9550: No Stereo Audio with Dell Audio Drivers

Hello, forum

I recently realised that my XPS 9550 (4k, i5, 256GB, 8GB) was not providing proper stereo output on the 3.5mm jack. I used the wiring test here and found that audio from the right channel was playing at roughly 70% in the left channel and vice versa, along with the audio of each respective channel.

I eventually uninstalled the Realtek High Definition Audio Driver and installed a newer version from the Dell support website. While the driver was uninstalled, I was getting proper stereo output from the 3.5mm jack. However, after I installed the new drivers, same issue again.

The obvious solution would be to uninstall the audio driver and let it be. However, with the drivers uninstalled, an extremely loud pop/crackle is heard randomly and before any audio is played. Furthermore, after a while, Windows stops recogonising the speakers and jack output altogether.

Has anyone else experienced the issue? What could be a solution? I would like to avoid an OS reinstall.

Thank you
Sennder

tl;dr: Dell's default Realtek High Definition Audio Drivers cause mono output on the 3.5mm jack. Uninstalling the drivers eventually gives no output at all.

 

I apologise for the hasty post. I checked the Dell Audio application again (which, for some reason, is bundled with the driver), and found that the "MAXXAUDIO Pro" sound enhancements are switched on, even though I had switched them off earlier. It seems that the switch resets if I close the application. While the switch is off (and the application is open), the audio is fine. Once the application is closed, the audio is mono-like again. Any solutions?

Thank you.

 

Try this : https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/4mg3p3/how_to_permanently_disable_maxxaudio/
It should disable Maxxaudio permanently.

 

Returntosender,

I had the best luck killing Maxx and using the drivers directly from RealTek (not those from Dell). RealTek has newer drivers but the 2 aug 2016 driver works fine for me.

FYI - I never had the mono-unbalanced issue you are facing but have had a lot of audio issues prior to above config. My 9550 is principally for audio use so I have worked hard to get it sounding properly. Note the onboard speakers are fair quality, small and poorly placed under the unit so sound is just going to be OK at best. Older drivers made the 9550 sound absolutely horrendous via the speakers and via headphones; my newest config sounds about as good as the system will get although there is a bit of distortion which might be the speakers breaking up or the amp being overwhelmed. Overall speakers and headphones are fine to listen to and not irritating; that is about all you can expect from a small form laptop.

The volume is still scratchy when I adjust screen brightness with the physical function keys but that is a different problem...