sound problems with alienware m18r2 strange noises

Hello and thank you for looking,

I am having intermittent trouble with my sound on this new m18r2. Every couple reboots the sound is very distorted and making robotic noises...sometimes a reboot will fix the problem. Ive updated sound drivers and im currently running windows 8 preview.

I believe this prob was occuring in windows 7 also but I can't be for sure as I didn't keep it around too long. Also I just updated bios to A03 thinking maybe the problem would be fixed....no luck....Any ideas???


also it says i have the "soundblaster recon 3di" installed


Thanks for any help

 

Not that anyone is replying but I may have solved my own problem (and created another mental one by responding to myself) I uninstalled the soundblaster recon3di from device manager and so far the problem has not returned. Hope this helps someone.

 

Thanks... I bet it will help others, as sound issues with the Soundblaster Recon3DI shipping with the new systems have been identified in other treads. Appreciate the tip, bro.

I wonder if that Soundblaster Recon3DI thing is just a software environment like the older "Audigy MB" version was. Given that things still work after uninstalling it, that may be the case. That old version caused more issues with Dell systems than it was worth and wasn't necessary to have it installed. It added some special features like artificial sound environments that were kind of hokey (echo, reverb, etc.). They charged an extra $20 for the software and it was all but impossible to reinstall.

 

For this issue we have been recommending to follow this article. Hopefully it will fix the issue for most users and those who couldn't then can try your fix. +1Rep for the effort!

 

Thanks to both of you for responding...Yes it has been a few days without SB installed and sound hasn't missed a lick....Im going to check out this article to see what kinda fix they have for it and if it works for me....Thanks again

 

Ok I actually had seen this and DID update bios with no luck. It wasn't that the item wasn't appearing at all it just had a terrible noise to it.

But like mentioned earlier i uninstalled soundblaster recon from device manager and sound has been fine ever since so Im sure just a software glitch that will be fixed at some point...Thanks again guys

 

Back on the sound issue... And I thought I have the perfect system now... Anyway the issue was that today when I started the computer it turned out there is no sound card?! What? Yes, no sound card. Restarted several times, still nothing. Device manager, no sound card there except the nvidia stuff and bluetooth... Finally restarted the system, went in bios, did a system restore to default, restart, sound is back?! I keep my finger crossed that this may not happen again... Maybe Mr. Porras and his team will take a look at this issue. What could have happened, I cannot explain myself... And yeah, forgot to mention, not doing anything with the system (playing with settings, overclocking etc.), as it is, I'm using it. Few days back only tried some benchmarking, but that was all...

 

Is the Sound Blaster Recon3Di an actual chipset or a software/firmware enhancement?

 

Sorry for the late reply. I believe is creative chipset and soft as well. I do not know why that happened and I just hope it does not come up again... I took a picture for your reference (now it shows in the device manager).

 

It happened again this morning:

1. Tried repairing the software - still no audio available;
2. Tried removing the software - still no audio available;
3. Reflashed the bios A03 and audio is back.

The step 1 & 2 each time trying a fix, I did a restart. Step 3 I updated / reflashed the same bios from dos. Never went in bios settings.

I could have gone into bios and did the restore thing as previous, but I tried to fix it without going into bios and doing all that meddling. I have to see if this will happen again... It looks like the issue appears when you have a cold boot. I will try the same tomorrow morning and see if this occurs again. I hope Alienware team reads this; I hope is not a motherboard issue and just a bios fix, since it starts when 'meddling' with the bios.

 

My brother got an m14x the other week which has the same audio chipset and this thing shipped from the factory with this issue - it had no Audio Device on its first boot. The only thing that worked was to reflash the BIOS and its been fine ever since.

 

^^^ I hope that will happen in my case as well. I completely lost hope, noticing that all the units are full of problems... Since the last 4 months keep changing those systems, each and every one had some issue out of the box or within no time.

It's nice to notice that Dell / Alienware have such a wonderful team, but I believe at the technical level (quality control) it's not supervised the proper way. Those machines at the cost involved, should be tried out in many steps from built to the parts installed in them... I do not think any of the alienware’s I owned so far didn’t have problems.

M15X – Battery was not working (2008);
M11X – Out of the box, system did not start (had a replacement in 2 weeks);
M17XR2 – Motherboard died within 3 months;
Another M17XR2 – One GPU was not working properly, replaced within a month;
M17XR3 – After 10 months the monitor failed;
M18XR1 – GPU’s both not working (AMD) after the system was turned on within no time freeze, shutdown, etc. etc.;
Several M18XR2 (4 or 5) – Lots of problems: damages on the body (2 of them), GPU failure (most of them), wrong heatsink installed, not painted properly (paint was not done on the bottom case (again 2 of them) and now the Audio issue.

I have in the office several laptops including Mac (pro and air), SONY (I am using it from the last 3 years, the cosmetic has become very bad but it is still working perfect), LG, Samsung, Toshiba and Acer and never had such issues with any of them. It is not like I am using them a lot, those are new machines or almost new and should not have those kind of problems.

 

It's actually ironic because I've experienced all your issues with Toshiba, Apple and Samsung.

My $3000 Toshiba's laptop screen failed within 12 months. Apple's Macbook Pro motherboard fried (2010 model) and had a Samsung GPU die on me.

I've never used Dell support but the support I got from the other companies were completely .

my ty Toshiba is still around somewhere and it was cheaper to buy a new computer than to pay them $500 to replace the screen.

I bet there is a rare some person out there who've had flawless Alienware laptops from Dell.

It's all luck of the draw.

 

Had this problem. The issue is the recording device. Disable "microphone array" and "What U Hear" and the problem will be gone.