I will avoid those then!
I think I am going to go back to a lower rated pad with a bit more give in it. I stripped the heatsink again today and it had spread apart from a mm in each corner so I did a couple more test fits after squishing the pads a bit more and adding a bit more than a grain of rice worth of paste.
Temps were in the 80's playing BF4 with the geforce experience suggested settings so good enough with 4k fan speeds.
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After waiting for 3 week, I was disappointed to receive a defective unit.
- The audio port was faulty. I have to apply pressure in order to work properly.
- Dent on screen edge - https://imgur.com/a/2oj5p
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This year I had two conversations and both lasted over an hour, but the problems were tough to solve. Both techs spent a while following Dell's menu of required steps but after none of those steps worked, I think they used their own acumen to address the issues. It was abundantly clear these two guys were clearly good techs once they completed the "required steps."
- One complex software / hardware issue was resolved over the phone.
- Yesterday the chat service did a lot of logical audio troubleshooting and offered to send a tech to replace the motherboard after about an hour of work; that tech arrives on Monday morning. -
Update to my 9550 audio issue when brightness is adjusted : after lots of drivers reinstalls by me and also by Dell issue remained the same so Dell sent out engineer who replaced speakers/ audio jack card and screen but issue remained. Don't know why Dell didn't send the motherboard... To be continued ...
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalkpressing likes this. -
2. This really seems to be a DRIVER ISSUE based on the WASAPI success of liselotte111 and my ASIO4ALL (outputting to internal speakers perfectly!!!) success
3. GonZ0 noted motherboard replacement solved the problem for another 9550 owner. That indicates an AUDIOBOARD OR MOTHERBOARD ISSUE (onsite service can not replace the audio board separately so needs to replace the entire motherboard). The Dell tech I chatted with yesterday said I had a bad audio board, so Dell will replace my 9550's motherboard on Monday
My gut still tells me our problem seems to be a Driver Issue. However, as the 9550 was essentially a late beta release, it is not a leap to believe that the audio logic was another area Dell did not fully QC. Consequently, there may be some underlying defects that can only be resolved via a hardware repair or replacement. Perhaps those defects were addressed in later board revisions.
Of course there is the possibility these are expected field failures and we are just unluckly random customers; however, the fact that I know of 3 cases already, combined with all the various forms of 9550 speaker crackling posts littered across the internet, indicates that this is a design/assembly problem.
I'll let you know how Monday's motherboard replacement goes... -
so i'm on vacation but i got a voicemail from a supervisor (not the one that promised me a new system) saying basically no one ever marked that down in my case file and so i will be getting a refurbished system no matter what, that since i'm out of the 30 days (thanks to them) that i can no longer get a refund and that if i wanted to escalate it to a higher department they would tell me the exact same thing. sigh... this has got to be the worst customer support i've ever dealt with.
dontcha likes this. -
Edit: I just checked, when I use the internal card on wasapi mode, no crackling at all!!!!
How I did it:
I use Musicbee as my main music player, in settings it has an option to choose which audio output you want to use, including what mode (direct, wasapi, audio4all, etc) -
ASIO works perfectly in all scenarios. Only problem is that I can't find a way to use that (or WASAPI) throughout Windows 10 (ASIO was an option in Windows 7).
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With wasapi I don't get crackling on both DAC (creative soundblaster x-fi hd and Dragonfly v1.5). Have not found ASIO drivers for the dragonfly yet, so have not tested that yet.
It is time for Dell to start investigating this problem (although the headphone jack doesn't produce very nice audio quality anyway).
Does anyone know if the crackling occurs when using a distribution of Linux?Last edited: Aug 6, 2016 -
jefflackey and Eason like this.
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http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/24364-latest-realtek-audio-codecs/?page=9
EDIT - Figured out that... adjusting brightness by f11 or f12 physical buttons causes crackling....
BUT...adjusting brightness via the mouse DOES NOT cause audio crackling
(you can do that in control panel> hardware and sound > power options (see brightness slider at bottom of screen))
Maybe there are some keyboard / audio port assignment conflicts? Any ideas???Last edited: Aug 6, 2016liselotte111, mj084 and Kikuri like this. -
No improvement from crackling.
: (
I will chat with Dell tonight when I have some time for this.
I have the old speakers and audio daughterboard if anyone needs them. . .
EDIT - Not sure if this was an issue before but YouTube videos played at speeds different from 1.0x, volume will crackle a lot when internal speaker format is at 16/96kHz, 16/192kHz, 24/96kHz, 24/192kHz.Last edited: Aug 8, 2016 -
I followed up with Dell tech from last week and he responded to me, "I am afraid the system is working as per design, as distortion while changing brightness is quite normal."
