Alienware M15X Sound Probs, please help

glad to hear your problems cleared up

 

ARGHHHH!!! A06 messed up the sound again and i cant restore it. oh well back to square one.

lesson learn, if it aint broken, dont fix..

 

what drivers are you using?

for nvidia

 

Oh yeah tuenkamen, just wanted to let you know my audio problem is fixed. BIO A05, uninstalled the sound drivers, installed Nvidia beta drivers did it for me. Thanks bro.

 

no prob im not gonna give in to letting people tell me its the audio cards fault its damn nvidias problem this fix is also in the 257.15 drivers which i am now using and just benched above 13.4k(13415) woot

 

Perhaps a little early for celebration, but the Nvidia beta drivers appear to have resolved the audio issue for me as well. Was already running the A05 Bios.

 

Interesting... I did not see this issue coming from the video driver!!! Humm.. time to check the sound with the IDT HD Drivers...

Nonetheless, I still register some distortion when I push full volume, but it may be the headphones.

Will let you know if the issue is gone at least for my case.

Details: BIOS A06 with NVidia 257.

 

Damn a06 bios!

Been trying to restore to a05, nv 257.15, reinstall IDT driver with no luck..

Cracking and tearing still.

Im losing my mind, what the hell is wrong here???

Anyone..

 

For the rest:

STICK TO A05 BIOS.

 

Well, I can confirm what Anyatan said, BIOS A06, NV 257 and IDT A01 does not work at all.

Basically, I will have to live with the Windows default driver for the moment.

 

I was originally running A05 and the IDT drivers along with the current NVIDIA drivers, not the beta version just released. Uninstalled the IDT drivers which improved things marginally though the issue was still prevelant. Once updating to the NVIDIA beta drivers the audio issue appears to be fixed. Volume output has increased substantially and I have yet to here crackling at max volume. Should add that I also disabled Windows 7 Core Parking. Did this just after installing the NVIDIA beta drivers, so perhaps that is playing a part as well. Not sure.

 

it shouldn't only thing to make sure is that you have HD audio driver and either the 197.31(M17XR1 beta driveres or the new 257.15 drivers) this allows for perfect audio playback. enjoy

 

Tuenkamen,

So if i change my graphics card to an Ati 5870 the sound issue would be solved because as we think the issue is coming from the Nvidia gtx260?

 

yes in theory and from seeing people who own the 5850 are not complaining about the sound issues i.e. nvidia powermizer is to blame

 

Just created an account to say that the combination of A05 and the latest 257.15 Nvidia driver *almost* entirely fixed the sound crackling problem that I was experiencing on my M15x. I'm glad I found this thread

rieuwa

M15x, i7-620M, 8GB 1333, 1080p, GTX260M, 500GB, 9-cell, BD-RW

 

did you uninstall the IDT drivers????

 

I've the problem, since the bios A06 update, that the DisplayPort in the sound options isn't there. :-( I reinstalled my system the drivers from the Dell homepage. But still the same problem.

Do somebody has an idea for this problem?

 

hmm im guessing you have the 5850 from the ATI showing up there hmm another issue of the 5850. hmmm idk what to do about this problem but your option other than this is connecting your audio to your tv via headphone connection other than that. i don't really play audio through my tv because i have an external sound system this allows the audio to not run through to many devices which can lead to less sound quality.

 

Not having gone through all the pages on this thread, have you guys tried turning off the Power Management utility in the IDT control panel applet? We had some issues with really bad sound on an E4300 and turning off Power Management fixed it completely.

 

haven't tried that that but i don't know if was tested prior to me being on the forums.

but I'm sticking with the HD audio as i have better quality audio and it is louder at max

 

Sup guys! I have had a problem with my speakers since day one! It´s like a crackling noise if you know what I mean when I raise the volume to like 35%, that´s something I would expect to happen when you have the volume on 100% :S. Anyone know how to fix this?

 

one get rid of the IDT audio drivers in programs and features and report back.

two make sure the advanced playback in the sound properties is set to 44100 mhz.

 

Okay then what is the driver I should use?

Edit: 44100 mhz 16 or 24bit?

 

the driver you should use windows will reload upon restart and for the 44100 mhz its 16 bit is the level i use. to be honest i haven't tried 24 bit but i wouldn't see the point to it

 

Okay so the only thing I need to do is uninstall IDT and then restart the computer ? Just wanna be sure you know.

 

So I'm guessing this is also an issue with the ATI cards now?

 

no now im guessing its a cross connection between the audio and video cards causing these audio issues. As I said before i was only aware of the 260m being the main culprit at the time.

@ramusbjork yes just have those uninstalled should have good audio then enjoy and let us know if your still having audio problems.

 

I just upgraded my BIOS on my M15x from A03 to A06 and it was crackling my audio, never did before. I uninstalled the IDT Audio Driver right away and reinstalled it from the Dell Support page, rebooted and still crackling. But I left earlier, leaving the computer in sleep mode for some hours, then suddenly I hear no crackling? Weird fix, but hope maybe this helps some.

 

hmmm im guessing you have the 260m

 

Yeah... i have same problem tomorrow i send my m15x to dell laboratory.

