m15x Headphone sound popping and scratching

I'm a new m15x owner, and I'm pretty happy with the purchase, save for a few minor things, and one item that is slowly outliving the "minor" appellation.

The system is generating electronic noise that is plainly audible when using headphones. Most of it is faint, but there are intermittent, medium-volume pops that seem to be linked to the hard drive running. While the drive is always running when I hear a pop, the pop is not always there when the drive is running. It's really distracting during quieter sections of music or games, and is worse during, when it sounds like the music or game sound is skipping.

One thing I have noticed is that the system cuts the power off to the headphones if an app isn't directly using it. Closing iTunes or Media Player will cause all the noises to vanish after 10 seconds or so. That's not surprising, as there's no power to the headphone jack.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Is there a fix?

UPDATE:

I've found an apparent fix for this, listed here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5697925&postcount=30

 

I've continued to dig around, and apparently there is the same or similar problem with the m17x. Read here: http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2009/11/18/dell-dpc-latency-and-you.aspx

Are there any m17x or m15x owners out there who are experiencing this issue? I'd love to think the bios update they're talking about on the dell site will help me out when it's released.

 

same here just got the alienware headset today and pops and sounds like crap!!

 

Glad to hear I'm not the only one. Listening to music with all that crap in the audio is AGONY.

 

It's your Powermizer. Not your HD.

Disable your Powermizer.

Really, my question to the mods is why there isn't a sticky called "Read about all of the M15x and M17x issues here before asking duplicate questions". There are enough problems to warrant a sticky for sure.

 

i have no power saving options set it all set for max performance. So i doubt that is the problem. more than likely its a driver issue i plugged my headset into my 2 other laptops and they sound great! I'm not real happy right now as it is my harddrive that came in my machine up and died last night, dman seagate drives i replaced it with a WD Black 320gb

 

You should first try other people's suggestions because they are given for a reason. Powermizer has nothing to do your power saving options.

 

I have this same popping issue, but, I don't have powermizer on my laptop..? :/

I've gone into the registry to try and disable it, but it aint there, where all the guides say it should be - definitely not there..

What on earth could it be if not powermizer?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=273276

Also, if you are still not sure about how to disable powermizer, you can alternatively plug in an external monitor and run 2 monitors at once. This is fool proof, since your Powermizer will not work with 2 monitors - guaranteed.

 

That does not fix it at all, tryed that and powermizer is disabled 100% thru reg edits. unistalling the most recent audio driver from dell helps some and just using the default win 7 drivers. I can not believe the issues with this system, i had a gateway P-6831FX before this and it was perfect for half the money of this thing! I've been in contact with dell about this and my recently deceased harddrive. I run my own computer business and this will not be a recommended unit sold by my company.

 

Had the same problem. Used the powermizer app as described by CitizenPanda, problem solved.

 

I also have 2 other nvidia gpu laptops here running same drivers and the headset sounds perfect same driver set as my M15x. This is a clean install new harddrive thanks to the crappy seagate. again problem gets worse with newest IDT driver and less with default drivers. i have a x-fi laptop audio card on order to test in here anyway since onboard audio is of lower quality.

 

I am facing the same issue too. Disable Powermizer didn't help at all. Everything is similar as you described. Open iTunes and the popping sound comes in, upon closing, it goes off. In fact you can hear a lot of static buzzing noise when you turn your speaker/headphones volume up. This problem annoys me since the first day i got this laptop.

 

CitizenPanda: I originally noticed the problem when I was using two monitors at work. The laptop screen and a large samsung lcd. I can definitely say that plugging in two monitors did not help. Also, I've looked at the registry fix program, and after it saying that the PowerMizer settings were not found on my system, I did some searching in the registry and found no entry for "PowerMizerEnable", which is one of the four operative reg keys reported in the thread you linked to. If 'm skipping something, please let me know. I'd love for this to be as simple as turning something off in the registry.

Truly, I appreciate your help.

 

In the newer drivers those reg edit have to be added have done so and disabled powermizer it does not fix this issue. This is a IDT driver issue.

 

Ok. I think I may have fixed the problem without having to deal with the registry. I do believe CitizenPanda was right in that the Power Management settings were causing the problem. All I did was modify my windows power management settings to be High Performance rather than Balanced, and I was able to play Dragon Age all last evening, and play iTunes with no popping at all. There still was the extremely faint background electronic noise, but it's only apparent when there is no sound whatsoever. For me, this is sufficient.

Along with the trackpad driver issue, this is the second thing I've fixed by simply bypassing Alienware's software drivers. Now, in the Command Center, neither Fusion nor Touch will bring up the Center's controls. That's fine by me, if my problems are resolved. Still, it is really sad to have to do stuff like this for a $2000 enthusiast laptop.

Now, all I need to do is wait for them to fix Joker's throttling problem, and I can go back to enjoying my m15x.

