Dell Xps 13 annoying audio device pop-up

If you don't have it you may not be able to limit audio output to just one device, such as a headset.

Look at your output devices and see if it shows Speaker/Headset...

I'm not really sure what you're saying here. The speaker/headset option is present. Just to clarify, earphones work when I plug them in, I just dont want to have to select them as an option when i plug them in.

If you look through the forum you will see folks complaining about sound playing from both internal speakers and headphones.  In the old days, the selection was made physically with a switch on he Headphone plug.  Todays machines use electronic switching to decide what output it wants.

If the popup requires you to select an output you probably need it.  If it just gives you information , I can see why you want to disable it.  There may be an option if the Sound Manger or in the Notification settings.

I just tested my Inspiron 17 2-in-1 by having the speakers play music and plugging in the headphone.  The speakers continued to play until I select the Headphones in the pop-up window and clicked OK.  If the box had not popped up I will have to assume the headset would not have been available for playback.

Some of these things may depend on the type of plug the headset device has, such as is it a Stereo and communications device, which many of them are.

Hi,

Thanks for the response. I'm just a little frustrated by all this. I've had lots of laptops, both windows and macbooks and none have them required me to select an audio option to play sound through headphones. It's obviously a decision that was made somewhere along the way by Dell or Realtek

Well, to me it would appear to be a decision made by the equipment manufacturers.  After all, using one plug to use multiple devices could not have been possible with older equipment.

It also gives the system a chance to set up individual preferences for each device.

Does anyone know what to do so that the laptop just routes audio to any device i plug in?

Hello. If you switch to the Windows native audio driver, that might eliminate the extra step caused by the popup. However, it will also eliminate the enhancements that come with the Realtek driver, e.g. WavesMaxx.

Also there might be an option to turn off the popup. Here is a screen shot of the option circled in red, in the Dell Audio app Advanced tab. I don't remember what model laptop the pic came from. There is a lot of variation from model to model, but if you have the Dell Audio app, it should be found in the Windows Control Panel.

Many models work fine without the popup, but Saltgrass experience indicates that some have to have it, if using the Realtek driver.

Hey, thanks fo rthe info. sadly I don't have that app and I can't find a similar diable box. I've been through every menu imaginable :)

How would I go about switching to the native windows drivers? when I uninstall the realtek drivers the windows version don't take over automatically.

Thanks for your help

One method is to uninstall the Realtek driver and to put a checkmark in the box to delete the files, then re-boot. When Windows can't find any Realtek files it is supposed to install the native driver, but if it finds the files from an older version of the Realtek driver, it will install that version, so it might be necessary to complete the procedure more than once. Also might be a good idea to turn off Windows Updates so it doesn't look for a Realtek driver.

The other method is this, which works for most models but a few, particularly 2-in1 models, have difficulty getting it to work.

1. Open the Device Manager
2. Expand the "Sound, video & game controllers" and right click on "Realtek High Definition Audio".
3. Select to "Update Driver Software".
4. Click on "Browse my computer for driver software".
5. Click "Let me pick from a list of drivers on my computer".
6. Put a check in the box "Show compatible hardware" if not already checked [but SEE NOTE].
7. In the list of devices, click "High Definition Audio" (the native driver).
8. Click "Next".
9. On the Update Driver Warning box, click "Yes" (install the driver).
10. Restart the laptop if prompted. If not prompted, sometimes you have to restart, sometimes not.
[To get back to the Realtek driver, do it again but reverse the names in steps 2 and 7.]

NOTE: if you have a 2-in-1 model and do not see a "High Definition Audio" option after step 6, then uncheck "Show compatible hardware". Then in step 7, if you see 2 "High Definition Audio" devices, select the 2nd one. On some models the native driver is called Intel High Definition Audio.