 

i wish dell and alienware would work together... the first time I got my M15x in the mail, I was excited as can be. 7 days later, the motherboard crashed... 7 days later, the technician came and took apart the entire computer. Afterwards the touch sensitive bar with the power button back screws would not go in, they would but would leave a bulge in the front so I left the screws off. Argh. And now this noise crackling is making this M15x experience not as smooth as I had imagined, but I'm still with it til it dies!

 

Bios A05, HD Audio, and the latest Beta NVidia drivers corrected the sound crackling issue for me so far as I can tell. Volume output at 100% increased as well. That being said, I'm still very unsatisfied with the audio. Find it to be very weak in most respects. Listening to music via my junk DELL laptop for work provides a far superior experience and it's a few generations behind the most basic of laptops these days. I'm also getting a small amount of line noise which just adds insult to injury. This is happening with every pair of headphones or speakers I hook up to the laptop, so it certainly appears to be an issue with the laptop. The built-in speakers on the other hand I find excellent for a laptop. No issues there at all. All that being said, I decided to purchase a Creative ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi Notebook sound card to see what improvements the solution would offer over the on-board sound. Figured worse case senario I could just send the card back to Newegg. Just received the ExpressCard today and couldn't be happier with the sound, at least through the headphones I'm using. (Won't have an opportunity to test the card using my PC speakers until this weekend.) Absolutely no line noise or crackling at any volume level and the volume output and overall quality of the audio has increased dramatically. It's in another league compared to the on-board audio as well it should be I'd imagine. No bloatware to deal with either. Downloaded the beta driver package for Windows 7 from Creative's site which only installs the drivers and Creative Audio Control Panel. Once completing the install and restarting I simply went to Sound Properties via the Control Panel and ensured the X-Fi card was selected as the default playback and recording device. Done deal. I know this doesn't do anything to improve the on-board sound issues people have been having, but even once free of those issues I was still unsatisfied and would imagine others may be as well. If you want the most out of your M15x experience you really owe it to yourself to give the X-Fi card a try. Just make sure to purchase it from a place that has a good return policy in the event you are not satisfied with it.

 

yea i have contemplated buying that as i believe its the only way to have the best possible audio i've only tried to work with what i paid for with some success but has audio issues with certain songs as they are not crystal clear. next item to buy X -Fi notebook sound card.

 

how has the Creative ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi Notebook sound card sound so far? I may be thinking about getting that as an alternative to the onboard sound card. Its just very irritating that we have to deal with these quality control issues when it should have been tested, but I guess that the build quality of Dell/Alienware isnt comparable to that of Apple, but well above some of its competitors on the market imo. Its almost a win lose situation because at the same time you get to know the in and outs of your laptop which is helpful to others as well.

EDIT: my crackling problem only seems to be through the USB port. I have a Logitech AudioHub and it doesn't use the audio jacks, but I plugged it to the e-SATA/USB combo port and the crackling seems to go away. Even without any external speakers, the internal speakers have no crackling. Its really awkward.

 

ik its odd but dell/aw seem to be unable to really come up with a fix for this.....

 

Well this is weird.

I accidentally "somehow" fixed the sound crackling and tearing again.. With the NV 257.15 and A05 bios.

Somehow i almost gave up fixing it and just stuck with the NV 197.xx driver and just the stock windows HD sound driver for like a week now. Last night i tried to fix it again, before installing the NV 257 driver i did a battery drain trick plus took the battery out and left it out for like a couple of hours. Then powered up and then played a bit of farmville (dont know if this is related. ) then installed the NV 257 driver then turned the laptop off then slept. This morning i installed the IDT driver and that somehow fixed it.

Again weird.

 

Although the best fix in here would be to get the creative xfi sound card. Even tho the sound is almost free from cracking and tearing, its not that great.

I hope DELL people would read this and get their act together and find a fix on their all powerful laptop.

 

great work Anyatan glad you got your audio working right

but yea the X-Fi gives much better sound quality compared to the onboard card so yea next thing to buy is that.

 

Uhm.... same problem here , I uninstall IDT drivers and the problem its almost gone, but now i have only 1 audio output , and no 3 (in the panel of idt with the 5.1 config).... its so sadly.. and frustrating ¬¬

I have see IDT page, and said that the IDT 92HD83 (that its in use by the M15x) is being discontinued and not recommended for new designs (of pcs i guess...)

so dell its using old pieces with this alienware? i dont know... but maybe they should fix this driver issue with IDT but to be honest i dont see a quick fix here :'(

 

there is no fix that im aware of for the horrid drivers also its a low quality piece of equipment i suggest getting an external sound card for better quality.

 

Yep i have read alll the post, and try all the possible solutions, the better for me uninstal IDT drivers, but i have problem with the MIC, have sometimes horrible sound, so the solution as you say its getting the external sound card... but i have no money right now (guess why ) lol, so.... i have to live without drivers

 

meh im saving for now but i don't use the mic so im overall happy with my system. still wanting to get the 5850 from dell but gonna save and wait till the next gpu comes out for it.

 

ok there is a valid fix now without the video driver being anything specific as far as i know will test with non dpc fix drives to check this.

this guide is awesome and enjoy

EDIT: i can say that his works with other drivers that do not include the dpc fix woohoo

 

Consolidating threads... please continue this discussion here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/495553-audio-crackling-15x-discussion-thread.html

Thanks.