Audio Output bug

[cam8528]

Good morning,

my name is cam, and i've enjoyed this Dell XPS 8950 for a few years now. It has an i9 12900K with Z690 chipset. i used the rtx 3080 that came with my build. my monitor is just a big sony bravia tv. for a few years now i just ran an hdmi 2.1 cable from the sole hdmi output port on my rtx 3080 to the hdmi input port on the bravia television. i've had great success with gaming in 4K HDR with 60Hz on the big screen.

recently while rearranging cables, i noticed there was a display port *built in* to the motherboard of my desktop. after some research i determined that my i9 12900K has its own GPU core. first i had to enable this feature in BIOS, which i did. i had an m2m display port to hdmi cable laying around so i decided to connect it to the display port output on the motherboard and the hdmi port input on the television. i updated the ARC graphics drivers and things seemed to be working OK. however i soon realized that i was stuck at 30Hz if i wanted to keep using 4K+HDR. I learned the problem was my cable was of poor quality or could not support the required data bandwidth. So i purchased an HDMI 2.1 cable, and i purchased an DisplayPort 2.0 to HDMI 2.1 cable adapter. I plugged the DisplayPort adapter into the motherboard, and i ran the new HDMI cable between the adapter and the television HDMI input.

this solved the low bandwidth problem. I am successfully running 4K @ 60Hz in HDR on my display using purely the GPU built in to my i9 12900K. its great and i don't notice any difference using the DisplayPort built in to the motherboard in contrast to the pcie x16 RTX 3080.

HOWEVER (and herein lies the reason for this forum post) the last few days i noticed that the volume doesn't work. if i use my RTX to output to the tv, it lets me select my audio output as that hdmi connection (it is an audio as well as a display interface)

if i select my audio output as intel ARC graphics in windows 11, and set my television to the corresponding input, the global volume control in windows 11 just stays at zero. i can try and move the volume control with the mouse but it immediately jumps back to zero. when i go into more audio options, and click on audio adapter properties, for most devices it has tabs for general, supported formats, levels, etc... 

for most devices the levels tab is populated with L/R channel controls etc

for the intel audio output device, the levels tab is depopulated entirely. it is blank. 

in conclusion, it would be great if my displayport built in to the motherboard would function properly, sending 4K HDR @ 60Hz to the television in addition to At a Bare Minimum, Left and Right Audio Channels, So i Could Hear My Computer From The Tv

EDIT: 

The Bravia XBR 75x800H television has Four (4) HDMI Inputs available. Of the four HDMI inputs, there is a specially marked HDMI port. HDMI Port 3 on the Bravia is marked HDMI (ARC). ARC stands for Audio Return Channel, and there is a setting in the television (Android tvOS) to enable Audio Return Channel via Serial Port, OR via HDMI Port.

The Intel i9 12900K motherboard display port is connected to this Special HDMI (ARC) Port.

The Audio Return Channel setting in Android tvOS is set to "via HDMI".

Here are links to some sony documentation about this feature that I dug up a while ago:

https://pro-bravia.sony.net/develop/integrate/rs-232c/index.html

[RamyerM_Intel]

Hello cam8528, 

Since this is an OEM device, we want to let you know that our support is limited as there might be some specific configurations and alterations that they might have done in the system. Nonetheless, we did some research and found this article from Dell that could help you: https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-my/000179019/how-to-troubleshoot-audio-or-sound-playback-issues#:~:text=Right%2Dclick%20the%20Volume%20or,must%20hear%20an%20audio%20jingle and 

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000125484/no-sound-with-displayport-or-hdmi-video-cable-connection. If this do not fix your issue, kindly please send us your SSU logs so we can further check your system. Just to confirm as well, how many monitors are connected to the computer? I will be waiting for your response. 

Ramyer M. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[cam8528]

i have one display. it has multiple inputs. what are the SSU logs?

[cam8528]

today I randomly checked to see if the audio output was still bugged, and to my great delight, it works for the first time all of a sudden! 

huzzah! 

[RamyerM_Intel]

Hello cam8528, 

Apologies for the late response, the SSU logs are the configuration of your system. You may try downloading it at this link: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/18377/intel-system-support-utility-for-windows.html

Just to confirm , since you mention it is working now, did one of our recommendation fixed the issue for you? If it isn't, we kindly ask if you can share with us how you were able to fix the issue. Your insights could be valuable not only for our team but also for other customers who might encounter a similar situation in the future. Sharing knowledge and solutions is an excellent way to foster a supportive community and empower others.

Ramyer M. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[cam8528]

I wish I had more details to share about when the audio started working. All I know is I keep my software updated and one day I checked to see if the audio was still locked at zero, but it was fine suddenly. I did check and it looks like the “depopulated Levels tab” in the image of the previous post, is now populated with a volume control. It might be when I turned on the intel display setting in bios, dell needed time to provision for this change.

[RamyerM_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hello cam8528, 

Thank you for still trying to share the information, these are helpful insights that can help other community members as well. If you want you can keep on monitoring your system for a few days just to make sure the issue has disappeared or you can also let us know if you want us to proceed in closing this case. Let us know which one you prefer and we will accommodate your request. 

Ramyer M. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[cam8528]

The issue is solved for my case with recent updates. Thanks for the help.

[Mike_Intel]

Hello cam8528,

Thank you for the update and we are glad that the issue is now fixed.

We just want to inform you that we need to close this inquiry now. 

If you need further assistance, please post a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored. 

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel Customer Support Technician