Internal laptop speaker and external headphones hiss

[hollymross]

I have a Dell laptop with Realtek High Definition speakers. Yesterday, the sound starting hissing. The volume mixer shows the sound playing for videos, etc. but you only hear hissing. I went into Control Panel and had it check the driver which it said was up to date. I plugged in headpohnes to the audio jack and hear the same hissing. Any ideas? Thx!

 

[Prostar Computer]

Hi holly,

Which make and model is the laptop?

You can try this: Download the audio driver for your OS from the manufacturer's website, uninstall the current audio driver you have, reboot the computer, and then install the driver you downloaded (you may be prompted to reboot the computer again).

 

[Stiigma]

So the hissing is something new ? Used to work like a charm before ? I'd say you can clear uninstall those drivers and install the correct ones again, but i'd say the component died. What changed ?

 

[hollymross]

Hi holly,

Which make and model is the laptop?

You can try this: Download the audio driver for your OS from the manufacturer's website, uninstall the current audio driver you have, reboot the computer, and then install the driver you downloaded (you may be prompted to reboot the computer again).

 

[hollymross]

Dell Inspiron 15R 5537 - running Windows 8.1

I have never had a problem with it until last night. I uninstalled the driver and downloaded the current (Same one) one from the Dell website and rebooted. The hissing is gone, now no noise at all.

 

[hollymross]

Just to clarify, I have no sound through internal speakers or the audio headphone jack.

 

[Prostar Computer]

Thanks holly.

Can you provide the link to the driver you downloaded? I can check to see whether there are any known problems with it or not - or if it's possibly the wrong driver.

In the meantime, you can check a couple of things:

1. Does your speaker icon in the lower right (where you adjust the volume) have an "x" over or next to it? If so, either the driver is not properly installed, or your volume is muted.
2. If you do not have an x by the speaker icon, right click on it, and select Playback devices. In the menu that comes up, check to see whether your speakers are the default playback device; if there's no green check mark next to them, highlight the speakers and then click on "Set default."

 

[hollymross]

The odd thing is that the Realtek site has been down since this started. The website won't load anything up. I entered my specs on Dell and it came up with a driver which I downloaded and installed: Audio_Driver_5F22P_WN_6.0.1.7023_A00 The link below is to the page I downloaded the driver, but not sure if that will work.

http/www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/servicetag/h697sx1/drivers/advanced?rvps=y

As for things to do in the meantime
1) There is not an X on the volume control (it is not muted)
2) I right clicked the speaker and the realtek speakers are the only playback device and are default

Thanks for the help!

Thanks holly.

Can you provide the link to the driver you downloaded? I can check to see whether there are any known problems with it or not - or if it's possibly the wrong driver.

In the meantime, you can check a couple of things:

1. Does your speaker icon in the lower right (where you adjust the volume) have an "x" over or next to it? If so, either the driver is not properly installed, or your volume is muted.
2. If you do not have an x by the speaker icon, right click on it, and select Playback devices. In the menu that comes up, check to see whether your speakers are the default playback device; if there's no green check mark next to them, highlight the speakers and then click on "Set default."

 

[Prostar Computer]

Thanks for following up, Holly!

Between the hissing and what's going on now, it's sounding like the audio chip possibly kicked the bucket. Getting the driver straight from Realtek isn't usually recommended, either - at least, not on laptops (they offer generic drivers that are better suited for desktop/towers).

And just to make sure, you got the Windows 8.1 driver, specifically? This one: Audio_Driver_5F22P_WN_6.0.1.7023_A00.EXE

The only other recommendation I can make is to remove the installed driver and reboot the computer. You should end up with the Windows native/basic driver. Test from there and see if that one works for you - hopefully it does.

 

[hollymross]

I didn't use my computer on Sunday and on Sunday the sound was back!? I hadn't done anything new so maybe the reinstall of the drive helped. Thank you so much for your input!

Thanks for following up, Holly!

Between the hissing and what's going on now, it's sounding like the audio chip possibly kicked the bucket. Getting the driver straight from Realtek isn't usually recommended, either - at least, not on laptops (they offer generic drivers that are better suited for desktop/towers).

And just to make sure, you got the Windows 8.1 driver, specifically? This one: Audio_Driver_5F22P_WN_6.0.1.7023_A00.EXE

The only other recommendation I can make is to remove the installed driver and reboot the computer. You should end up with the Windows native/basic driver. Test from there and see if that one works for you - hopefully it does.[/quotemsg]

 

[Prostar Computer]

I didn't use my computer on Sunday and on Sunday the sound was back!? I hadn't done anything new so maybe the reinstall of the drive helped. Thank you so much for your input!

Odd, but cool!