Skip to main content

Unsolved

This post is more than 5 years old

Closed

IJeffray

9 Posts

29547

February 27th, 2007 14:00

LightFX intefering with audio

Whenever the LightFX stuff is active - changing the LEDs states, the audio crackles pretty badly.   This is on an XPS M1710 with Vista Home Premium.
 
Anyone else got issues with crackle?
 

Dimmus

9 Posts

March 2nd, 2007 23:00

Hey,
 
Yes I had exactly the same problem - crackling audio when using LightFX and MediaPlayer/iTunes.  It also crackled other times as well (on startup and during some games) but more noticably when using LightFX.
 
I rang Dell and they finally sent someone to replace the motherboard.  It seems to have fixed the crackling problem, but now LightFX doesn't work - I can only change the colour of the LED's in the BIOS now.  So I'm not sure if that's better or worse...to be honest I thought the flashing lights were a bit of a gimick...but it would be nice to use it when I want to!
 
I'll keep you up to date if anything changes...
 
 
XPS M1710
Vista Home Premium

Utju

13 Posts

March 3rd, 2007 00:00

Dimmus , Replacing the mother board for crackling lights!!!!
 
Seems somewhat of an extreme way to disable the LightFX...... Wot the? Geeze Dell I'd hate to see the cost of your service bills - travel, tekky, 2 * M'boards. And it's not fixed - - at that I think I'd be better off just leaving the effects OFF.
 
IJeffray , gotta agree with the HDD my Aero ratings are all thru the roof but the HDD gets a grand 4.1. I want to get an exteranal drive @300GB

Dimmus

9 Posts

March 3rd, 2007 01:00

It's actually not so silly, it's the speakers that crackle (when LightFX is used) and as the sound is integrated on the motherboard it could well be the problem. And it didn't just happen with LightFX for me...it happened in some games and even the Windows system sounds crackled some times...so just turning off the lights didn't solve the problem.  Maybe a faulty batch of motherboards??

Utju

13 Posts

March 4th, 2007 11:00

Dimmus, point taken but they haven't solved your issue and that's wots got me worried.
 
I haven't had this laptop long but I haven't noticed any interference in the sound except from light fx.
 
Is Dell going to get back to you or is that the end of their solution?
 
I don't mean to pry but I don't want to start pulling the laptop apart just to get flashing lights. It would be fun to have on occasion buuut....

IJeffray

9 Posts

March 4th, 2007 12:00

I've hooked up my Audigy 2 ZS Video external USB soundcard today, and LightFX *really* kills that to the point of basically being unusable. I might call DELL tomorrow about this, but my experience of trying to ask anyone at DELL anything vaguely technical is bad -- they treat you like a total idiot and basically don't want to help other than suggest reinstalling the OS over and over. Anyone know how to get hold of technical people at DELL that aren't dim?

Dimmus

9 Posts

March 4th, 2007 20:00

Yeah, I might ring Dell again today and tell them that I can't use the QuickSet program to configure my LED's anymore...I'm tempted not to worry about it, but it's a hassle to get into the BIOS just to turn them off when I'm trying to conserve battery.
 
As for non-dim technical people, I thought the XPS technical support was meant to be pretty switched on...but my experience so far is that they are just the same as all other Dell support staff.

Dimmus

9 Posts

March 5th, 2007 23:00

Well, that's just great...I have crackling audio again :smileysad:
 
I decided to reinstall QuickSet as i figured this might get my LED's working again from Windows.  Quickset said I didn't have the latest BIOS revision...dum dum dum!
 
The new motherboard they put in was only revision A02, so I flashed it to the latest version A06 and I could use QuickSet to change the LED's as well as see the visualisations in iTunes/WMP11 but the crackling was back.  I had a look at the Quickset Installer and it says its for version A02.  So I'm guessing that Quickset has some issues with the A06 BIOS revision.
 
If so, when will this be fixed?  Do tech's actually read these forums at all???

Utju

13 Posts

March 6th, 2007 03:00

Hi Dimmus,
 
Thanks for keeping us up to date with your attempts to get this sorted out. I hope that you have better luck coming soon.
 
I feel for your frustrations, this is an issue that YES some tekky should be addressing and getting sorted. I'm wondering if indeed thay are watching and waiting to copy your solution LOL.
 
