problem. While playing audio or video from online as well from local machine, the audio is getting struck in between for 2 seconds (like dragged audio ckreeeekkkk). How can i resolve this? By uninstalling McAfee will resolve this issue???

@Subramaniam..

Disabling mcafee firewall does work for me. But this is not optimum solution.

The issue is still pending with the dell, they got the mb replaced and mcafee reinstalled frm mcafee website ,

The prblm was not solved. They have suggested that there may be some driver updated when the windows update was performed , as a result of which a driver conflict may have happened which is causing the problem.

They have asked to do a pc restore frm the factory image and said that DO NOT ENABLE WINDOWS UPDATE.

I have not yet tried the above mentioned pc restore option.

Cheers !!!

Amresh  

Issue also seen on L702X running Windows 7 (bought 19/06/2011).

Symptoms -

Choppy/Distorted/Stuttering Audio since Day 1. Gets unbearable at times. More pronounced when listening from earphones/headphones (more detail).

Observed during <1> listening to songs - winamp/mediamonkey/iTunes etc., <2>watching video - VLC, <3>streaming audio/video from web - Youtube, Dailymotion, Metacafe, <4> Opening web browser while listening to music. <5> Skype/Voovoo voice/video calls. <6> Gaming. To sum up, seen everywhere.

Mentioned it to the tech support, they said might be corrupt mp3, wtc. Which I know it isn't.

Attempts -

Tried Audio, Video (both Intel and nVidia),entire System (Windows 7) reinstalls. Nothing helped. Tried DPC Latency, seen a lot of red spikes.

Uninstalled nvidia drivers, no more McAfee, problem still exists. Someone mentioned Windows 7 not recognising all cores of a multi core proccessor, checked that too.

On google, there's plenty of results for keyword search - xps 17 audio stutter/distorted, etc. and there's a good amount of feedback on Dell Forums as well.

Also have Ubuntu 11.10 installed on my system, I don't remember seeing any stutters in there.

Ron

L702X

Intel i7 2720QM

6GB RAM

Windows 7

@Kamresh:

Thanks for d reply. I'm frustrated about the creeking sound. & i found a scenario which cause this issue while using Wifi. But not sure.

Let me know what has replaced from ur machine? (mb replaced???) Is any hardware replaced by dell?

If u find any solution or dell provide any solution or any replacement, pls let me know...

hmm..same thing going to happen for me. One of dell support called me and told me they are planning to change my laptop Motherboard . Reason that's very funny :P. Because audio card is connected to Motherboard :P. I/we know this is something related to software / or something related to other forum shows NVdia. None of them reported as Motherboard issue (some users already changed motherboard having same issue again). Already done dignotests it's also fine. Mcfee/Nvida or Windows update ? . anyway raised with dell support 

@ Rajeev.

Very Funny... But beware, HW which they replace will be refurbished. Some other issue might come due to the refurbished one...

i brought my dell xps l502x jst a week before and started facing the audio problem a day one..

i was worried abt y i bot this laptop..having a gr8 sound but a cracking sound.

i found two solutions for the problem..

1st. turning of wifi vl help to solve the problem.. bt then how to play audio during surfing. so it could work nly whn u r nt using internet.

2nd. Its wat kamresh suggested..turning off mcafee firewall.. till nw m nt facing audio problm aftr turning off mcafee firewall.

bt dont know is it the perfect solution..

so shud i call dell  and report them the problem.????

Hey frnds the latest update from my end is that after the mb replacement the problem of crackling sound reoccured, in addition to this the two bluetooth 3.0 ports stopped working and the battery charging along with hardisk led light on the backside stopped blinking.

Frustated by all this i had requested for a system replacement. It has been more than a month since i had given the system for same ,still the new system's status since past 2 weeks is under work under process. I must say i have not seen such pathetic customer service ever by dell :emotion-12: . Waiting desperately for new system as i have to leave my place for office related work. Hope it comes soon :emotion-1:

Trust me, those are not the solutions!!

I've not got mcafee installed anymore, mostly because it is shit!! And I still get the problem of stuttering audio. Sometimes its so damn annoying, because it becomes continuous, other times it occurs every few mins.... haven't had the audio stutter for past week mainly because I haven't been using it intensely.

About turning the wi-fi off..... bro when you buy a car and are told you can either listen to music or drive it.... cant do both at the same time.... you've got yourself a problem. Same goes here.

Bottomline - Call dell and report the problem!

had a talk wid dell customer care.. says its the vlc palyer causing the problem...

i asked him whether wifi or antivirus is creating a problem with audio.. so he replied NO..

so by his words i uninstalled vlc player..and thinking tht the problem disappears...tried playing 3-4 songs aftr uninstalling and with the executive on the line.. didnt find any such problem then.

hope its a permanent solution.......

You may also be interested in this thread - en.community.dell.com/.../19383187.aspx - which is a discussion about a similar problem.

The thread sseems to be discussing a number of audio issues, but the most common seems to be stuttering which is being caused by the WIRED ethernet port. Try disabling that to see if that cures your problem.

If it does solve it, please add to the weight of people complaining to Dell to sort this out as it seems to be being ignored at the moment.

-FM

uninstalling vlc player also didnt help...

had a talk wid dell today also bt he couldnt render a sloution.. dont know wat to do..

i feel its wifi causing issues..coz when my wifi is turned off..everything goes well...

but i need a permanent solution