Audio Latency Problems/Solutions With All Dell Studio & Studio XPS(And any other one) Discussions

So is the verdict still that the Studio XPS range is useless for audio applications, and there is no fix?

Someone on another thead (on the dell sub forum) told me this had been fixed

*confused*

 

Seems to be fixed for the 1640 as of BIOS A07. It's not fixed for the 1340 A07 BIOS but the fix of the 16 may imply it will be soon.

 

Lets hope so

 

Confirmed that it is fixed for 1640 with bios A07.
No more red bar on the DPC checker anymore !

 

lol double post...howd I know? see 2nd post. Surprised only 2 LOL.

 

hey guys, is there any way to get around this problem yet on the 1340?

I apoligize for not reading the whole thread. This site has been really slow for me. REALLY slow. This is my *7*th try to post and counting. Every page takes 30sec-1min to load and almost every time it cannot load. Just this site. Weird, perfect timing when I need to buy a laptop .

Back on topic , I'm just wondering as of now, seeing this thread started around February and many changes (BIOS updates etc...) have taken place since then.

Will ASIO get rid of it? What about using Windows 7 or XP?

Is this problem for ALL 1340's or just some?

This problem I fear might be a deal breaker for me. I'm not intending on using this laptop for a lot of music, but a problem like that would bug the heck out of me.

Thanks for your help

 

Short of installing XP, there's no fix for the 1340 yet, but with it fixed in the new BIOS on the 1640 I think you'd have cause to have some hope.

 

So installing XP on the 1340 will fix it?

 

Well, probably. Read this thread.

 

hello guys

now this studio xps 16 is good for home music realtime?

cubase etc and Line6 TonePort KB37 ?

 

I think so yes. Its a bit vague, and if you read various topics people still have the odd problem. I haven't seen a definite fix for the 1340 yet, which I am hoping comes soon.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen Dell has finally released a fix for the Studio 1537! it's called Bios A09... go get it kids, no more spikes

 

oh thanks...

other info guys ?

 

Does anyone know when A08 Bios will be released?

 

Yea, I'm waiting for that one too. Can't believe they havn't fixed this yet.

 

You should be happy its coming, there's still no fix for the M1530 which has been recently discontinued in Europe...

 

Is it coming, though?

 

But the 1530 didn't have DPC latency issues..? I used a 1530 extensively for low-latency audio with zero problems.

 

Well I still have the problem, I pinned it down to usbport.sys and dxgkrnl.sys
But still can't solve it.

 

This was an email I sent to Dell last week and their response. It is clear that he is unaware of this issue. And he never provided the diagnostics steps that he mentioned. I haven't emailed him back yet, been busy. Has anyone else attempted to talk to Dell?

 

Weird. It's definitely possible to get it working anyway. All I had to do when I had it was turn off the wireless.

 

The problem is that it's often caused by non-Dell hardware or drivers therefore Dell can't always "fix"it. Is everyone here already running the 8.8 IMSM? That helped on a LOT of other sytems.

 

Excuse my ignorance, but what's 8.8 IMSM?

 

Intel Matrix Storage Manager

 

Just to note, BIOS A08 for the 1340 has not fixed the issue.

 

Maybe another BIOS update from Dell would hopefully fix the problem once and for all, like it did with the SXPS 16 from the BIOS A07.The audio latency's the only issue that keeps me from buying this laptop!

 

you would to buy xps 16 or xps 13?

 

He meant SXPS 13, the latency issue is fixed on the 16 as of BIOS A07. That's why we were thinking it might be fixed in the next SXPS 13 BIOS (A08). It's not, so we're waiting for the next one now...

 

Would the Sound software make any difference-I mean if you have the Soundblaster X-Fi Audio instead of the High Definition Audio 2.0, would the audio latency problem still be on it?

 

An external sound card or another sound software wouldn't help.

 

This is ridiculous. I can't even play music in itunes without clipping and popping. I wish I could sell the piece of crap and get an Hp. Has anyone made any progress???

 

what laptot you have?

studio xps 16 ?

 

On my m1530 it seems the clipping and popping get worse or better depending on the video driver installed. For instance, 179.67 has almost no popping in comparison with the Dell 176.44.

 

Studio XPS 13.

 

Ok guys you seriously need to have a look around for other threads on this because most of this is covered. Install Intel Matrix Storage Manager 8.8, get the latest Intel Wifi drivers 12.something....if you have a Dell wifi card upgrade it to a Intel one.
download "DPC latency checker" and follow the instructions in the app to determine which components are causing the stutter and crackles.

 

I just saw that dell has removed the A08 Bios from their website. It's now back to A07 from 5/17/2009.

LPTP-LVR,
I have tried the DPC latency check and disabled every possible component but I still can't find the issue. Can you please explain the Intel Matrix Storage Manager in layman's terms for me?

Thanks,
JD

 

The Intel Matrix Storage Manager software contains the AHCI driver for the SATA bus and RAID drivers and software. Your machine will just use the AHCI driver (it'll install the RAID console but it's of no use to you). So it's a long way of saying update your SATA bus driver. You want to try version 8.8.

 

Yup! thats it....download the 8.8 version from the Intel website and run the installer or manually load the AHCI driver through your device manager.

