Speaker audio delay

Question

I have a strange issue with my laptop speakers (Inspiron 2in1, Dell/Windows 10).

When I use my systems' speakers (Realtek), and try to play any sound file downloaded to my laptop, there is a long delay (5 to 15 seconds) before it starts playing.

This does not happen if I use external speakers or headphones, only when I use Realtek.

So, I thought it was an issue with Realtek. I did all the troubleshooting available under the stars to try to fix Realtek (updates, troubleshooting, un/re-installing, etc.). The issue happens on any player (windows media player, VLC, etc.)

The weird thing is that the Realtek issue disappears if I am OFFLINE. This does not make any sense to me: why would a wifi connection delay a file that I am not streaming? What is happening?

Any idea? Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi

Welcome to Microsoft community.

I'm glad to help you.

If the problem is in the case of connecting to WiFi, then the first consideration may be the audio playback delay caused by your WiFi driver, although the WiFi and audio are not the same driver, but it may also cause compatibility interference problems.

You can uninstall your wifi driver first, and reinstall the latest version, if there is a problem with the latest version, you can also consider installing the old version of your wifi driver on the official website to check if the problem disappears.

In the meantime, create a new local administrator account, play your audio file, and check that the delay problem disappears. Exclude interference caused by other programs or backends on your current account.

If anything is unclear, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Best regards

Derrick Qian | Microsoft Community Support Specialist