Muffled pop intermittent on XPS 15 subwoofer?

Does anyone else hear an occasional muffled pop sound coming from underneath/behind the laptop? It occurs most often shortly after turning the machine on, and is originating from the subwoofer.

Just curious if anyone else is hearing this on their XPS 15.

 

I have some popping on my 17", I mostly notice it at high volumes.

 

Mine does it when there is no sound playing, stops about 3 to 5 minutes after turning computer on.
No matter the volume or mute on/off.

 

Yes I have it too, and mentioned it elsewhere. It's annoying and although it disappeared for a while after reinstalling sound drivers, it is now back. Haven't talked to Dell yet, but plan too soon.

 

Nope, but will keep an ear on it =) . Yesterday I made subwoofer of my XPS 15 throttle with metallica'97 played in foobar2000 (flac). Maybe I added to much bass in audio controls. It all comes from the ability to produce bass %)

 

Not sure that mine stops after a few mins like yours. Haven't been using the XPS 15 enough to notice yet. Will turn it on again now and see.

 

Mine's still popping away without sound on after 30 mins of use. Damn.

 

Just emailed tech support, we'll see what they say.

 

The assembler must have been eating Rice Krispies while working. I'll let you know if mine makes any weird noises whenever I get it.

 

Still suffering from the muffled pops here. Has anyone found the right drivers yet?

 

Does the sound card have a sleep/standy by reduced power mode that it enters when sound isn't being used. Just an idea if this could be the popping sound being heard as it is going to sleep.

- Dan

 

It's actually popping for me when playing music. Not happening in standby or anything, as it automatically turns of the speakers after 3 seconds when they're not in use. Fact is that it doesn't do it all the time.. Just sometimes. Been playing one song over and over again now, it pops on different times as well. And, the first 3 times I played the song it popped, and after that I didn't hear it anymore.

The download link on the Dell website for the audio driver is broken at the moment.. I'll try to find another download.

For the others, I'm using this driver now, kinda outdated, but no pops atm:
http://www.driverskit.com/freedownload/Sound_Card/Realtek/ALC665/ALC665/get20417.html

 

I used to have a problem that sounds similar with SRS enabled in WMP, it made the same sounds you are talking about. Try disabling it in enhancements, closing WMP and starting it again.

 

What is WMP?

 

Windows Media Player

 

I never use WMP myself, it happens when I play songs on YouTube as well. Same goes for iTunes.

 

Never used WMP.

 

You still have the same problem sprtnbsblplya, right?
Reinstalled the original drivers today, still heard some pops. It's just so random.

 

This is a quick little sweep test I found on youtube. You guys should run it at about 75% volume and note what frequencies you notice any rattling/crackling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igGroIcga3g

Mine rattles most at 200hz. It's basically all the surrounding components and the chassis that rattle at the the specific frequencies.

This may be a different issue from the random pops, I hear those too from time to time. It sounds like interference of some sort or a glitch with the audio stream.

They sound great when these issues aren't present though...

Still waiting for Dell to fix the link to the latest driver. I have never dealt with this many broken links on any other manufacturer's support site ever.

 

2 days ago, I downloaded the latest audio driver from the Dell website, the link was still working back then.

I uploaded it here for you:
2shared - download R280794.exe

About the YouTube video, no rattling at 200hz for me, no rattling at all actually. The sound is a pain for my ears though.

PS. What about the 435M GT drivers? If I download them on their site and run them, it tells me those are the 420M GT drivers, are they the same?

 

Update on this one:
After installing the "old" realtek drivers, and removing them again because I didn't like 'em, and reinstalling the official Dell drivers again (posted them in the post above this one), I haven't heard any pops so far.

Hoping it's over now!

 

@sprtn...

Did you ever get your replacement? Wondering if that fixed the problem for you?

 

It will be here tomorrow.

 

Anyone getting the muffled pop problem?

Mine seems to be doing this randomly as soon as I start the laptop.

 

Hi mate, I downloaded the driver you posted a link to.

What is the best way of installing the new driver? Do I have to uninstall the current one first or can I just install following the instructions on the dell website?

Also, did the new driver solve your popping problem?

 

My new laptop has no muffled pop sounds.
It sounds great when playing music and games as well.

 

I have figured out the popping sound source (for me at least). The drivers have a feature to turn off sound hardware after a configurable number of seconds to save power. This is turned on by default (regardless of power source). However, in the Dell provided drivers, under the Advanced section you can turn off this Power Management feature. When turned on, I have found that after a few seconds of any sound, I hear a slight pop, which is the audio hardware being turned off. It also pops when turning back on, before playing a sound, if it was previously off. If I disable this, I don't hear the pops because the audio hardware stays on. Not sure sure how much battery this actually saves, but the pops are too annoying, so I'm leaving it off.

