e6500 crackling audio

I'm back to report that in my case non of these solution worked. Don't try the workaround setting your drive performance to bypass! It worsens the problem.

 

I just found in the Event Viewer a warning that occurs almost every minute:
"Invalid ATAPI version." from the Trusted Drive Manager.
Does this mean something? How can I correct this error?

 

Have you tried enabling Intel VT and Disabling eSATA in the BIOS? This is a confirmed fix for us for this problem. Waiting for future BIOS updates/driver updates till then.

 

I just received answer from a Dell support guy. He told me they know about the problem:
Translated quote: "We know of the problem with the wlan-card and are currently working on a new driver. It will solve this problem. We don't know when it will be ready yet."

Those are some good news!

 

Good news. But how long we´ll have to wait....

My old Fujitsu-Siemens - nice clear sound, no crackling.
But look at it.

 

Dell sucks!

Just got my E6500 back after a nearly two week vacation to Dell and the audio and video is still F'd up. I don't even know what they did, if anything, because they haven't told me. Actually, I know they did something because the time was off in the BIOS and the power cord was poorly wrapped up. Other than that, it's anyone's guess. I sent them a message indicating my displeasure. In the meantime I'm going through the BIOS settings, updating drivers where possible, and searching this list again for ideas. Really upsets me that machines this expensive (I was near $3K for this one loaded up) are having problems that the $400 eMachines at Wal-Mart don't have.

Oh yeah, one other thing. Now when I boot up the machine it's telling me there is new hardware...PCI Simple Communications or something and PCI Serial Port driver, but no driver is to be found anywhere, or I don't know where to look? ANyone have any ideas about that? Thanks!

 

These are hardware devices for Intel Active Management Technology, AMT. If you don't know what AMT is, you don't need it. If it possible to disable the devices in BIOS, do it there. Otherwise you will have to install AMT drivers to get rid of the yellow exclamation marks. Try to install drivers only (not the AMT management application) to avoid slowing down the computer with unnecessary services/applications.
You can download the drivers from the Dell Drivers and Download page for E6500. Look for Intel AMT LMS SOL and Intel AMT HECI in the chipset section.

Örjan

 

Thanks Orjan...trying it now! I figured it was something available at Dell, but just didn't know what!

OK, that took care of that problem. Now, in my device manager I have something called isatap (followed by a bunch of numbers and letters) under network adapters that is not working properly and has the little exclamation point attached. No clue what to do about that?

Finally, I decided to disable my wireless adapter (1397 is the one I have) and that seems to have fixed my sound and video problem. Of course now I have no wireless, but at least I know where the problem is coming from. Since the Wi-Fi network I use here is unreliable anyway I can use my Verizon access as my primary internet until Dell comes up with a fix or I just buy a wireless PC card.

 

disabling either the 1397 card or the esata in bios did the trick on my m4400

 

disabling eSATA and cpu speedstep in the bios worked just fine for me, no more audio buffer underruns..