e6500 crackling audio

I have been suffering this dreaded problem for close to a year now. It originally appeared on a Vostro 1510 (way back in May 2008). After many calls to Dell support and a motherboard replacement, a second 1510 was sent to me. It had the same problem. Dell offered to send me their new 2510, however, I did not want it because it only came in the color red. Much to my chagrin, Dell sent it anyway. To add to my frustration, IT HAD THE SAME DAMN PROBLEM. By this time the E6500 became available. I sent the Vostro 2510 back, got a refund, then ordered an E6500.

This machine did not have the audio problem, however, it did have one of the defective Samsung LCD screens. Thinking the audio problem was limited to the Vostro line, I sent the E6500 back for the better LG screen. The 2nd E6500 arrived and the screen was beautiful!!! Unfortunately....IT HAD THE DREADED AUDIO PROBLEM.

After trying all the remedies presented in this thread to no avail, I simply gave up on it and resigned myself to not playing music on the E6500 (I could always listen to my iPod) and NEVER ordering from Dell again.

When January rolled around, I installed the beta of Windows 7. While this appeared to help some (I was getting stutters every minute instead of every 30 seconds) it did not totally alleviate the problem.

Fast forward to today, after hearing about the new XP mode in Windows 7 RC1, I decided to give it a spin. In preparation for the install, I upgraded the system firmware to the most current version (A12). I then proceeded to do a clean install. This new version of Windows 7 did a much better job of recognizing the hardware in the E6500. The only software I had to install were drivers for the fingerprint scanner, the Control Point app, and the software for the integrated webcam. After all was installed, I decided to play an audio file. Lo and behold, THE F-ING AUDIO PROBLEM IS GONE!!!!

I'm not sure what fixed the issue...the latest firmware, Windows 7 RC1, or the fact I didn't install any drivers other than the ones I mentioned. Or maybe it was a combination of all three. At any rate, for those of you still suffering, I thought I would share this info in the hopes it helps someone else.

 

You really only thought about upgrading the BIOS now? So much for having tried all possible solutions....ALWAYS try ALL latest drivers before saying the issue is unsolvable

 

Ummmmm.....if you read CAREFULLY you will note I had GIVEN UP on fixing the issue since way back in December '08. Don't you think while I was ACTIVELY trying to fix it I had all the LATEST drivers/firmware? As I mentioned earlier, this had been a problem that has plagued me since last May. I figured I had spent enough time on it. The fact that everything else was in working order, and (as I said) I had given up, there was no need to obtain further updates.

It wasn't until RC1 showed up that I decided to have another crack at it. Even then, my main reason was to try XP mode, not fix the issue. Isn't it odd I had the presence of mind to update the BIOS? Gosh, I guess I was just lucky, seeing has how I don't try all possible solutions. /sarcasm

Like I said before, I'm not sure which change corrected the issue; the BIOS update or the updated drivers that came bundled with RC1. In addition, while the problem appears to be solved for me, many people (who I'm sure are clever enough to 'ALWAYS try ALL latest drivers') are (for the moment) finding this problem......wait for it.....UNSOLVABLE!!!!

 

Actually it's been solved for most....that's also why it's been a while since anyone has posted in this thread or others like this

 

Well, in my case the problem was gone, too; running several W7 Betas and at last RC. Yesterday, it appeared again. I haven't been able to fix it since and once again am totally frustrated.

 

Strange... FWIW, I also upgraded to Windows 7 RC (not using any XP compatibility mode to my knowledge) and the problem is 100% gone. Whatever skipping problem I had seemed to be related to Vista and/or drivers in Vista. I am running Windows 7 and didn't install one piece of Dell drivers or software. All are stock Windows 7 drivers. Obviously some things won't work without the 3rd party driver and aren't recognized by Windows 7 though (RICOH something or other, don't know what it is, don't care - and fingerprint reader, wasn't working very well to begin with, don't need t).

 

The Ricoh drivers are for all your card readers, PCMCIA, PCI-Express, smartcard etc.

 

I just got my e6400 the other day and it had this problem out of the box with bios A14. i installed the latest WLAN half-card driver and now i think the problem has been solved, so check that out if you haven't yet.

 

Also running the 8.8 Intel Matrix Storage Manager? If not, that could further improve it.

 

oh yeah, forgot to mention that it already had that version loaded.