XPS 15-9570, Audio crackling and popping

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@pherrman wrote:

Thanks Copper this fix worked for me too!!

So what I did was:

 

1: Disable waves audio service in msconfig

 

2: Uninstalled Waves Maxx audio via searching for it in the windows start menu, then right clicking on it and then selecting uninstall

3: Goto cooper's link:  https://www.realtek.com/en/component/zoo/category/pc-audio-codecs-high-definition-audio-codecs-software

4: Download the 64 bit driver for your OS its was 258 mb as copper described

5: Follow the instructions and reboot

6: After the installation and reboot process, my audio was not working. However after about 5- 10 mins, windows installed the missing drivers including a "Waves audio effects" driver. I didn't do anything to my computer for this 5 -10 mins other than trying to open the sound utility from control panel. After about 10 mins, I noticed the speaker came back to the taskbar and I could adjust audio volume and play music. 

7: A final reboot and now everything is working great! A new option now appears in sounds as "Realtek headphones" This option so far has provided flawless audio. No random pops or static noise!! YES!!

Dell please replace your driver with the correct driver (R2.82), your current config **bleep**

Thank you!!

 

 

 

 

 

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@pherrman thanks for your contribution and confirming your solution. The issue that we have with your suggestion of updating the audio driver with the correct one from Realtek is that the version of the driver that we have posted have resolved the issue for multiple customers and they have commented on here advising of it.

From the information that I have gathered from managing this thread certain fixes work for some which may not necessarily work for others. There are a variety of fixes around but I believe it depends on what the actual fault is with the system. There are various different audio issues here including , pops, crackles and intermittent buzzing amongst others.

Can you try and accurately describe what kind of noise you were experiencing and how often you were hearing it / what the system was doing when the noise was occurring.

Thanks, Alan

I did this and it completely fixed the problem for me as well, but I do feel like the bass is lacking? Does anyone have this issue as well after following these instructions and is there a way to fix it? Excuse me I'm not very competent in this department of fixing audio issues or really explaining what my issues are... I just wanted a reliable laptop. Sigh.

Can confirm, audio is 1000x better after installing the drivers linked to by @Speedy5310. Thanks!

And yeah, does take two restarts, but it warns you of that if you read the installer text. Don't hit "restart later", just let it restart when it asks :)

This issue looks like an inherant issue.

I bought an XPS 13 had the same issue. However, I was managed to get a temparary fixed but within weeks time the problem reappeared again. They refused to support as I my wanrraty got expired shame :(.

I thought they have fixed the issue in latest version looks like it's not.

I suggest Dell should recall all the defect prodcuts either refund or give a new product for all the affected customers.

I was planing to buy the XPS 15 but I changed my mind after seen this thread.

I would look for other brands in the market.

Dell, please retain your loyal customers!

Hi everyone, it's again me.

Even this month I'm on this thread to try the new solutions. It's almost a year that every month I come here searching for a solution to make the audio on this laptop work. I think that if I worked during all the hours I spent trying fixing this pc I could have bought me another one brand new. As today nothing worked, audio is terrible, popping, EQ beyond anything I ever heard. Sometimes the network cards fails, but that's another strory.

So,

• I tried the new drivers --> worse than before, now the popping is still there but WAVES kicks in with his terrible EQ distorting everything. Waves itself is unaccessable, impossible to shut down. The only solution is manually deleting all the related files (some of them are in System32), in this way the speakers sounds ok but headphone do no works
• I tried the other Realtek audio drived linked above --> same as before, headphone do not works

Finally I went back to the official driver. Audio is completely unlistenable but at least the headphone works. MaxxAudio is inaccessibile, there is no way to brings up the user interface.

So here I am again, another evening of my life wasted and with a PC completely unusable on W10. Never in my life I have this much issues with a piece of hardware and I went through 3 xbox360 with red rings. See you next month.

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@abragagn wrote:

Hi everyone, it's again me.

Even this month I'm on this thread to try the new solutions. It's almost a year that every month I come here searching for a solution to make the audio on this laptop work. I think that if I worked during all the hours I spent trying fixing this pc I could have bought me another one brand new. As today nothing worked, audio is terrible, popping, EQ beyond anything I ever heard. Sometimes the network cards fails, but that's another strory.

So,

• I tried the new drivers --> worse than before, now the popping is still there but WAVES kicks in with his terrible EQ distorting everything. Waves itself is unaccessable, impossible to shut down. The only solution is manually deleting all the related files (some of them are in System32), in this way the speakers sounds ok but headphone do no works
• I tried the other Realtek audio drived linked above --> same as before, headphone do not works

Finally I went back to the official driver. Audio is completely unlistenable but at least the headphone works. MaxxAudio is inaccessibile, there is no way to brings up the user interface.

So here I am again, another evening of my life wasted and with a PC completely unusable on W10. Never in my life I have this much issues with a piece of hardware and I went through 3 xbox360 with red rings. See you next month.

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Hi @abragagn as per my response at the end of May, have you tried a clean install of Windows and started with the drivers I suggested?

As you system works fine with Ubuntu that rules out hardware as being the problem. Organising you a service call isn't going to resolve the problem. If it's not hardware then logically it can only be software related. As other posters on here have added the BIOS update has fixed it for some, using the latest audio driver from ourselves has resolved it for others, whereas others have found the best result by installing Realtek's native driver. You have already tried the Killer drivers and still have the same problem. The only logical solution after that is a clean fresh install of Windows.

Alan

@Dell-Alan DI made a clean install of windows. The fresh version of W10 sounded perfect with no issue at all. But as soon W10 finished all the updates you know what came back? Dell-Realtek driver with Maxx Audio. Audio immediately became absolute trash. I immediately disabled all the MaxxAudio "enhancements" but still the audio was way to bassy and messy. 

Now I have disabled the "audio enhancements" in W10 settings. Quality seems to be improved a lot. I stille don't feel it's perfect but it's at least listenable.

Sadly this is again the proof that the issue is 100% drivers related. 

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@abragagn wrote:

@Dell-Alan DI made a clean install of windows. The fresh version of W10 sounded perfect with no issue at all. But as soon W10 finished all the updates you know what came back? Dell-Realtek driver with Maxx Audio. Audio immediately became absolute trash. I immediately disabled all the MaxxAudio "enhancements" but still the audio was way to bassy and messy. 

 

Now I have disabled the "audio enhancements" in W10 settings. Quality seems to be improved a lot. I stille don't feel it's perfect but it's at least listenable.

Sadly this is again the proof that the issue is 100% drivers related. 

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@abragagn thanks for carrying out the clean install of Windows. That's interesting results confirming that the audio is indeed fine until the updates applied.

You have mentioned that the audio is bass heavy and messy - but has it resolved the previous issues of crackling and popping?

How is the latency on the system after carrying out the clean install?

Do you fancy trying the original Realtek driver without the Waves Maxx audio?

Alan

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@abragagn wrote:
@Dell-Alan D For now the audio seems ok, I will update you if something changes. Latency is ok. I'd like to not mess with the drivers, now that the issues is resolved.

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@abragagn that's understandable. It's good to hear that you are now at a point where the audio and system are now stable.

Alan

I'm having a same issue and was not able to fix it. So annoying!!!

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@Peter_12345jhgyu wrote:

I'm having a same issue and was not able to fix it. So annoying!!!

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@Peter_12345jhgyu can you describe in detail the exact issue that you are facing please as the nature of the fault determines which troubleshooting needs to be carried out.

Can you also advise if you have tried any sort of troubleshooting?

Has the audio worked fine up until this point?

Alan