XPS 15 audio stops working after I plug/unplug my headphones

This problem just happened randomly on my XPS 15 9550. I didn't install anything when the problem started occurring.

I was playing music on my laptop, which came out fine. Then when I plugged in my headphones, there was no sound that came out. When I unplugged it, my laptop's audio simply stopped working entirely. The same problem appears again every time I plug any sort of headphone/earphone, and the only way to get the sound working again is to restart my laptop, but the problem will come again any time I plug in my headphone or earphone.
Strangely, leaving my headphones plugged into my laptop when it's turned off, then turning my laptop on causes the headphones to work properly with no problems, and even when unplugging it, the laptop's audio will work. It's only after plugging my headphones in does the problem occur.

I tried everything I could do with my sound driver. Through device manager, I reinstalled the Realtek audio driver, updated it, rolled it back, did a system restore, troubleshoot, and switched audio drivers, but none of these solutions worked.

Anyone know any other solutions?

EDIT: Nevermind. The problem fixed itself after I got a bsod.... No idea how, but whatever.

 

Audioboard defective, others including me had that too. Dell technician needs to come and exchange it. Of course this requires the error to show up, so you might have to wait a bit until it is back.

 

I have the same problem how did you fix yours???

 

I had the same problem for a while, and it fixed itself. I was trying to get rid of the stock driver that kept on reinstalling and it happened. I use an external DAC so it probably confused my unit even more.

 

I picked up audio drivers directly from the realtek site; audio sounds pretty good considering the tiny speakers and underside placement. You can search here for a link that brings you to the audio set up and exact driver I am using or choose a more updated driver. FYI I killed MAXX. No guarantees but may be worth a look

I use a couple of USB DACs and don't have that issue.

 

How did you kill MAXX? The only reason I wanted to get rid of stock driver was to kill MAXX that kept re-enabling itself. Funny thing is that whenever I restart, the drivers reinstalled and worse, MAXX is enabled without any UI to disable it. Realtek ones ended up getting replaced by windows updates (Dell ones) eventually. I solved it by denying system access to the realtek folder, and disabling auto install drivers for new devices, but it's a really bad fix.

The external DAC had no issues, it was the speakers and headphone jack that kept going muted until a system restart, and eventually fixed itself while I was frantically restarting the system over and over again trying to test if I got rid of the Dell drivers for good or not.

 

Check out my older posts for some ideas; also someone responded to one of those posts (maybe Eason or custom90gt) with steps to really kill MAXX. I suppose you could disable via the command prompt also but this stuff is so persistent...

EASY ALTERNATIVE - Waves and some Realtek garbage are very persistent at self-downloading and self-installing, so I have never got an ideal solution. Regardless, I found two things worked for decent audio via speakers, headphones and a few USB DACs with no real bugs:

1. In task manager under startup I have the following disabled: "Waves MaxxAudio Service Application" (that is the WavesSvc64.exe) which I think is the real problem child. I think that prevents the terrible EQ and processing panel from running

2. installing a realtek driver from the realtek site does not seem to self update (maybe because realtek driver is dated later than dell driver OR maybe because official realtek driver will not self update). I have a post which links you to the Realtek driver site. 6.0.1.7898 dated 2 aug 2016 sounds fine via speakers and headphones and is stable. You download the file then can install it via device manager (sound, video and game controllers).

Audio bugs (I can live with for now):

1. I still get static sound when changing brightness via F11 or F12.
2. There is some youtube static sound when played at >1.0 speed via DAC (even with custom ASIO or ASIO4ALL drivers etc.). I think that only happens when the DAC sample rate is not 44.1 or 48 but it is irritating and I see no fix..

 

I tried disabling MAXX audio startup, but that didn't work. The realtek driver actually didn't self update on my second install of windows, but after screwing up the system files and doing a new system install, it would keep on updating via system update.

As for the audio bugs, I used to get static all the timewith realtek drivers (launching apps, tab switching, etc.), but on my current install static pops only happen when boot/rebooting. Adjusting brightness also has no static noise, but I'm not sure if I had it before (was too busy with getting rid of MAXX). My FiiO Q3 runs fine with no static at 96KHz with youtube even at 2x speed. Honestly I feel like it's the whole realtek drivers messing up with the system, and with those audio bugs, I think I might just stick with Windows basic drivers with my ghetto solution.

 

I took have experienced this problem quite frequently. Is it really a hardware issue that needs to be looked at? My laptop's warranty is coming to an end in 30 days. Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

In start up , make sure all audio svc are enabled :
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Did you have an image on this post? Don't see... but curious which services specifically I need to ensure are enabled.

Thanks