Alienware 17 R4 audio issue

Howdy folks. New problem with my R4 here. On the 3rd motherboard and no end in sight

Every few weeks I'll wake the laptop up from sleep and the audio will go full volume static on the left side. If I plug in headphones/mic it doesn't go away, but if I wiggle them around it will usually stop and become a semi-constant chattering kind of noise. Noise exacerbates the issue (like it is some kind of reverb issue), and after a long period without audio it'll usually quiet down.

Often a few reboots will fix it, but today nothing would work. I decided to install the latest Realtek drivers from the Dell website (mine were a few months old) and was surprised to see the problem fix itself for a few moments after the first reboot (the drivers are first uninstalled) but then quickly returned once the updated drivers were finished installing.

Interrupting the install process leaves me with functional audio. Reinstalling the Realtek drivers breaks it again. I am wondering if the auto-detect headphone/mic function is perhaps getting confused. You know, where you plug in a headphone or Mic and get the little popup to select it.

No clue why Dell is staffed by complete morons. This all began after the 3rd motherboard replacement when the dumbass forgot to plug the accessory board in. They played it safe and replaced the whole board but the thing has never worked properly since.

Anyone have any experience troubleshooting this? I would prefer not to breakdown the laptop trying to cold-turkey this one... and given that software ultimately fixed it, Dell might not see it as a potential hardware problem.



Thanks!

 

Is hybrid shutdown or fast startup disabled?
You can disable it by using elevated command prompt and type

Code:

powercfg -h off

See if the issue is fixed or not?

 

That did not appear to have any effect. I've tried everything I can think of, but the Realtek drivers always immediately result in my left speaker clicking repeatedly forever with terrible reverb. It is so odd. Muting the audio won't always stop it. How does that work?

And leaving it as a standard audio device in Device manager still results in random loud deafening pops in my headphones periodically for no good reason. I don't hear these when just using the speakers, however.

Any ideas are appreciated.

 

Be persistent and harsh demanding what you paid for, I personally would not mind taking it to the court demanding compensation for all the time and efforts spent to have properly working product I paid for...

 

An Alienware tech came out and discovered the Audio board was disconnected... no clue how that happened, I haven't opened the damn thing up since they replaced/reconnected everything they broke the first time. And I don't understand why being disconnected from the Sub was breaking only when the Realtek driver was in use. Maybe the default HD Audio doesn't use the Sub or something. He was extra nice and replaced the speakers.

Worked very well for a few weeks, and now today I woke the laptop from sleep and the right side is hissing up a storm. It is different though. Right side vs left. And it goes away when I mute the laptop. Rebooting seemed to fix it so I am crossing my fingers. God, what a piece of crap pain in the butt this has been Good thing I bought 4 year protection.