e6500 crackling audio

Any improvements with the new Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 Feature Pack for Wireless ?

 

My Experience with this. I have the Dell Latitude E6500 for work I did notice the audio and video skipping as soon as I turned it on but never bothered to look into why until my much loved Toshiba got stolen 2 days ago and now i have to rely on the E6500.

After reading through this thread and various other Google searches the first thing I did was install the DPC Latency Checker and sure enough I had spikes every 2/3 seconds which was in time with the video/audio skips.

I pretty much disabled all the devices to know joy. So I tried some ones suggesting of disabling E-SATA in the bios this worked no more video/audio skips and no more red bars from Latency checker(I still get the odd one few minute or so but not really not noticeable in video/audio playback.

So thinking it was SATA related i decided to update my Intel matrix storage drivers to the latest 8.7 from 8.2. Restarting after update I opened up DPC Latency Checker which now showed constant red bars at about 1000us. I played some music the skipping had gone but the quality was not good crackles and hisses in the background both in headphones and the horrible inbuilt speakers. Enable and disabling the E-SATA in the bios did not make a difference.

I uninstalled 8.7 Intel Matrix Storage drivers and Installed 8.2 and have E-SATA in bios disabled seems to be working pretty good. I did notice a red spike when i turn on the wireless switch.

I did notice That 8.7 fixes various CD/DVD burning reading/writing issues. I was have lots of trouble burning dvds the other day but did not try if 8.7 did fix my issue with this that will be next when I have half a day to spare

I would never buy a Dell again inferior quality.

Vista64, [email protected], 4GB, 250HDD, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M@1920x1200, WiFi Link 5100 AGN

 

yup, the crackling is impossible to get rid off unless i disable wifi and downgrade to Intel 8.2. Last time I ever buy a dell (wasted $1700 on this crap). Lesson learned. Dell is equivalent to GM, crap quality but cheap.

 

you guys are serious? Does the E6500 have a problem? I was about to buy one? What else should I get then?? a lenovo?

 

It just has very poor drivers which is why our problem isn't being fixed. I installed Ubuntu and there are no audio stuttering problems what so ever. Windows Vista/XP + dell = bad combination.

 

A $400 e-machine from Wal-Mart would probably be better than this $2500 train wreck. I think if I were doing it over again though I would probably take a look at Lenovo or Toshiba. Heck, after this experience I might even consider jumping to Apple!

So here's where I'm at with this heap. I've tried everything I've seen in these threads except disabling the DVD drive. As I mentioned in another post I even went so far as to physically remove the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth cards with no effect. I've tried Windows XP and Sindows Vista Business...same results. I even have the problem as soon as the OS is loaded before I install anything else. SOmetimes I can make it better or worse, but I can never figure out what the changes are linked to...everything seems random. This is my sixth Dell laptop and the only one I've had problems with. Due to the way this issue has been handled by Dell, this will be the last Dell computer I buy too!

Now for something else interesting. My cell phone has bluetooth stereo support and I have a set of bluetooth headphones. I ALMOST sent the headphones back because the sound was breaking up while sitting at my desk with the phone less than two feet from my head. Then I discovered that everything was fine when I would get away from the desk. So, apparently something in this stupid laptop is affecting bluetooth on my phone too. I suppose in this case it could just be the proximity of my phone to the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, but what if it's the same thing that causes the skipping sound on the computer even when the Wi-Fi and BT cards are removed? Is there anything else that sends out a wireless signal on these things?

Seriously, I absolutely HATE this computer. The D600 I had before was so much better in most respects. The only reason this one is still around is it works well for what I normally do with it. But, it sure would be nice if I could use it for listening to music too when I'm at my desk! The only good thing I can think of is it has kept me from spending money on a new speaker system since it's hard to justify awesome speakers when the output to them is garbage!

 

Can it be that the problem only occur with some DVD drives? I have the Panasonic (Mata) DVD drive and I do not have any problem with audio.

 

@Orjan...

maybe, who knows...consider yourself lucky if you don't experience these issues

 

Why, is it that in 2009 there can be such a mysterious problem with a laptop, and that a big company like Dell isn't/can't fix what looks like a widespread issue?! I know, complaints get more attention than happy customers. If it were an occasional thing, that would be different. But looking at how many posts there are related to audio problems with Dell Business laptops, I'd say they have a common bug that needs getting to the bottom of.

Some say it seems to be a software issue, relating to the OS. Anyone running Windows 7 having this problem?

I was about to buy an E6500 form the Outlet and have been waiting for the right configuration to come along, but I'm starting to wonder. I want something reliable. I know audio crackling isn't the end of the world, and my Mom may not really ever listen to music with it, so I'm trying to keep a "big picture" open mind. It just puts doubt in my mind about what else might go wrong. It certainly makes me consider Pro Support a necessity rather than option.