17 Posts
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17890
XPS 8930, Realtek audio driver 2021, slow boot
Greetings,
Just wanting to share a funny experience which increased my windows boot time by 400% ( yes 4 times slower).
Thanks to the use of Bootracer I am able to keep an eye on my PC boot times in quite detail like Bios, Windows , User logon and startup programs.
The Windows boot time used to be around 20 s , but increased suddenly to 85 and sometimes 90 s.
Looking at what happened just before the boot time increase I found the installation suggested by Dell Support Assist, of a new Realtec High Definition Audio driver (Realtek-High-Definition-Audio-Driver_PP3Y7_WIN_6.0.9205.1_A21.EXE)
Rolling back to the 2020 Microsoft version solved the boot increase time issue. So newer is not always better and when it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Unbelievable !
Francis
RoHe
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December 7th, 2021 10:00
@silly_Lilly - Dell re-posted a direct link to an older Realtek driver v6.0.1.8248 for the XPS 8930 that doesn't cause the slow boot issue.
Still unexplained by Dell went back two driver versions to one from 2019, when Realtek v6.0.9107.1 from 2021 also doesn't cause slow booting. FWIW, I'm using v6.0.9107.1 which was restored by rolling back the driver in Device Manager.
So try rolling back it back in Device Manager, and if that doesn't install the right driver, manually download the one at the link above and install it yourself.
RoHe
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October 14th, 2021 11:00
BTW: The Realtek driver also uninstalls and reinstalls Waves MaxxAudio Pro at the same time, which is the main audio control software on the XPS 8930. So that's another possible place your update got messed up.
RoHe
10 Elder
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44.4K Posts
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October 14th, 2021 11:00
Realtek audio driver 6.0.9205.1 was installed on my XPS 8930 on 10/7/21 and I haven't seen this problem. According to Task Manager the last boot time (today) was 9.9 sec.
Maybe you just had a bad install of the driver? You might want to manually set a System Restore point to be safe, and then manually download and install the new driver, without using SupportAssist.
Brocktoon623
22 Posts
1
October 14th, 2021 14:00
I can confirm this same thing has happened to two other 8930 systems in the past week! Not sure why everyone isn't seeing it, but more people may run into this issue as Win10 Windows Update is now pushing this update out as forced non-optional on some systems. I came to the same conclusion and fixed the issue by rolling to the Microsoft High Definition Audio device driver. My story ...
I run a lean XPS 8930 without a lot of installed software and a SSD boot drive. Running Win10 Home 21H1 without fast-startup, and my system usually boots in ~ 10 seconds. I noticed about a week ago that my fans were ramping up while watching youtube and the cpu was pegging. Rebooted and the time jumped from ~ 10 seconds to ~ 90 seconds. The CPU appeared to be used by the HD Audio Background Process. I checked my Windows Update Driver history and System Restore ... and sure enough earlier in the day Windows Update pushed out 'Realtek Semiconductor Corp. - MEDIA - 6.0.9205.1' to my computer ... forced as I did not click on checking for updates. Troubleshooting:
Re-installing the Realtek 9205 driver from Dell does not fix the issue, and Windows Update will keep trying to force this driver update if you remove it. For a current solution I've found:
A few days ago a friend who also has an XPS 8930 mentioned his boot time dramatically increased. I had him check his Windows Update history and he also had the Realtek 9205 driver update pushed to his system this week. I had him rollback to the MS driver for now, and his problems were fixed as well. He was also on Win10 21H1
Not sure why this isn't affecting all 8930 Realtek users, but that's 3 of us so far, and there will probably be more. It's one thing if people are voluntarily downloading this driver update from Dell, but MS is now force installing it for some via Windows Update. Realtek/Dell should pull this driver until they know what's going on
RoHe
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October 14th, 2021 17:00
It was offered to me as an optional update by Windows Update.
You may need to re-configure Waves MaxxAudio Pro after rolling back the drivers.
EDIT: I pinged my Dell tech contacts about this thread...
505Kelvin
3 Posts
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October 14th, 2021 22:00
I have been experiencing the same issue with my XPS 15 9500. After updating via Windows 10 update, Intel update and Dell update my restart boot time jumped from 13 seconds to 140 seconds.
This post helped me solve the problem.
I downdated the Realtek driver from my local PC at C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore from Realtek 9210 Realtek 9089.
For context my XPS15 also has an NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device driver and Intel Display Audio driver.
speedstep
9 Legend
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October 15th, 2021 02:00
@505Kelvin
Rolling back to an old malware vunerable driver is not recommended.
The windows DCH driver requirement is why the drivers start having issues. This is a microsoft problem not a dell problem.
505Kelvin
3 Posts
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October 15th, 2021 04:00
I may wrong but AFAIK driver version 9089, dated January 6th 2021. Is not vulnerable to malware.
ispalten
4 Operator
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2K Posts
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October 15th, 2021 05:00
I was told to install that driver by Customer Care on a different problem on my XPS8940.
Booting is NOT taking longer, TM shows 9.7 in BIOS. Just another data point.
B1tbull
17 Posts
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October 15th, 2021 06:00
Hi Ron,
Actually I got the driver from a Dell Technical Updates email and downloaded the installer exe.
Pointing to support assist was a mistake, but you are right. Sometimes support assist driver updates fail , while downloading the installer and executing that works fine.
Francis
Oldguy67
14 Posts
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October 15th, 2021 10:00
NEW IT..Sort of.Every time I get a forced realtek I loose sound and have to fool around to get it back.Noticed the boot time was way to long.Didn't realize it was realtek issue.Man I hate this stuff.Like dell,like the 8930 but I love this forum.Thank you all.
RoHe
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October 15th, 2021 12:00
Sometimes (many times) you need to uninstall existing Realtek drivers first, rather than just installing the new one "on top".
Any improvements?
Keep in mind Waves MaxxAudio Pro needs to be reconfigured every time Realtek audio drivers are updated. On my XPS 8930, every time there's a Realtek update, Maxx decides my external speakers are "internal" on the Playback screen in its control panel and there's no way to change that setting directly. My speakers work but they sound awful when Maxx thinks they're internal.
So:
Oldguy67
14 Posts
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October 15th, 2021 13:00
Thanks for reminding me about resetting Max for 5.1 I forgot to do that.
Brocktoon623
22 Posts
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October 15th, 2021 13:00
It was optional for me as well for a while. Then at some point Windows Update just decided to update that driver, while leaving alone the other optional driver updates. I've seen Windows Update do this in the past as well on other computers. It seems MS will randomly push some of the optional updates from time to time even without manually checking for updates. I've even seen BIOS updates pushed via Windows Update this way. Just a head's up that some may get this driver update pushed via Windows Update.
But, it doesn't look like everyone is adversely affected by it
RoHe
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October 15th, 2021 16:00
It might depend on the level of "importance". This one is "Recommended". And maybe that got changed after Windows Update started offering it as "optional".
And in the past, optional updates could be hidden which is no longer possible...