 

I tried to install IMSM 8.8 and received an error message: "This computer does not meet the minimum requirements..."

I looked and realized I don't have an Intel Chipset. Does this matter? Running CPUID I see:

Chipset
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Northbridge NVIDIA nForce 730i rev. B1
Southbridge NVIDIA nForce 730i rev. B2
Memory Type DDR3
Memory Size 4096 MBytes
Channels Dual
Memory Frequency 533.2 MHz (1:2)
CAS# 7.0
RAS# to CAS# 7
RAS# Precharge 7
Cycle Time (tRAS) 20
Bank Cycle Time (tRC) 27
Command Rate 2T

What do I need to do to get IMSM 8.8 to install?

 

Ah i see...lol...that would make it quite impossible. You could try updating the nForce drivers to the latest version, nVidia is probably a lot more up-to-date than Dell, get them from the nVidia site.
You didn't get any results switching everything off and checking with DPC latency checker?
What i did was switch EVERYTHING off that wasn't needed for the laptop to run, including LAN, modem etc... everything then switch components on one by one, this should definetly show some results

 

Im still having crackling problems with a m1530... i have tried everything in this thread... im frustrated... my 6 year old desktop handles audio better than this $2k laptop. It seems the worst during the beginning and end of songs.

 

hey i just made HUGE progress! Im stuck in a hotel room on tour with nothing to do but mess with my computer. But anyways. I got the DPC latency checker to XP like levels!!!! Bad news was that I still had skips. But i was playing the music through Zune software. Now with everything else plays perfecto! I havent had a red spike since. Ok here is EVERYTHING that I did. As im still not sure to the one thing that did it.

I disabled in device manager the fingerprint reader, the ethernet adapter, and the SD host controller. Then I turned AERO off(windows classic mode). Then in RMClock i checked the HLT box on the management tab. (this is the step that I think did the trick, but not sure yet). That required a restart. powered back up and i noticed the DPC checker was LOW. I wasnt even getting yellow bars amazingly. I was getting Full red before. But the tricky part was that I had MORE skips. I then turned back on AERO and switched from the ZUNE music player to winows media player and not a hitch at all. As I slowly enabled the devices I noticed I was getting slightly higher levels in the DPC latency checkker, but no skips. AND ABSOLUTELY NO RED BARS!!!

Right now I' m tempted to uncheck the HLT box in RMClock and restart to see if the red comes back just to realize what exactly fixed the issue. But im a little scared as the problem is fixed and i dont want to mess with anything. Right now I only have the fingerprint reader disabled and i get a yellow bar every once in awhile, but absolutely no skips at all. I'm even minimizing and maximizing windows and such to try to tho throw it off , but no SKIPS and no RED BARS. hope this helps.

 

oh thanks...

what values of latency reports DPC ?

 

I installed this wireless driver below onto my xps1340. It fixed my audio skipping issue, but I still have red bars in DPC Latency Checker.

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=5&fileid=289450

 

Been checking the Dell community for some updates to this issue...Hope the updates due for August would fix it once & for all.

 

I am actually also having this issue.
But only when watching a .VOB (DVD) File, on VLC video Player.


It wont skip in Windows Media player, Youtube, Games.

Any ideas?

Cheers!

 

I just got a Dell XPS Studio 13 and have the same popping sounds problem.

Dell support told me to uninstall and reinstall the audio driver.

They also told me to go to tinyurl.com/ce9ses and follow instructions there.

My work blocks all tinyurl links, so I can't get there until I go home tonight.

When I asked which CODEC version I would be downloading and installing, the tech said "A14" but that sounds like a BIOS version based on previous messages here.

Maybe one of you could check that tinyurl site and let me know if that is a codec update or BIOS update.

Thanks!

shooter

 

It's just the latest audio driver. It might fix the popping if it's caused by the audio drivers but not if it's caused by the DPC latency. We're still basically waiting on a BIOS update like the 1640 got a while ago to fix that.

 

Thanks for the info. I will give that a try.

I find it hard to believe Dell or any other manufacturer would send a crippled product like that out.

Very disappointing...

shooter

 

This is what the Dell tech did via remote access:

This issue is noticed with both Dell and Creative drivers. Creative customers with other systems are also experiencing this issue. Engineers are trying few fixes to resolve this issue.
For now please try the following workarounds:
Disable Enhancements
* Go to Control Panel- Sound
* Right click on the Speaker/Headphones icon and choose properties
* Click on the Enhancements tab
* Select the Disable all enhancements check box
* When finished, restart the PC

Disable Wireless A band
* Go to Control Panel- Device Manager
* Click on Networks Adapters
* Double click on the wireless card
* Go to the Advanced tab
* Select from the list Disable Bands
* Select the A band from the list on the right side and disable it
* When finished, restart the PC

LightFX
* Double-click the Dell QuickSet icon in the Notification Area
* Click the LED Effects tab, make sure the Windows Media Player add-in is checked
* Turn off the Smooth color rotation LED effect
===========================================

This seemed to work pretty well, although I could hear *some* pops and skips when playing iTunes.

DPC Latency Checker showed *some* red bars, mostly in the 1,000 range...but, a lot better than before the tweaks.

He said they are still working on BIOS and driver updates since this is a well-known problem.

I hope this helps others!

shooter