Tech Support will refuse warranty service for speaker problems if the popular VLC media player is installed on the laptop. Also we got a report that service was denied because a KMPlayer was installed on a laptop. The warranty remains valid on the other parts of the laptop.
This exclusion is not disclosed in the laptop warranty. I don't know why Dell does not want customers to know about this exclusion. It is perfectly proper for them to have it, and what's the point in keeping it a secret?
The forum moderators have removed the warning I had pinned to the top of the Laptop Audio board and forbidden me from putting it back, so I have put a warning in my signature in an attempt to alert laptop owners to this issue.
Bottom line, if you need to contact Tech Support about your internal laptop speakers, REMOVE ALL MEDIA PLAYERS except Windows Media Player.
There is a full discussion of the VLC problem in this thread: Installing VLC Media Player voids your speaker warranty!.