Audio lag and distortion

This is a fairly often reported problem on all, not just Dell's. The first thing, reinstall the Dell supplied sound driver. I used to do a lot of support on the Dell forums and we found that non-Dell supplied sound drivers either do not work or do not work correctly.

Wi-Fi is a known cause of audio problems. As this is a desktop, you should be connecting directly with a cable, not wireless unless its absolutely the only way you can connect.

Dell only has Vista drivers, but the Vista drivers work OK as Windows 7 is basically only "Vista Improved".
Driver Details | Dell US

Thanks for your help. I uninstalled the Windows driver and installed the Dell Vista driver. When I rebooted Win7 started to look for a Windows driver which I stopped. When the Dell driver was completed (installed) the results was still the same. As I mentioned above I have no way to connect directly to the modem. Too far away. Any other suggestions or did I not follow your suggestions correctly?

Thanks and I look forward to trying something else that you recommend.

I just noticed that my clock in the lower right is running slow. Replaced the cmos battery last week.

I don't think Win7 is letting me install the Dell Vista audio driver. Even when I disconnect internet connection it still installs/updates to the Win7 driver. . . . very frustrating.

Has the sound ever worked properly?

If the new battery is good, I remember there is a procedure to update the clock in the BIOS, but I don't remember what it is.

With the problems, it may be better to post this on the Dell Community Desktop forum. It is also a users helping users forum like this, but with those that are keeping up with Dell specific issues. I worked that forum for 10 years but left after some forum management changes last year.

Desktop - Dell Community

vjm530 said:

I have been looking for a solution for weeks and have tried so many options but still no luck.

I'm running Win7/64 on a Dell Inspiron 518 dual core processor.

When I attempt audio playback on files or online sound it distorts and lags. I know this is a problem that many others have but the solutions offered have not worked for me.

When I run DPC Latency Checker I get solid red. I have disabled each device one by one. When I disable the Network Adapter (Netgear WNA1100 N150 wireless usb adapter) 'most' of the reds turn to low greens. I have tried different wifi usbs and various driver updates but nothing changes. If I disable the Net Adapter sound improves but then again no internet. I have no way to connect direct via cable. I have also tried moving devices i.e. external HDs, printer & usb sound system to different USB connections but still the same.

This has been happening for about 4 weeks and cannot figure out why all of a sudden.

I've run malwarebytes and other diagnostics but no change.

Any new ideas/solutions would be greatly appreciated. Would really like to get my sound back to normal without the crackling again.

Thanks.

Hi vjm530,

Please update the below drivers for your system:

Chipset

BIOS

Audio

Kindly update your system specs here by following this.

Keep us posted with the results so we can advise you further.

I'm off this thread. Two many responses only confuse the issue.

Hi vjm530,

I appreciate the time and effort that you took to troubleshoot the issue. Please let me know the exact error message you received while installing the audio driver.

You can also disable the automatic audio driver installation by following the link below:

Drivers - Turn Off Automatic Driver Installation

Then, you can install the DELL audio driver on the system and let me know the results.

I understand this issue occurs only when you use the wireless card on the system. Can you check a different wireless card on the system to see if it improves the issue.

Keep us posted with the results so we can advise you further.

Hello SandeepP,

I don't have any idea what happened but this morning when I powered up my PC and was getting ready to respond to you I decided to do a DPC Latency check again and everything was perfect. No more solid red bars. Only small green (250-275). I was amazed. I don't know what I did as all day yesterday the audio was terrible. I did install a new Sound Blaster 24bit Live sound card to see if that would help but at the time there was no change. Today, after the PC being off over night 'something' corrected itself.

I have been working on a solution for almost a month continuously trying dozens of suggestions but none worked.

I am currently running a BackUp so I have a reference to go back to should this occur again.

BTW, Thanks for the solution to 'turn off' Automatic Driver Installation.

Anyway, all is good and I will keep you posted if something changes. Thanks again.

Vincent

UPDATE: Please next post

Sandeep P

UPDATE: HELP!

After a great day of no problems I shut down the pc last evening. When I booted up today the problem returned. Solid RED bars. I did a system restore but still the same. I have rebooted in safe mode and rebooted to see if it would install but nothing. Ran malwarebytes but nothing. I don't understand why this is happening as I purposely did not run any diagnostics or programs yesterday or any other changes. Also, the clock is running slow. What is going on?

Back to square one! Hope you can help.

Vincent