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Phone back, kick off m8! -
custom90gt Doc Mod Super Moderator
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"it's working as designed" is the biggest ****ing ******** response and is probably #1 on my infuriation-meter
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As for YouTube... My speakers crackle only when adjusting brightness.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk -
I also have the crackling issue when changing volume using the hotkeys. I can confirm i did not use to have this issue with a previous motherboard/screen combo, so something odd there.
pressing likes this. -
WeeDv2 & Varuka -
What version of 9550 do you have (monitor, CPU, SSD, Windows version, etc.)?
I have a FHD, 6300HQ, Samsung 850EVO 250GB m.2, W10 Pro 1511.
WeeDv2 -
Do you have that static sound when adjusting brightness with f11 & f12? Or just when adjusting volume with f2 & f3? -
My 9550 spec is FHD, 6300hq, sm951 500gb m.2, w10 14393.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk -
It only happens when adjusting brightness. -
double post sorry
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Windows 10
M.2 only
BIOS 01.02.10
AHCI
Installed Samsung NVMe drivers
I have an annyoing problem which I could not find on the forum, my dell xps freezes on notification, I don't even need to click on it, the windows taskbar freezes and does not respond anymore, the browser (edge) page stops and needs to recover and the whole os just freezes. I saw a video on youtube but I haven't found a solution yet, mine is a 4k 512g 16g ram. Anyone found a solution to this? -
I wanted to sent in my 9550 for a motherboard replacement (coil whine issue) but the the chat support guy said that he knew nothing about a motherboard revision which would solve the problem. I'm in Europe. Anyone had a similar experience?
pressing likes this. -
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But they were definitely able to hear it when the windows were closed and there was minimum sound inside the building. Would that make a case? -
Touchpad button (left) started getting harder and harder to press... to the extent that it failed to register the clicks.
called dell. They asked to ship it back to depot for repair.
Dell Depot gets the laptop, begins repair --- and then its put on "Engineering Hold". After being on hold for 3-4 days, i follow-up via email - No concrete response. Only generic canned responses.
I then started phone follow-up after about 5 days -- again, no one knows why its on Engineering Hold. Finally after repeated follow-ups, escalations..etc, I am told its on Safety Hold! Again, no one knows what that means and when the issue will be fixed. Infact the supervisor I spoke to told me that they might not be able to fix the Safety issue. I am told I might get a replacement/refurbished unit-- I just bought this system brand new - paid well over $2100 .... and to fix a TouchPad button, .... it has taken close to two weeks, with no end in sight.
At this point, i am not sure when or which system i will get back.Last edited: Aug 16, 2016 -
They will back down as they have every time with me and I am probably up to my 7th or 8th system.jefflackey and pressing like this. -
7th system? You sure are persistent! Wouldn't be it be easy just to return it and ask for refund after the 3rd one? That was part of the reason why I decide not to purchase it as 9550 seemed particularly buggy.
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It pays to complain.
Sent from my SM-G920FLast edited: Aug 17, 2016 -
I wish I had your stamina lol
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- saying as per policy they dont have the authority to replace it with a new system - and can only exchange with a dell certified system. I haven't even been told what the replacement system would be...... Just that the escalation manager has got the approval for an exchange.
beyond pathetic ..
Any good non-dell systems which have similar specs ? (lightweight, with 4k display, Core i7 processor, 16GB RAM - with decent battery? -- and more importantly - good responsive support )
-- i am not sure how long the replacement system would last.. need to start looking for alternatives...... -
(corrected the auto correct fubars in my previous post) -
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There are only two solutions:
- raise the internal buffer size so that the drop out can be compensated. Bad idea as in many cases there is no possibility to do so, and the latency for real-time applications rises to unacceptable levels.
- pray to the gods that the engineer at Dell who put this routine into the BIOS recognizes his fault and fixes it, so that brigthness behaves like any other Fn function (all block the system far below 1 ms).jefflackey, Kikuri and pressing like this. -
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalkpressing likes this. -
pressing likes this.
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Techland,
There are at least 5 people here that have reported the same crackling problem this month.
Dell replaced the speakers/audio card for Varuka and for me, with no correction.
I have done some testing with an external DAC and some special drivers - ASIO4ALL seems to work fine (but with Windows 10 I think you can only use ASIO4ALL in certain programs like my virtual piano software). WASAPI in my virtual piano seems to work with internal speakers. Importantly, I have a sneaking suspicion this latency bug is problematic for live piano playing. See links below for more detail...
