17r3 Subwoofer stopped working after clean installation of Windows 10

I used a non-Alienware image to do a clean re-installation of win10, and installed all the drivers from Dell.com after the installation including the Sound Blaster audio driver.
But in the SB pro studio app, all the options related to the subwoofer (e.g. Bass Management in Speakers/Headphones tab; Crossover frequency in SBX pro studio tab) are now grayed out, and the subwoofer is not working.
Any ideas?

 

Now you mention it, I have the same problem (17r3 as well), although I've never reinstalled Windows. Closest that's happened was that big Windows 10 update recently. Although my bass from the speakers is really bad, I don't think it's ever been better, so it might just have always been this way for me.

 

Did you try installing the latest Sound Blaster driver from Dell.com? The only thing noted in the changelist is to support Windows 10 TH2 (10586).

 

I did, but no luck — thank you though! Hope a solution rears its head for you

 

I called Tech Support, who after some diagnostics, claimed that the audio driver does not support 10586 yet, and advised me to restore to 10240..
I guess I'll just wait and hopefully the next driver release will fix this problem.

 

I did a clean install of Windows 10 from a Microsoft image because I wanted to run from a SATA SSD, and there is no sign in the software that the subwoofer exists. Looks like I'm running 10240, and I installed all drivers from Dell's site.

What's the deal? Do I need to install the Dell Windows 10 image instead? Is it worth it?

 

Hey guys, I just got my Alienware 17r3 for a week. I found that my Alienware has big trouble with the subwoofer. Whenever I plug USB/External hard drive in two USB ports next to Power jack. The subwoofer makes terribly annoying noise, I can even hear it in 3 meters (~9 feets) away. If I change to the other side USB port, problem gone. So, I tried to re-install Audio driver couple times, but it didn't work. What should I do to fix it ? Has anybody had same problem ? I love the machine so much. But this is such a bummer, because I listen to music a lot, and due to my table design, I can't use right side USB port with USB/External hard drive.

 

Uh, I was wondering this about my new 17 R3 because the subwoofer options are grayed out. Now this on a new 2015 17 R3, so I thought I would check the 17 R2 before I sent it back (system exchange). It also had the options grayed out and thats how it came from Dell.

So, dont worry about it, the sound between my 17 R2(windows 8.1) and R3(windows 10) is exactly the same and its quite unlikely that both subwoofers are broken.

 

@juggar Yeah I'm on a 17 R3. It's not a huge deal, but it's lame that Dell always puts some gimmick hardware in their gaming laptops that ends up not doing anything for me (my last one was an XPS M1730 that had a dedicated Ageia PhysX chip, and by the time any games supported PhysX nVidia had bought them out and disabled support for the Ageia chips).

 

Does anyone have any update on this issue?

 

Try downloading the old driver from Dell, which seems to bring subwoofer back working but the options in SB are still grayed out.
When the subwoofer works, however, it seems to interfere with usb transmission on the 2 left ports, making the subwoofer buzz when data being transferred.

 

Thank you. I will try this and i'll update whether it works.
After contacting AW support, they said :
"The Subwoofer works with the other 2 audio channels for a deeper sound (In stereo mode), but does not have a single channel for it. And that's why the subwoofer or bass options are grayed out in the SB driver app."

That smells like BS to me...

 

Update: Just got my replacement 17r3 (due to bad GPU) and confirmed that bass options are greyed out in the SoundBlaster Recon3Di control panel even in the shipped version of Windows 10 Pro before updating. I guess the Klipsch 2.1 speakers are only connected to a 2.0 stereo output of the SoundBlaster Recon3Di sound hardware, and use an internal crossover for the subwoofer?

I can now replicate this on both my defective 17r3 and the replacement one, and I found it happens only when my Logitech G502 Proteus Core gaming mouse is plugged into either of the left side USB ports (which is important because I use a lap desk that has barely enough room on the right side for mousing, leaving none for USB devices to be plugged in) *and* the DPI LEDs are enabled (actually I can hear it when the G logo is lit as well, but it's quieter) *and* when a sound is playing on the speakers (even when the speakers are active but muted!).

It seems the Sound Blaster Recon3Di or Klipsch speaker amplifier is susceptible to picking up line noise from the left side USB ports

 

This is probably correct. I got my subwoofer working by downgrading to an older driver on Dell's website. The bass options are still grayed out, but the subwoofer seems working now.
However, it gives another problem which, though quite mild in my case, is reported to be disturbing by some others. The problem is that the subwoofer interferes with USB transmission on the two left USB ports, making it buzz when data being transferred.

 

Which driver version did you install?

 

Creative Sound Blaster Recon3Di Extras Driver 1.1.3,A01

 

Yes, as I said I can hear the buzz too if I turn on the LEDs in my gaming mouse. This happens with both my defective 17r3 and my replacement one, so it's clearly a design defect.

 

Update: I tested both the default Microsoft-provided drivers and the Dell 1.1.3,A01 drivers (with all enhancements disabled) with the following video, and neither one did well below 100Hz or so. I think the Microsoft ones might do slightly better.



I suspect that the subwoofer is probably not visible to the OS regardless of drivers, and instead uses a crossover to work separately from the sound card (as with most subwoofers). If this is true, then the subwoofer is a crappy gimmick.

I miss the speakers from my Dell XPS M1730. Maybe it's time to get my old Jensen 2.0 desktop computer speakers going again, although they might be a bit of a pain to manage on my laptop table.