M204

It is very expensive, has a great chassis and great specs. However, those installed specs in action are terrible. I have had a 2017 XPS 15 9560 (7700HQ, 16gb, 1tb) and just bought 2022 XPS 15 9520 (12900HK, 64 gb, 2 TB). Definitely the 2017 with those specs was better. I want to return it and buy a different one but I want to see how it compares first to others before I do so.

I’ve had the unit for about a week and also have the dock, but one issue that was immediately present is an audio driver issue; there was periodic feedback that started initially like a bad bearing in a fan spinning up (think knock knock knock like a ticking CV joint in a car), but increased in tempo and then would go away for a period of time. Driver updates did nothing.

At first I thought it was some sort of electrical noise issue, but I isolated the auxiliary inputs and built in speakers separately. The issue persisted for either. I read online that some people had numerous hardware components replaced for prior builds of this laptop, and it didn’t make the issue go away.

However what made the issue go away for them and for me was to uninstall the realtek drivers and use the MSFT audio driver instead - this is fine for me as I have a pre-amp and external equalizer to offset the loss of fidelity and gain due to this configuration.

Other than that, great laptop.

Sep 29, 2023 11:28 AM By Omnom900

2

I’ve had the unit for about a week and also have the dock, but one issue that was immediately present is an audio driver issue; there was periodic feedback that started initially like a bad bearing in a fan spinning up (think knock knock knock like a ticking CV joint in a car), but increased in tempo and then would go away for a period of time. Driver updates did nothing. At first I thought it was some sort of electrical noise issue, but I isolated the auxiliary inputs and built in speakers separately. The issue persisted for either. I read online that some people had numerous hardware components replaced for prior builds of this laptop, and it didn’t make the issue go away. However what made the issue go away for them and for me was to uninstall the realtek drivers and use the MSFT audio driver instead - this is fine for me as I have a pre-amp and external equalizer to offset the loss of fidelity and gain due to this configuration. Other than that, great laptop.

Hi,

Was this issue related to coil whine?

Kind Regards, Rm2000

Sep 29, 2023 11:28 AM By Omnom900

2

I’ve had the unit for about a week and also have the dock, but one issue that was immediately present is an audio driver issue; there was periodic feedback that started initially like a bad bearing in a fan spinning up (think knock knock knock like a ticking CV joint in a car), but increased in tempo and then would go away for a period of time. Driver updates did nothing. At first I thought it was some sort of electrical noise issue, but I isolated the auxiliary inputs and built in speakers separately. The issue persisted for either. I read online that some people had numerous hardware components replaced for prior builds of this laptop, and it didn’t make the issue go away. However what made the issue go away for them and for me was to uninstall the realtek drivers and use the MSFT audio driver instead - this is fine for me as I have a pre-amp and external equalizer to offset the loss of fidelity and gain due to this configuration. Other than that, great laptop.

5 months later, still a good laptop you would recommend? No dead pixels, no crazy fan noise?