I'll post again if the problem reappears for me.

Edit: One thing I didn't mention about what I did was I actually changed the settings within the High Performance profile. I have a feeling that simply switching to High Performance won't force the Alienware Command Center to give up its control.

 

That still doesnt fix it that is the first thing i change after a clean install.

 

So you're saying I should enter those reg keys into the system, even though they don't currently exist?

 

Even with those changes it does not fix it. we need better drivers. I have a X-FI addin sound card coming this week and im going to try that with disabling the onboard and im sure all will be fine then. till they fix the onboard drivers

 

I had the same issue. Citizen Panda posted a link to another topic with a app that turns off PowerMizer, it stopped on the spot.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=273276

If that doesn't fix it you prolly did something or u have a hardware defect as I am fairly certain it fixed everyone's issue.

 

Do you own this laptop? This is not a issue related to ANY gpu power settings. I'll try to say in plain english.. Stock win7 64bit driver almost no popping but still noticable only thru headphone jacks. Dell site recommended driver for M15x I7 with IDT 92HD83 Audio after installing popping is worse thru headset. Same brand new (ALIENWARE TACH-X) headset in all of my other laptops 6 in all without IDT sound chips and Nvidia GPU'S running same drivers NO POPPING.

My M15x I7 powermizer is OFF, my gpu does not clock down at all. So again not related to that other issue posted. I will be on the phone with support again tomorrow. This is a clean install. i will be testing with a creative x-fi card soon and turning off the onboard till this is fixed. I have seen issues with IDT audio before on desktop boards many times (always driver related) in the 15 years i've done this for a living!! The ONLY reason i post here is to see if these issues are common some are some are not. This i more than likely also only a windows 7 issue , I may just do a backup and clean install of vista tomorrow to test this out.

 

I am looking forward to see what's the outcome with Vista version. Unfortunately, mine has this issue too. I tried all the available solutions but none of them worked. I called Dell more than couple of times but they all have no idea. I am pretty sure it's driver related. Windows generic driver makes no noise. May the maker bless this laptop's audio and kill away the noise.

 

Great comments on this from everyone. Thanks for chiming in. I'm going to work all day today with music + headphones to see if the problem truly has disappeared.

Then, it's on to figuring out if my GPU is underclocking whenever I'm running on battery power. :/

 

Okay, so the problem has *not* gone away. I've no idea why it is so apparent at times, and others it is not. The popping/scratching hiccups in the sound still occur when using any kind of sound-enabled app (itunes, WMP, games, etc.). Does anyone have any idea what can be done about this? Will adding those PowerMizer entries to my registry help, even though they don't currently exist? Has anyone successfully eliminated this problem?

 

Well i installed my xfi add in card today and perfect clear audio thru that , and i have no gpu throttling either so its gotta be a idt driver issue

 

Has anyone tried different drivers? Who's the vendor on the sound hardware?

 

Argh. This is still a big problem. Even when the sound card has power but isn't delivering a sound stream of any kind. Just try plugging in a set of headphones and you get a few seconds of silent power. Scratches and pops abound.

Again, has anyone tried different sound drivers? Where can they be found?

 

still no updated drivers yet but my X-FI add in card sounds awsome so ill stick with that hopefully they will issue some new drivers soon.

 

yea the only fix for now is using an external sound card

 

I just tried reinstalling the A00 drivers from IDT, the "R232588" executable, and it didn't help. I was hoping I had some prior version, but no luck.

One thing I have noticed is that the problem is less evident for a while if I reboot. But, sure enough, after about 4-5 hours of running, the scratching is back, and in spades.

 

Okay, a quick update. On some of the advice here, I uninstalled the IDT driver and let windows use it's own to handle the device. It's been a day and a half since I did that, and I think I've heard one scratch in all that time. Also, I've noticed that the power doesn't shut off to the headphones like it used to with the IDT driver.

Close iTunes or any other sound-enabled app, and the power remains on indefinitely. I can tell because the extremely faint electronic noise remains, but it's so quiet that it's unnoticeable unless you're listening to utter silence.
The good news is that the noise volume does *not* change with the volume level, so it's post-amp noise.

I think that anyone experiencing this can consider this a valid fix for the issue. What I have not tested is if the combo microphone/digital-out jack still functions as it should with the new driver. I don't use it, so that's no issue for me. Someone that does might want to check that.

My sound card is now recognized in the Device Manager as "High Definition Audio Device". Anyone who needs to do this, just find your sound card in the Device Manager under "Sound, video and game controllers", right click and choose Uninstall, then reboot. Windows should automatically assign the new driver and you're good to go.

 

hey mate what sort of external sound card is it and is it 5,1 or 7,1 as i have the same probs with my m15 ive tried a few diff things but i think ill just get an external like you how much did that set you back ? and did it make the sound louder then it was via the internal sound card as mine is weak as