Conflicting Audio Problems-Realtek vs High Def...

I have a Dell Inspiron 5577, bought only a few months ago and I've been trying to fix this since day 1. The laptop audio, whether through the built-in speakers, external monitors or headphones, keeps popping and crackling. So I followed other people's advice and switched to the High Definition Audio Device. The crackling and buffering stopped, and sounds decent through headphones, but the laptop's speaker audio sounds like absolute unadulterated garbage. It sounds thin and tinny, as if the driver completely lost hold of the internal subwoofer function that Realtek had.
I'm also an absolute novice with computers so please have mercy.
Thanks in advance.

TL;DR
Realtek driver: popping, crackling, and buffering through any output (Headphones, speakers, internal speakers)

Native High Def driver: No popping, sounds great through headphones. Internal speakers sounds terrible. No body, too thin, perceived 1/3 of usual output on 100% volume.

I would obtain your driver from Dell's site since they may have optimised the driver for your Dell PC.

See http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/...laptop/drivers

The latest file is Realtek-High-Definition-Audio-Driver_8WWJK_WIN_6.0.1.8142_A04.EXE

ysong0414 said:

I have a Dell Inspiron 5577, bought only a few months ago and I've been trying to fix this since day 1. The laptop audio, whether through the built-in speakers, external monitors or headphones, keeps popping and crackling. So I followed other people's advice and switched to the High Definition Audio Device. The crackling and buffering stopped, and sounds decent through headphones, but the laptop's speaker audio sounds like absolute unadulterated garbage. It sounds thin and tinny, as if the driver completely lost hold of the internal subwoofer function that Realtek had.
I'm also an absolute novice with computers so please have mercy.
Thanks in advance.

TL;DR
Realtek driver: popping, crackling, and buffering through any output (Headphones, speakers, internal speakers)

Native High Def driver: No popping, sounds great through headphones. Internal speakers sounds terrible. No body, too thin, perceived 1/3 of usual output on 100% volume.

The speakers on a laptop are really more like tweeter speakers on a 3 way 6x9 car speaker where you have tweeter, mid range and sub woofer.
I use the Logitech z313external speakers. better quality in sound than the internal tweeters they install.

Steve C said:

I would obtain your driver from Dell's site since they may have optimised the driver for your Dell PC.

See http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/...laptop/drivers

The latest file is Realtek-High-Definition-Audio-Driver_8WWJK_WIN_6.0.1.8142_A04.EXE

Thank you for the response. I tried the drivers from Dell. Straight back to popping, crackling and buffering every 5 seconds or so.

On several different systems with Realtek sound chips, I use the following drivers:
http://download3.dvd-driver.cz/realt....0730.2012.zip
Yes they are older but reliable and fully stable in Windows 10, you may give them a chance.

Popping, crackling, etc is an often posted problem going back to Win 7. Its not something that only your Dell has.
There isn't a "one fix" for the problem, however one known source for many is Wi-Fi. Look at what is in startup and see if there is something that is not needed or possibly a new add-on. I saw one of these problems and it was the 3rd party anti-virus program that caused it (I uninstalled the Dell supplied AV and use the Windows Defender on my Dell laptop).

I have a new (new in September) Dell, Inspiron 15, 5577 with Realtek audio and it does not have your problem.

The generic, basic function, Windows installed High Definition audio drivers are a generic driver and do not use all of the features of the sound chip.

The Dell community, laptop forum section would be a good source for trying to resolve it, too. There are users helping users there like this forum however they are more attuned to Dell specific issues.
Laptop - Dell Community

ysong0414 said:

Thank you for the response. I tried the drivers from Dell. Straight back to popping, crackling and buffering every 5 seconds or so.

Save the driver download, uninstall the one you have, then go in device manager, uninstall the driver there, reboot then let find new hardware then install your saved driver.