[NAME]   - You'd only need the NVidia driver if you're using audio over HDMI/DP to speakers in the monitor, but don't uninstall it. Have you looked for an updated Y/S driver? What "junk" is running in the background? You can try this: Go to Start>Run>services.msc and disable all "Dell" services and all "Killer" (Ethernet/WiFi) and xTend services too.  You don't need any Killer/xTend stuff running and IMO Killer internet works better without any of those Killer/xTend services.  Also go to Startup tab in Task Manager and disable Killer entries there too.
In week three of ownership of an XPS 8950 (i7, 32GB, 3060i, 750w) and it's been a good experience. From the start, I noticed that the Tidal PC app would disconnect during music playback about every 3-5 minutes, and remain in a disconnected state. My audio pipeline is XPS 8950, Yamaha/Steinberg ASIO driver, USB out, USB in on Yamaha DAC/amp - home WiFi network. This combo of audio hardware/software/network, and their settings, worked perfectly with my previous laptop since joining Tidal last January.At first, I faulted the Tidal PC app, as it actually disconnects, and throws an error "Chosen audio output has been disconnected". Nothing is disconnected as far as I can tell. I have been working with the Tidal tech team to diagnose this problem - no fixes yet.But, over the past few weeks, I've tried other audio apps, such as FooBar 2000, Tidal Web App, and Tidal Android app (running on Win11) and while these apps don't "disconnect", there is a noticeable audio dropout of about 1-2 seconds on the same cadence - about every 3-5 minutes. Maybe these other apps "handle" the dropout better than the Tidal PC app?  They have a dropout, but then keep playing - the Tidal PC app remains disconnected.This leads me to think that there's something happening with the XPS 8950 that is causing the audio disconnects/dropouts. So now I am looking into every setting that could cause a sleep or similar-type state in the XPS 8950 USB ports, interfaces, everywhere. A quick look into online posts, and I see a history of XPS 8950/XPS 8940 issues with audio, and people talking about the GPU drivers causing similar issues.First, I am going to exhaust all possible settings that could lead to an idle or sleep state, causing the disconnect. After that, I am up to whatever you folks suggest. Maybe this has been resolved already?I really need to be able to listen to audio for more than just a few minutes without dropouts. I've been able to do this for decades, on far less capable/expensive hardware. If I can't make this happen, I'll be returning this machine.TIA for any help you can provide!
XPS 8950, continuous audio dropouts