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External speakers make a popping sound
Hi,
I just bought a Dell Inspriron 15 7000 series laptop. I want to use a pair of Altec Lansing desktop speakers with it to listen to music. They are probably about 5 years old and work fine with my ipad and with my older HP laptop that I just replaced. However, when I plug them into the Dell, they make a popping sound and then continue to pop somewhat randomly while I'm playing music. The internal laptop audio works fine on the Dell itself, for videos, PC sounds, etc.
Any idea how to fix this so I can use the speakers? Maybe a different driver? I don't want to screw up the internal sound.
Thanks,
Karen
Jim Coates
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September 3rd, 2016 06:00
Hello. When the Inspiron 7000 series 7559 first came out, there were a bunch of posts from owners, reporting popping noise issues. This is the main thread about it:
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3517/t/19658420
I gathered all of the solution from the 4 pages of that thread and pasted them into the Choppy/Skipping Audio FAQ. If you scroll down, the 7559 is the first model that you come to.
Have you plugged in headphones into the jack and tested that way?
You can test the audio driver by switching between the Realtek and the Windows native driver.
To test the driver, switch between the Realtek audio driver and the Windows native audio driver.
1. Open the Device Manager (find it in the Control Panel, or type devmgmt.msc into the search box).
2. Expand the "Sound, video & game controllers" and right click on "Realtek High Definition Audio".
3. Select to "Update Driver Software".
4. Click on "Browse my computer for driver software".
5. Click "Let me pick from a list of drivers on my computer".
6. Put a check in the box "Show compatible hardware" if not already checked.
7. In the list of devices, click "High Definition Audio" (the native driver).
8. Click "Next".
9. On the Update Driver Warning box, click "Yes" (install the driver).
10. Restart the laptop if prompted. If not prompted, sometimes you have to restart, sometimes not.
[To get back to the Realtek driver, do it again but reverse the names in steps 2 and 7.]
If you only have the symptoms with one of the drivers, then the other is at fault. If you have the same symptoms with both audio drivers, then it is very probably not a driver issue.
kyoung123
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January 23rd, 2017 12:00
Hi Jim,
Back in September when I originally had this problem, I ended up buying new Bose speakers that worked for a while. However, now I am getting an electronic buzzing noise from the speakers almost all the time. I have tried to do your steps above, but when I get to step 7, there is no "High Definition Audio" driver available in the list. I'm running Windows 10. Do you know where I can find that driver?
Thanks,
Karen
Jim Coates
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January 23rd, 2017 12:00
Hello Karen.
1. Does the noise come from the speakers even when music is playing, or just after music has stopped?
2. When you plug in headphones, do you hear the noise? If the noise only occurs with the speakers, then I don't think it is a problem with the audio driver.
3. If both the speakers and the laptop are plugged into house current, try unplugging the laptop and let it run on battery power and see if you still get the noise.
4. If so, test the speakers by plugging them into some other device -- a music player or phone headphone jack, and see if they make the noise.
Jim Coates
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January 23rd, 2017 13:00
Here are some alternate instructions I've written since then. A lot of people with 2-in-1 models are running into problems with the instructions.
1. Open the Device Manager (find it in the Control Panel, or type devmgmt.msc into the search box).
2. Expand the "Sound, video & game controllers" and right click on "Realtek High Definition Audio".
3. Select to "Update Driver Software".
4. Click on "Browse my computer for driver software".
5. Click "Let me pick from a list of drivers on my computer".
6. Put a check in the box "Show compatible hardware" if not already checked [but SEE NOTE].
7. In the list of devices, click "High Definition Audio" (the native driver).
8. Click "Next".
9. On the Update Driver Warning box, click "Yes" (install the driver).
10. Restart the laptop if prompted. If not prompted, sometimes you have to restart, sometimes not.
[To get back to the Realtek driver, do it again but reverse the names in steps 2 and 7.]
NOTE: if you have a 2-in-1 model and do not see a "High Definition Audio" option after step 6, then uncheck "Show compatible hardware". Then in step 7, if you see 2 "High Definition Audio" devices, select the 2nd one. On some models the native driver is called Intel High Definition Audio.
If that doesn't work, you can remove the Realtek driver like this:
1. Open the Device Manager (find it in the Control Panel, or type devmgmt.msc into the search box).
2. Expand the "Sound, Video & Game Controllers" section.
3. Right click on "Realtek High Definition Audio" and select to uninstall.
4. Put a check mark in the option to delete the driver software, and then ok.
5. Restart the laptop and go back to the Device Manager and check again for a Realtek driver. Keep uninstalling & restarting until Realtek no longer appears under Sound...Controllers and "High Definition Audio Device" appears in its place.
[The reason you might have to go through the process more than once is because the driver files for more than one Realtek driver could be on the hard drive. When a Realtek driver is removed, the next one gets installed if Windows can locate the files. Windows installs its generic driver only after all Realtek files have been removed.]
kyoung123
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January 25th, 2017 06:00
Hi Jim,
Thanks for responding so quickly. Well, it was a constant buzzing (music or not). Now, after uninstalling the Realtek audio and then reinstalling the Intel Hi Def audio driver, and unplugging and re-plugging in the speakers, I heard the noise once and now it's fine. Hoping it stays good.