NO MORE POPS.

EDIT: I think the reason this also happens on boot, before getting into windows, is that this behavior is on by default. So until the driver loads in windows and turns the power management feature off, you will hear a pop here and there.

 

Hi mate, that's very intersting.....how do I find the advanced section of the drivers to turn off the power management feature? I have the Realtek drivers from the Dell website installed (version 6.01.6240). What drivers do you have and where did you get them from?

I am still hearing the popping sound after a sound is played like you describe and when shutting off and booting just like you describe.

Would be really helpful if you could point me in the right direction to sort this out.

 

Press the Waves Audio touch button, the driver interface will pop up. On the top blue row, click Advanced. You will see the Power Management feature, just turn that off and click OK.

 

I also had rattling at 200, but am not sure if that's enough of a reason to send this back or not.

 

But why don't others have this issue. It looks like problem with electronics. If it is a power management issue then every one should experience the problem, no?

 

Others probably aren't bothered by it or have already turned off the feature. Or maybe their audio hardware doesn't make as loud of a pop as it does for some of us when it turns on or off.

 

It only did it when playing music for me. Haven't had any trouble lately though, using Dell's drivers (reinstalled 'em a couple of times).

 

I am one of the moderators for the notebook Dell Community Forums. I found the thread and am checking to see if any of you that are still having problems with popping sounds from the system have tried version A02 of the realtek driver. The driver may be found on the following links.

Drivers and Downloads

or from the FTP site
ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/audio/R288660.exe

TB

 

That is the driver I am using and I get the muffled pops occassionally, it always happens when shutting down and booting up windows but apart from that I am not hearing it anywhere else now.

Not sure why it does it during shutting down and booting up though?

BTW, I have disabled the power management feature as per ra990's post.

 

Yep, same driver. Was getting pops until I disabled the Power Management feature. Still get pops on bootup and shutdown as the audio hardware turns on and off. I doubt there will be a solution to that, but its such a minor annoyance, I don't really care.

 

I am not sure the driver is going to fix the pop up during the boot. It may be a BIOS thingy.

 

Hello guys, I may not be an expert on these issues, but I'm just sharing my opinion here - I have trust in the fact that the Power Management is causing the pops and not the drivers.

You see, when I turn my home theater on and off, there is a loud 'boom' coming from the subwoofer. So, relating to this, the pop sound should be coming from the subwoofer as it has to discharge before it can be turned off safely. Just my thought.

 

May be it is OFF by default in latest version of the driver. But still don't why some people don't have this issue but some other. It should still heared during boot or shutdown

 

Yes, I think it is off be default in the new drivers. That's probably why most people don't hear it. I had turned it on because it sounded like a good idea, but wasn't worth the pops. There's nothing we can do about the pops during boot up and down. It's too minor of an issue to address anyway.

 

Same here. It is not very loud but if you look for it you can hear. Otherwise my speakers are loud and no noise at maximum. I am happy with that.

 

Turning off the Power Management feature immediately fixed the problem for me. If I toggle the Power Management feature back on the popping comes back.

I'll be keeping this setting off.

 

I set the power management thing to activate only when on battery and not when plugged into AC. I really don't mind the sound though. Considering that I blew up the subwoofer and just had it replaced, this isn't a problem at all! Just sayin!

 

Thanks for the information, I will pass the information that the driver in itself doesn't seem to correct the issue, but changing the power saving settings does. Popping sounds at boot and shut down often can't be help as the system is no longer in an Windows enviroment. But would I would like to hear from anyone that still has the popping sound with the A02 driver regardless of power saving settings.

 

Actually the power saving feature is part of the driver. It comes up under the Dell/Realtek/WavesMaxx audio control panel.

 

Well after disabling the power saving feature I am no longer getting any pops now when using my laptop.

However, I still get the pops when shutting down and booting windows which I can live with.

 

I had those pops whenever I was playing music, not at boot up or shut down. The power management setting didn't change it for me, same sounds still. It got really bad sometimes, popping 5 times in 3 seconds.

Few things I have done:
- Reinstalling the Realtek Wave drivers provided by Dell (from the website)
- Installed drivers from the Realtek website (That made me lose the Wave options)
- Installed the drivers from Dell again

And.. Haven't heard any poppings ever since. So I'm quite happy .

 

Been having some popping problems so I uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled the drivers providing earlier in the thread. No popping but I lost the Wave control panel.

 

Those were the drivers I suggested. Try installing the one from Dell again now.

 

You know I don't know what happened exactly, but I'm getting popping again. It seems to happen whenever I do a task (e.g. open a browser, switch between windows, etc.)