XPS 13-9370, audio crashing

Hi, facing the exact same issue where the laptop would randomly lose its audio after waking from sleep. Audio would only be recovered upon rebooting the laptop. Using an XPS 13 9370. Running out of patience here, I'm sure many of us have been facing this problem for some time, and it's extremely frustrating that there has been no response or driver update from Dell.

The last post about drivers doesn't seem to work for me, but whilst not fixing the issue you can avoid a reboot by disabling/enabling the Realtek controller in the Device Manager:

Go to Device Manager
Sound, video and game controllers
Disable Realtek Audio
wait 20 seconds or so
Enable Realtek Audio

Sound returned for me then. Not a fix, a workaround, but saves a reboot.

My XPS 13 9730 is also doing this. A reboot fixes it. Disabling and re-enabling the driver temporarily resolves the issue.

Adding my name to the list for my 9370 because the  is me off. Sound has stopped working almost everyday this week. Complete garbage for a $2000 laptop.

Im affected aswell. Brand new laptop. HIGHLY frustrated. Is this basis for demanding a full refund for the laptop?

Same  reproblem and I bet dell knows it , they sent me 3 replacements and they are doing the same , If i leave the  system on for a half an hour and come back no sound if i put it to sleep  and wake it up no sound

Same here with 9570. Red cross over the task bar icon, I have to remove the device so it is reinstalled to avoid a restart. No video playback in any browser. Come on, Dell! This is a   expensive piece of HW. I would at least expect some reaction.

All,

The fact that restarting the PC or disabling/enabling the Realtek audio fixes the issue for a short time shows us that this is not a hardware fault. The fault is either driver, the operating system, or a combination of both.

* The latest BIOS must be installed. Disconnect all USB peripherals. The AC adapter must be connected. Reboot when done
* Reinstall the Chipset driver, reboot when done
* Reinstall the Audio driver, reboot when done. Then retest

XPS 13-9370
1.5.1 BIOS
Chipset 10.1.1.44, A07, 10/5/18
Audio Realtek ALC3271-CG with Waves MaxxAudio
6.0.1.8432, A09, 6/21/18


XPS 15-9570
1.5.0 BIOS
Chipset 10.1.17541.8066, A00, 5/4/18
Audio Realtek ALC3266-CG with Waves MaxxAudio Pro
6.0.1.8454, A03, 6/30/18


XPS 15-9575
1.1.9 BIOS
Chipset 10.1.1.45, A08, 3/23/18
Audio Realtek ALC3271-CG with Waves MaxxAudio Pro
6.0.1.8451, A03, 6/22/18

For me, I need some type of information regarding the status of your devices when they are working and when they are not functioning correctly.

Look at the Device manager and check the sound device and events tab on the properties window.  Does the sound control panel look the same with the devices set as default and enabled.   Basically anything you can think of that might effect your sound.

Are you using Cortana?  Could the Intel Smart Sound be involved in the situation?  You have an 8th generation processor so I may not encounter problems such as you are seeing..

Are you using spatial sound?

Have you tried disabling Fast Startup?

Since these systems are Modern Standby systems and do not sleep, references to that condition communicates there is a misunderstanding of Modern Standby and might be leading to confusion as to operation.  Is it coming out of low power mode or hibernation or from a shutdown condition?

I bumped into something yesterday which seems to help with delays in system notification sounds and hesitation during windows scrolling.  Since it is related to sound, you might try it for testing.

If you open the Device Manager and select the Sound-Intel Display Audio, then to up to the view menu and select devices by connection.

The main window will highlight something called Intel Smart Sound Technology.  The top entry in that tree has a Power Management tab in properties.  One or two others have it also but I used the primary device.  If you uncheck the "let the system put this device to sleep", it may have some effect on your situation.  Even if it doesn't fix the red cross issue, it may yield some info which would help.

Just remember where the setting was so you can turn it off after testing, and reboot after making the change to ensure it has been set.

Thank you for your reply, Chris. BIOS and chipset drivers were up to date, the audio driver was not. I installed it this morning and there were no issues so far until just now. The audio stopped working. There was no playback on by that time, I just noticed the red icon.

Anyway, I wonder why Dell Update did not offer me to install this driver. I use it regularly to check for updates.

Hi Saltgrass, thank you for the tip, I've just unchecked it, we'll see if it makes any difference.

Just now, a day after installing the suggested audio driver (Realtek-ALC3266-Audio-Driver_93M93_WIN_6.0.1.8454_A03), my audio died again. This time, it just went silent without any red cross on the taskbar.

This is frustrating. I start regretting my positive review of XPS 9570. I understand it may not always be easy to make sure that all HW manufacturers deliver proper drivers for the components, and Windows has its flaws, too. Nevertheless, I really did not expect to deal with this kind of problems with such elementary stuff like the sound. Not from a Dell anyway.

Same Problem for me. XPS 9370, sometimes when I turn on my pc audio just doesn't work. It works again after a reboot. Bios, windows, drivers are all up to date, and I don't have any other issues.

Hi ,

Same issue with XPS 9370. No audio; sopotify skips song trying to play but doesn´t happen. Youtube and Netflix won´t play. Rebooting seems to fix, but the problem repeats it self at random.

Thanks