XPS 15Z Audio issue

Terry, I agree with cmespinoza. Please get your engineering team involved.

Thank you kindly

Hi Terry,

Thanks for the reply, however my post refers to the WIRED network card, not the WiFi.

There are now a number of people on this forum who have identified that disabling the WIRED network card prevents the audio stuttering problem.

It is all very well trying to blame Windows 7, but this does not happen on my other Windows 7 machine which is actually lower spec'd than this XPS 15z!

I would echo the other posts in requesting that this information be passed to your engineers urgently so that it can be investigated an a proper fix, rather than a workaround, issued.

Disabling hardware that is integrated within a machine is NOT a fix.

-FM

So far we have two posting that the problem is with WIFI drivers, I am assuming both are Intel 6230 cards as that is the only WIFI card that ships with the 15z.  We have another posting that it is the integrated Ethernet card.

Have any of you others been able to verify if a specific device, utility or program seems to be causing popping, or stuttering sound glitches, or issues where sound volume fades to nothing?

TB

Terry,

I'm not sure which thread you are reading, but FIVE people have now confirmed that disabling the WIRED Ethernet port cures the STUTTERING audio problem.

(Note that I am talking about the WIRED Ethernet, NOT the WiFi adapter)

Those 5 people are myself, Cmespinoza (who first found the workaround), Abe_, Ramystyle and Tonvicted.

Another problem of a 'static' sound is also being discussed in this thread - this problem is not affected by disabling the Ethernet adapter.

Then there is the original problem of audio fading to silence that the thread was started with.

I do not currently have either of the two static or fading problems. I DID have the stuttering problem, but cmespinoza's workaround has worked for FIVE people who have reported the stuttering problem.

Come on Terry, at least read what people are saying - it looks like cmespinoza's has found the culprit for one of the problems for you and this has been independently verified by four other people. That's work that Dell should have been doing so the least Dell could do now is look into it.

FM

Just wanted to mention that Terry sent me a new power adaptor right away after I complained about it here, and that cured my static problem (I know this is not a common problem, it was only mine), but I just wanted to make a point that Terry is doing an excellent job in many ways! I still have other frustrating issues with the Xps15z but Terry is certainly trying to help all of us the best he can!

I stand corrected.  For some reason I kept seeing wireless and not wired.  I have commented on Cmespinoza's post after he originally posted.  I hope that you all will forgive me.  

So of the five of you that have found that disabling the Atheros driver, what version of the driver are you using?  Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the driver?  Have any of you tried reimaging the system or performing a manual reinstall of Windows to see if that helped with the issue? How are Windows configured on your system for sound? Have any of you had the system board replaced to see if that corrected the issue?

Again I apologize for the confusion.

TB

Terry this is what I've tried:

Removed all drivers and installed the ones acquired from support.dell.com

Removed audio driver and driver files to prevent reinstallation on restart. Defaulting to Windows 7 driver has very poor sound, so that didn't help either.

Removed various applications

Clean install Windows 7

Tested using different network cables

Tested when on battery, low battery, with power, while charging, etc.

Thus, the next step will be to replace. My problem though, is that I'm based outside of Uk!

Looking forward to a speedy resolution.

Thank you

Terry,

Thanks for looking into this again.  Despite the frustrations many of us have had, we appreciate it when reps like you step up and communicate results.

The Ethernet driver I have installed and disabled in my Device Manager is:

Atheros AR8151 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.20)

Version 1.0.0.37, Driver Date: 12/28/2010

My current audio driver is:

Realtek High Definition Audio

Version 6.0.1.6410, Driver Date: 7/7/2011

I've removed and installed various iterations of both the Realtek and Atheros drivers, and I always got the same sound crackle issue.  I hope your engineering team can test, reproduce the issue and take it from here.

Thanks Terry,

Apology absolutely accepted - as aqal says, it's both unusual and welcome to find a staffer helping out in support forums so frequently.

I can't check driver version until this evening, but my machine was factory fresh delivered 2 weeks ago. The audio stuttering issue was evident out of the box before I installed anything (even the Windows start up sound stuttered a few times!).

Since disabling the wired adapter I have had no problems with the audio at all. I've had other problems, such as the one I posted about the SD card reader elsewhere in the forums, but the audio has been good.

-Fm

Has there been any progress on this?

It's now almost a month since the last post in this thread.

I, and others, have confirmed that the audio stuttering can be re-produced EVERY TIME by enabling the wired ethernet port on the 15z. Disabling stops the stuttering EVERY TIME.

Theer may well be other problems related to nVidia, and others related to power supply/grounding, but the wired ethernet port problem is reproducable by a number of people in this thread.

It's a bit frustrating to have spent the best part of a grand on a machine only to find it has some pretty fundamental driver support issues.

I've never had a machine that has felt so 'fragile'!

Come on Dell, a month on can we have an update please?

-FM

Confirmed for me. Disabling the Atheros AR8151 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller makes the audio stuttering go away for me.  People are reporting at the Notebook Review Forums: XPS 15z Crackling Audio with Network Traffic as well.

That is my thread on Notebook Review Forums.

NB: I do not have any noticeable issue with the *wired Ethernet* although I haven't used it that much since I've had the machine..

My problem is related to the Wifi. Significant *Wifi* traffic cause glitching and crackling whilst playing any audio (only while the system is playing something not when the audio is "idle").

Disabling the Ethernet in Device Manager doesn't make a difference.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/624891-xps-15z-crackling-audio-network-traffic.html

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