Dell XPS 17 9730 SoundWire Slave 1601 causing audio issues

I've had a few audio issues from driver/software conflicts and usually uninstall all OEM sound bloatware add-ons leaving just the Realtek or whatever. You can try uninstalling programs if possible or, open Device Manager and select show hidden devices in one of the top option menus. In sound devices you can try disabling everything that isn't the main driver.

Or, as at least a temporary fix, what I often do is: right click speaker icon in bottom right, click volume mixer, left click the top left icon for the output (speakers, headphone, etc) you're trying to use, select Disable all Enhancements under the Enhancements tab. Click apply then okay and restart the media source and this has resolved any audio issues I've had.

If you can't uninstall the audio software, you can maybe disable it in startup programs or disable it running under services. You can find a more detailed fix if you google soundwire slave but disabling enhancements should allow audio for now, at least when I've had to use it.

@Mike1788​ 

Update:

The 3.25mm audio jack is completely dead now and the tech is coming to replace it and maybe the "audio daughter board" which the 3.25mm audio jack probably plugs into or interfaces in some way.

Hi,

I reinstalled the Realtek audio driver........no changes.

It appears the maybe My Dell Suite or My Dell is causing a conflict or the port is just dead now as when I go on to YouTube as a check, no sound is heard through the 3.25mm jack whatsoever now.

I am reinstalling it to see if that fixes things.

If not, I'm going to ask Dell to replace the port and if it's soldered to the motherboard, oh well.

Stefos

Well,

The 3.25 jack isn't an issue:  Apparently the MyDell Suite is causing a conflict somewhere as a Dell tech came and replaced my motherboard and the 3.25 jack was working fine and now it won't recognize my wired earbuds at all.

Stefos

Did you manage to resolve this? I keep having the same problem with the audio on my 9730. Often after a reboot it's fine, but then after a while the audio goes and when I hover over the volume icon in the bottom right it says no audio device installed, and Device Manager shows issues with the Realtek Soundwire HW Audio Codec Device Drivers and SoundWire Slace 1601. 

Really annoying, I didn't expect such basic problems on a laptop that cost me nearly £3k a few months ago!

@Finchy4045ab9bc​ Hello, facing same issue here! any solution? 

Hi, has anyone found a permanent fix for this yet?

I'm having the same problem on my 9730. 

No, still no solution here. It's not all the time, after reboot I have sound fine, but after a while the speaker icon gets greyed out and there's no sound, and under device manager I can see issues with the Soundwire Slave devices and one or two of the Realtek Soundwire HW Codec drivers also shows as an error. If I uninstall them all and then scan for hardware changes it reinstates the sound (until it goes again!)

So annoying. Can't imagine it's faulty hardware, more likely <Profanity is never allowed. DELL-Admin> drivers.

I have the same issue often.  Restarting seems to be the only resolution.

All,

This fix may work for you as it did for me. The issue was occurring on my Mobile Precision 5680.  I uninstalled the Dell Optimizer Core application.  Immediately upon uninstall, my sound options became available again.  Of course you should restart after uninstalling, but that seems to have resolved for me. That optimizer app seems to cause numerous issues. At a past employer, that application caused issues with our global VPN. Only Dell machines with the app installed were unable to connect to the VPN.  Wild.

Rolling back the driver seems to work. Audio comes back and stay - so far. The driver is  now 10.0.235.1.

My drivers are 10.0.235.1 and they're still causing the problem. So frustrating

I have the same problem. So frustrating. I found that disabling then enabling the realtek audio codec that keep getting a power management error resolves the issue temporarily. For the SoundWire Slave  5D13 with a missing driver, I can't find any driver to install???