Is Dell listening? I got my request for service feedback emailed today.....I wonder if they listen to that?

Utju

13 Posts

March 6th, 2007 10:00

Ok I finally had time to call dell today, they had me uninstall the Sigma Tel audio driver. Then restart, which loads the microsoft default audio driver.
 
I got into light fx and put the media players on and the above remedy DID REDUCE the crackle, still very annoying pops and crackles.
 
I called Dell again, they then had me turn off the audio enhancements that are available through the Vista audio properties tab.
 
This fix also helped to further reduce the crackle significantly.
 
I can now have flashy colourful LEDS while listening to music with only occasional crackles and pops.
 
Is it a fix NO. The enhancements available thru the properties tab are pretty good and I was happy with the sound quality, I did want to try the microphone setup utility which sounds cool - plug in the mic. and the system listens to it's own output and improves it's settings. Now I have slightly less sound quality but flashing LEDS....mmmm.

Dimmus

9 Posts

March 12th, 2007 11:00

Ok, Dell rang again today to confirm that my problem had been solved.
I told them everything (i.e. that i still have the same problem) and they suggested that I install an earlier version of QuickSet.
I had version 7.2.14 installed.
I tried version 7.2.11 - same problem.
I tried version 7.1.16 - a lot better! The interface is a bit older and its lacking a few features, but there is no more stuttering or crackling! The only audio problem I get now is that it occasionally gives a small pop when I use the 3rd LightFx visualisation - 1 and 2 give no problem at all.

Well I guess its better than nothing - at least I can use the LightFx visualisations now with no hassles!

Message Edited by Dimmus on 03-12-2007 07:22 AM

Utju

13 Posts

March 12th, 2007 12:00

Hi Dimmus,
 
I too received contact from Dell about the issue, e-mail - Was the problem resolved? NOOOO!
 
Well I've noticed that the crackles have increased over time..... mine is totally unlistenable in LightFX 3.
 
It seems though there is at least movement at the Dell ranch, they are coming to the conclusion it is a software issue, they haven't tried to rip my motherboard out!
 
Dimmus did they make you uninstall the audio driver? disable enhancements?
 
Regards
 
 

Dimmus

9 Posts

March 12th, 2007 12:00

No, I've still got the Sigmatel audio driver installed, and I've played around with the audio enhancements and they didn't seem to affect it at all.

You could try installing the old version of QuickSet, available at http://supportapj.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=au&cs=audhs1&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R131817&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=175045

Mine is a lot better - only a random pop every now and then, and only on LightFx 3.

Juice Monkey

1 Message

March 24th, 2007 02:00

Iam going to give this a try and see if it helps with the tunes. But I don't think it'll do much for the gaming.

http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=xps_port_audio&thread.id=413

djhaslett

2 Posts

April 3rd, 2007 09:00

G'day all,
 
I have to concur with all the above problems. I am very unimpressed with my M1710 thus far. The lights are a 'nice to have', and to be honest I don't think I'll be using them all that much, but for the money I've paid I still want them to work without interfering with the music.
 
I've been on the phone with Dell re this problem at least a dozen times, and have had a tech out to my house twice, both times to replace the motherboard. Nothing has made the audio problem any better.
 
Interestingly, I decided to wipe the hard drive and reinstall XP SP2, and the problems seemed to dissappear. I downloaded a third party LED program which seemed to operate the lights quite well with no adverse affects. Also better CPU performance - with Vista the CPU usage always seems to be quite high even when nothing is running. I've not installed any games or anything significant on the machine yet.
 
I have my faith in the fact that others are experiencing the same problems, and that Vista is still 'teething'. I hope Dell are reading these forums and a solution can be found soon so we can all enjoy what is no doubt an otherwise sensational product.
 
Darren.

IJeffray

9 Posts

April 3rd, 2007 21:00


Utju wrote:
 
Dell called me last week that they think they have narrowed it down to the light power switches interfering with the speakers.......

You can tell them they're wrong, then.   The problem with LightFX and audio still happens with an external audio card (I'm using a Creative Audigy ZS Video...)
 

Was this post helpful?

View All

No Events found!

Top