Any suggestions for how we can effectively communicate this to Dell? Should all 5 of us call in for separate tickets referencing your post above? If so, are there more details you can add to that analysis? Any other suggestions?
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First of all one has to make sure not to mix up all the issues reported with Dell audio with this specific issue (Brightness control from the laptop's keyboard).
Second I doubt Dell will ever fix this as during critical audio reproduction you could simply refrain from changing the brightness this way. Windows 10 has a brightness button in the new notification fly-out, which changes brightness in 5 steps, but without any DPC problems (so no audio drop out).
Third: there is a small chance the reason for the long interruption is that the communication between display and keyboard/BIOS requires so. You would need to know different laptops with the same screen technology/connection/control/communication where this behaves differently to be sure it can be fixed.
Some more info about the problem: ASIO has the big advantage that one can adjust the buffer size and this way check out how much buffering is needed to prevent drop outs. While the 9550 can run down to 32 samples buffer size (not perfectly stable), 64 samples is stable enough for serious work. The brightness control requires an ASIO buffer of more than 512 samples to safely prevent dropouts (equalling a raw round-trip latency of 23 ms at 44.1 kHz). That is unacceptable in 2016.
The buffer size used in WDM/Wasapi/DirectSound is usually not under control of the user. Unless you have a professional audio interface that allows to set that value as well. This way I can reproduce the problem for Direct Sound etc in the same way, 512 samples buffer size mostly prevents clicks.
Unfortunately today the problem was gone with DirectSound playback via AIMP, where I could easily reproduce it yesterday (it seems WDM/Realtek now uses a very big buffer to be able to play back without dropouts). It still happens with ASIO, other audio interfaces, and Realtek's own ASIO. It also happens when I use DVDFab media player to look a video with the internal Realtek sound card via WDM. That means the problem can not be reproduced as easily as I first thought, which makes it even harder to bother Dell with it.Last edited: Aug 19, 2016jefflackey and pressing like this. -
To measure the problem: Download the tool DPC Latency from Thesycon. Ignore the info that it is not suitable for W10, it is in this case. Run it, you will see a constant DPC of about 1 ms.
Now use any of the Fn key combinations. Only brightness will cause big red peaks of up to 16 ms.
I prefer this tool as it perfectly presents/visualizes the problem. If you want to deal with Dell they will (of course) argue this tool is not for W10. So change to LatencyMon 6.5 from resplendence, go to Options, check 'Kernel timer latency', do the same test - voilà. -
Does any of you have had 100 disk usage issues? It's just frustrating when doing something more demanding it takes like 10-15 minutes and then freezes because no app can use the disk because it's already 100 used by nothing, the app or process don't appear in task manager.
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Hi Mike_nbr. Just wanted to say Thanks. I've just installed a new Samsung 850 Pro in a XPS15 and it was taking about 3 minutes to boot. Terrible. I took you advice (replace AHCI drivers and update BIOS), and my boot time is about 20 seconds. I'm very grateful.
Thanks.Kikuri likes this. -
Has anybody had the 'hard to press' touchpad?
It has happened before but went away after a day or two. Opening up the case and fiddling around to see if something was stuck didn't help. It has happened again recently and won't go back to its original position. The touchpad is not sticking 'out' but it is very hard to press. I can barely get a push in at the lower corners, certainly nothing like before where you could audibly click with almost the whole bottom 2/3 of the pad. -
Help me please!!
I have a Wi-Fi problem at Windows 7 x64
I`v installed the drivers mostly at DELL website:
Device manager says:
"Dell Wireless 1830 802.11ac" - This device works properly
BUT - it doesn`t see any wi fi...
At win 10 everything worked fine, but I`d rather stay with win 7. -
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Dell premier colours crashing when trying to open the interface. I am not alone https://redd.it/4yc98p
And I had to go back to BIOS A10 as the flicker issue was back.
Will phone the waste of space they call support tomorrow. -
Hi,
I have a 9550 with 256gb SSD, 56whr, 1080p. I recently put a 850 pro into it and it worked just fine. However, sometimes the SATA link speed shown in the Intel rapid storage is 3gb/s.
Also I was trying to change from raid mode to achieve mode but it does not work, my system won't boot so I have to change it back.
Could anyone help me out? Thanks in advance.
Dell XPS 15 (9550) list of hardware and software problems
Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by mike_nbr, Nov 29, 2015.