Dell XPS 13 9310 sound has stopped working

Question

The other day my XPS wouldn't power on straight away, after trying the power button a few times, including a long press, it started up. When it was starting up, it informed me that it was finishing an update which is seemed to finish without issue.

Upon logging into Windows I noticed that there was no sound. Nothing via laptop speakers, headphones, desktop monitor... the only sound that has worked is via bluetooth (so not via Realtek). I have spent the last few frustrating days trying everything under the sun to get it to work, here's a summary:

1) Realtek drivers are installed and working. I have tried removing and updating them, rolling back etc. but it's made no difference. If I play any audio or use my microphone, I can see the sound bars move in 'Sound Settings', but I can't hear anything.

2) I have tried rolling back updates, I have even reset the PC multiple times to factory setting, but no joy. I have tried the last 3 bios updates, but nothing has worked.

3) I've done all the audio tests, and the laptop finds no problems with hardware or software, it thinks that it's playing sound, but I can't hear anything. Worryingly, I haven't been able to get any beeps when doing a pre-boot diagnostic test.

My current theory is that there's some sort of hardware issue, which would be really disappointing on such an expensive and only 2 year old laptop. I work from home and the laptop hasn't left my desk for many months, so I'm a bit baffled. It's also surprising that it passed all hardware checks... if there was an issue with the motherboard, then I'd expect Realtek to be showing an error or red cross on my sound icon.

If anyone has any thoughts or solutions, I'd love to hear them.

Thank you

fireberd · Answer

First thought, check Settings/Sound. Speakers (Realtek) should be set as default  output device. I didn't post a screenshot as no OS was stated and different screens for Win 10 and Win 11.

Bloomsbury · Answer

Thanks for the reply @fireberd

I am running Windows 11, though have also tried Windows 10 when I did restore to factory settings. No sound in either.

Attached is a screengrab from playing a video on youtube. Realtek audio and speakers are selected, and you can see on the volume selection that audio was being detected from the video as it played. The laptop seems to think sound is working. My microphone also registers volume when I speak into it, so the signals are definitely there, but for some reason no sound is produced via speakers, wired headphones, or via HDMI on my monitor.

fireberd · Answer

Your model uses Waves Maxxaudio Pro in conjunction with Realtek. That app controls audio out to devices and jacks. If you don't have it installed and configured, that is the next step.

Support for XPS 13 9310 | Drivers & Downloads | Dell US

I have Win 11 22H2 installed. FWIW here is my sound panel

Win11 22H2 Sound Panel.png

fireberd · Answer

Do you have The Dell, model specific. Realtek driver?

Bloomsbury · Answer

Thanks @fireberd

I can confirm I have Waves Maxxaudio Pro, have removed it, then reinstalled from the Dell website, but it's not made a difference.

I also have Win 11 22H2 installed.

I did test a USB audio device and sound worked through it. So USB audio and bluetooth are both working fine, which makes me think it is either the Realtek audio driver, since only things it's powering are impacted, or maybe a lose/damaged connection in the laptop that's preventing audio via HDMI, headphone jack or speakers, but I don't know enough about the hardware to know if that's possible.

So I will purchase a USB to 3.5 headphone jack adapter so that at least I can do video calls for work whilst I try to fix the onboard audio issues.

Bloomsbury · Answer

Here is my machine spec if that helps:System Model: XPS 13 9310 2-in-1BIOS: 2.14.0 (type: UEFI)Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1165G7 @ 2.80GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.8GHzMemory: 16384MB RAMOperating System: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 22621) (22621.ni_release.220506-1250)

Bloomsbury · Answer

I have the recommended one from Dell SupportAssist

Realtek High Definition Audio Driver Version 6.0.9228.1, A08, release date: 08 Oct 2021

and

Waves MaxxAudio Pro Version 3.0.74.0, A05

I also tried previous versions, both in Windows 10 and Windows 11 to see if it made any difference, but had no joy.

fireberd · Answer

F12 at power on will access a menu and one item is Diagnostics.  I don't know how much it tests the sound but run the Diagnostics.  Post back the results.

fireberd · Answer

I looked at the Dell manual and it looks like the sound jack and sound chip are mounted directly on the main system board (motherboard, rather a separate sound board like some.   Educated guess there is a hardware problem and it would require replacing the system board.   If the connected sound device is satisfactory for what you want I would just go with that.

Bloomsbury · Answer

Hi @fireberd, I took a few days off so only just got around to doing this.

I ran the full diagnostics and it returned code 0000 (no errors). Pre-boot tests passed, no issues were found.

However, I still didn't heard any beeps or tones when it ran, so I think I must have a dodgy cable or something, because I'm pretty sure pre-boot shouldn't use the audio driver, so it must be the outputs where the issue is if I have no sound pre-boot and also no sound when the driver is loaded.

XPS

Dell XPS 13 9310 sound has stopped working

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