Small update but just had the motherboard on the system replaced, and the problem still persists right after a clean windows installation.

is anyone else running into this issue? Im wondering if it’s a driver issue? Im using the latest for my system from the dell website. This issue is pretty annoying because you have to keep switching the input to get audio back or if I disable audio enhancements or any other setting in the sound device.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Check Volume Levels and Muted Outputs
First, you should get the most obvious fix out of the way. If you have no sound on your computer, double-check to make sure that you haven't muted the audio. Click the Volume icon at the bottom-right corner of your computer to check the master volume bar; make sure it's not muted or set at an extremely low level. If it's muted, you'll see an X next to the speaker icon.

After this, right-click on the same volume icon and choose Open Volume mixer to see the current volume level for all apps playing audio. Turn these up as needed, confirming that they aren't muted by mistake or too low to hear. You may need to troubleshoot low audio output if you hear sound but it's too quiet.

Regards,
John

Hey John

Those were actually all the things I first tried but nothing was out of the ordinary. This is happening on a completely fresh installation of windows, even after repeated reformat attempts. 

If it was a hardware issue I would have thought that the motherboard replacement would have fixed that but it hasn't. The audio simply stops working if I switch between open applications and the desktop. It will then randomly come back when switching between different programs or going into the speaker settings and changing something like enhanced audio from on to off. If I have multiple outputs available switching between those also works.

I can't even begin to think of what other hardware component could be replaced at this point if it is indeed hardware since the speakers actually do work. I would think a fresh install of windows would eliminate any driver or software issue but that doesn't seem to be the case either.

This is really puzzling.

I am right there with you.  Annoying AF.  I have not gone through the whole support process, because truthfully, I find them useless.

What I have found is that when I lose my sound, normally if I am viewing programming videos and go to Evernote to take notes, and go back, I lose my sound.  What I do to resolve is go into the sound volume details page, and toggle something like mono on and off again;.  This seems to fix it temporarily.

I have not found a permanent solution yet.

I've been having the exact same issue with my X17 R1 since about a month ago. Sound cutting off sometimes when switching between apps, and toggling "mono audio" seems to be only thing that resets it without a reboot. All drivers up to date, all the newest windows updates installed (Windows 11). Everything worked fine before so I'm suspecting a driver/windows update actually broke it. Haven't found any permanent solution either, but good to know it's not just me having this issue...

As bad as it sounds I'm actually happy to see others having this issue because it means its not something with my system.

This has been driving me absolutely nuts because its so random. The only solutions to restoring the audio I have found are the ones both @DaveOfTheDogs and @j4b6ski have mentioned as well as toggling the sound output between devices if you have more then one. I have some external speakers connected to the headphone jack so I can switch between that and the internal speakers, and it restores the audio.

I have a feeling this is happening because of one of the more recent cumulative windows updates. This started happening for me around a month maybe two ago. 

I had to have the motherboard replaced due to a USB issue and I was really hopeful that would fix the problem but it didn't. I have done several clean installs and played with a variety of different driver combinations, from the original shipped drivers to the latest windows update drivers and nothing has worked.

Turning off Exclusive mode in the advanced sound options seems to prolong the issue but not eliminate it. 

Would be really nice if we could bring this to Dells attention in a more serious manner. Not sure what the best method for that is though.

If I stumble across a solution ill be sure to post it.

@Riftwire Here are the links to both versions:

version 6.0.9394.1 from Dell Support 

version 6.0.8996.1 from Dell Support 

You can also find these versions on the Microsoft website

version 6.0.9394.1 

version 6.0.8996.1 

hopefully this solution will work for you too.

 @N1c0 Would you have a link to those drivers? I am not finding them in my driver dashboard when using my ST. I only have 6.0.9168.1, A01 and 6.0.9244.1, A02 but I have tried both of those with no luck.