New XPS 15 (9550) Electrical/Static Sound and Occasional Flickering

Hey all,

I have the exact same behavior as described by rimorrisphoto. I received my dell this Tuesday and am currently trying to fix the various issues before doing an exchange of the 32 gb cache ssd with a samsung 950 pro (i have the hdd sdd hybrid version).

So far I have:

- updated the audio driver

- installed all windows updates

- de-installed the dell support assistent and dell update

I will update the BIOS tomorrow

Whenever sound is playing and I change the brightness setting or keep F12 pressed, I can recreate the issue and the crackling is almost constant. I've tried this with various audio sources.

Any help on this?

Dell you need to give an update on this its unacceptable that there is no advice or solutions to the issue. White static noise whenever the laptop gets under strain and even when just watching videos on occasion. It has happened to me also when changing the brightness of the laptop and if you pull the electricity plug out of the laptop it can sometimes generate a *** of a lot of static noise. I am not happy.

Dell, please do something about this!

I am getting the noise too

my laptop is also 1 day old and i am getting same error. this is very frustrating.

please help

The BIOS for the 9550 was updated 2 weeks ago and resolves audio issues. Please update it and check it fixes your issues

XPS 15 9550 01.01.15 BIOS

Hey Colin. 

I have already downloaded and installed the latest BIOS.

However, I still get the buzzing noise and my computer performance is still not stable. 

It is definitely still capped when it's NOT charging. Even when it is, it's running at 1.1GHz on the average when I have a max of 3.5

Please help.

A short follow-up on the issues I have posted in this thread!

It has been 2 months since I've gotten my XPS, and while the graphics driver problem was never totally resolved, the static sound disappeared a month into my usage. I suspect it has something to do with the updates.

However, 2 days ago, I managed to inflict a virus onto my laptop, forcing me to reset the drivers, files and basically everything because Edge refuses to load the most basic of webpages on a sporadic basis. Upon starting it up, I immediately uninstalled McAfee, a couple of Dell programmes and reinstalled Microsoft Office, Adobe and etc. And for some miraculous reason, all the issues I have listed are gone. Even when I was using Vimeo, YouTube and Tumblr concurrently, the screen doesn't freeze up anymore, and thankfully, the annoying static sound didn't make a reappearance. I would be *** if it did.

To sum it up, not too sure what I've done, but yea. My laptop is finally behaving as it should be.

Hey guys, I bought my Xps 15 two week ago (I7 512GB 16GB 4K Touch screen) and had the same static sound problem so I returned it and changed one. Unfortunately, the new Xps 15 9550 still have the noise problem.

This morning l read all your posts and tried to solve this problem, When I  turned off the MaxxRadiao 's Speaker Enhancement , the Static noise disappeared. It has been 30 mins and l no more heard any sparking noise or static noise when I watched videos and streams. So l thought this might also worked for you guys.

Here is the solution: 

Double click Dell Audio and Turn off the speaker Enhancement.

If this also work for you , please let me know

@Monkey Dad

I've seen this solution before but this does not work for my device.

I've tried disabling Dell Audio, creating a custom preset, turning the MaxxAudio off... but the static noise will always return after a while.

I also got this problem. I am using the thunderbolt for the 4k monitor. Did you solve the problem?

@SECONDVISION

I'm sorry about that ,  Maybe you should try to upgrade the BIOS.

i already did but that static sound will just not go.. please suggest

I have purchased dell xps 9530 they replaced by laptop once during the warranty. but still having this issue since my warranty has expired I don't have any choice.. but the noise is very load and weird. After installing windows 10 the noise has become louder and the screen goes black.

I will NEVER EVER buy a DELL product in my life..

I have this BIOS installed (1.1.15), specifically to resolve the audio issue.  I can confirm that is DOES NOT resolve the random crackling noise from the speakers.  I can find nothing to resolve this issue and dell support has done nothing to help.  I came to this forum out of desperation, hoping the make the problem more visible to Dell.  This will be the last product I buy from Dell.  Extremely disappointed that I spendt $1,700 on this 9550 laptop.  If it wasn't outside the 30 return window, I would have done so already.  I hate this laptop and will not recommend it to anyone.