XPS 9570: Intermittent cracking sound heard when playing music

The following article provides information about troubleshooting an audio issue that has been reported on the XPS 9570 notebook.

Do you hear a cracking sound from your XPS 9570 from the speakers and connected headphones?

There have been reports of a cracking sound heard from the built-in speakers and the headphones when playing music on a XPS 9570 PC.

TroubleShooting Steps

We need to run through some troubleshooting to further identify the root cause of the issue:

1. Is the noise heard on both internal speakers and external headphones?

   • If the noise is heard on only one of the two sound sources, you should troubleshoot the part making the noise

   • If the noise is heard on both, then carry on with this troubleshooting

2. Is the noise affected by being on AC Adapter or Battery power?

   • If the noise is affected by power type, then you should troubleshoot the power sources

   • If the noise is not affected by the power, then carry on with this troubleshooting

3. Does the noise continue with all peripherals disconnected from the system?

   • If the noise is affected by removing peripherals, then troubleshoot the peripherals and ports on the system

   • If the noise isn't affected by removing the peripherals, then carry on with this troubleshooting

4. Is the noise only heard within the operating system on the PC?

   • If not, then troubleshoot a hardware issue with the PC

   • If it is, then carry on with the troubleshooting

5. Does running the DX Diags in the operating system return any errors?

   You can open the diagnostics in several ways:

   Type dxdiag in the start menu and run them from the results of the search

   Open a command prompt and type dxdiag.exe and hit the Enter key

   Press Win + R together and type dxdiag and hit the Enter Key

   Open PowerShell and type dxdiag and hit the Enter key

   • If you get an error, then troubleshoot the error

   • If you don't get an error then carry on with the troubleshooting

6. Does the sound only occur in a specific software application?

   • If so then troubleshoot that application

   • If not, the carry on with this troubleshooting

7. Does the sound only happen when playing a particular audio file type? (i.e. MP3/flac)

   • If it is, then troubleshoot that file type in your operating system

   • If not, then carry on with this troubleshooting

8. Does the noise continue if you uninstall the Realtek audio driver?

   • If so, then it sounds like an operating system issue to troubleshoot further

   • If not, then it looks like a driver issue

     1. Do you have the latest version of the driver installed on your PC?

        • If you have, contact Dell Technical Support and run through the troubleshooting you've completed to be helped further

        • If not go to the support site and update your driver to the latest version. does this affect the issue?

          1. Enter the service tag or express service code to get drivers specific to how your system shipped

             Alternatively you can choose the XPS 9570 from the product list to get a general list of drivers for that system

          2. Click on the Drivers and Downloads drawer in the menu

          3. Ensure you have the correct operating system set

          4. Select Audio from the category dropdown

          5. Locate the Realtek High Definition Audio Driver and ensure it is Rev. A04 or newer

          6. Click on the download link and follow the online instructions

          • Yes it resolves the problem

          • No it doesn't resolve the problem, contact Dell Technical Support and run through the troubleshooting you've completed to be helped further

Note: Please advise the technician of the article ID you used to troubleshoot the issue and be with the system so that the technician can get any further information he needs from your PC.