Microphone not audible

[JillC]

I purchased a microphone the other day, but just can't seem to get it to work. When I plug it into the microphone jack I get a wizard from "SoundMAX Digital Audio" (which I assume is my onboard sound driver) telling me I've plugged in a microphone. If I proceed with the wizard to test my settings, it tells me it cannot pick up any sounds from the microphone. As far as I can tell I've got all the right settings everwhere.

When I try to record my voice, I get a barely audible sound on playback. In the Windows help, it tells me to go to Control Panel and Speech and then "On the Speech Recognition tab, click Audio Input"- but all I have there is TextToSpeech with Microsoft Sam.

I seem to be going round and round in circles. Can anyone help me please?

 

[linney]

Can you test the microphone in another machine?

microphone not working in xp
thread779-631477

Recording on a CC using a microphone

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...+Audio"+microphone+xp&rnum=5#695eb20b6a69fa17

Are you Muting the Mike? Do your settings have an Advanced setting for the Mike where you can "boost" the audio recording?


If you have Messenger or similar, you might be able to check your Microphone out in that by using the Audio and Video Settings Wizard.

 

[Glenn9999]

I have a similar XP problem (Audigy sound card) that I hit my head on for many hours and never solved it. For what I've tried, all I can figure is that something in XP is broke, because the mike worked just fine in Windows ME.

Hopefully you can find out the answer - I'd like to know it as well.

 

[JillC]

Hi linney,

Test in another machine - not till tomorrow (by which time I'll be in deep trouble)

First link - did all that several times over. All the settings are at maximum volume. The sound card is set for SoundMAX, the playback settings are at maximum. The boost option is ticked.

No, the mic is not muted.

I'm not using Messenger. I've got the audio wizard thingo, the Windows Sound Recorder, CamStudio and Bulents Screen Recorder. I think 4 is enough. Same result with all of them so don't see why it would be better with a 5th. CamStudio is the program I need to be using.

In the meantime, I downloaded and installed Intel Audio Studio trial version but it has made no difference.

 

[Grenage]

XP can be a bit finicky with microphones, sometimes. Try the following:

Control Panel
Sound and Audio Devices Properties
Advanced
Options
Properties
Select recording

From here, ensure that you have "Microphone" selected, if you have "what you hear" (I 'think' this is a creative name) or a variation, you can de-select that. Press ok and check levels etc. If this is all ok, try disabling the microphone, rebooting and then enabling it again.

If that fails, try reinstalling the drivers. I've seen quite a few people with microphone problems on XP, few of which seemed to have any real problem in their settings.

Carlsberg don't run I.T departments, but if they did they'd probably be more fun.

 

[gpalmer711]

Also do you have a Mic port on both the back and front of your PC case? If so have you tried both.

I've seen this kind of problem where the person who put the PC together did not connect the front port correctly and it caused problems with both.

Only way to solve that was to either disconnect the front port or reconnect it correctly.

Greg Palmer
Freeware Utilities for Windows Administrators.

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk

 

[JillC]

Hi Grenage,

I can't figure out where you are sending me with those instructions. I've got XP Home - maybe the steps are a bit different for Pro. In my fiddling around I managed to get the sound up from barely audible to very soft. But it is still not right - this was an expensive microphone! I will see if I can find my setup CDs to reinstall the driver.

In the meantime, I uninstalled the Intel Audio Studio as my system kept crashing and I thought it might be the culprit.

Hi gpalmer711,
It doesn't work in the front port, but does in the back. I haven't looked inside the case to see how it's tied up. My speakers work fine from the back port, so why wouldn't the mic?

 

[gpalmer711]

It sounds like it is the hardware then. The speaker and Microphone ports on the front use different wires to connect to the Motherboard. The fact that the front port does not work at all but the back one does a bit would suggest that it is not connected correctly.

If you feel confident to do it you should open the case when the machine is off and disconnected from the electric. If you can find it remove the front MIC connections. I cannot be more specific as to which wires they are without knowing your exact motherboard. If you can provide me with your computer make and model or the motherboard make and model I should be able to find a diagram of the motherboard and show you which cables to remove.

Greg Palmer
Freeware Utilities for Windows Administrators.

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk

 

[Grenage]

If you can hear anything at all, then you can probably rule out hardware. Sorry about the instructions, I don't have a windows machine handy so I can't have a closer look.

Basically under the audio properties in control panel, you want to open up the bar which has the sound levels in it, from the properties in there you can change from playback to recording, and see the recording levels.

Carlsberg don't run I.T departments, but if they did they'd probably be more fun.

 

[linney]

Have you been using Microsoft Office or other Speech Recognition software that may have Microphone settings that possibly interfere?

Are there any headphone settings that may also be coming into play?

What settings are available from the Bios regarding Sound?

OK, so we are reaching the clutching at straws part of this thread.

Are you in "deep trouble" yet, as it is now tomorrow?

 

[JillC]

Hi Grenage,
In the Sound and Audio devices, I have gone through all the advanced properties and the microphone is definitely enabled in the playback section. This information is also in the SoundMAX dialog box - there is a row for the input with all the settings, and a row for the microphone with its settings. Unless I'm missing something really obvious it all looks alright to me. And the links that linney supplied basically had the same info.

Hi gpalmer711,
I haven't got time right now to dig into the box. I'll get back to you on that. Board: Intel Corporation D865GBF AAC25843-408

Hi linney,
Yes, it's tomorrow and I'm already late for my first appointment - my second appointment is in about 4 hours when I'll need the microphone so Plan B is swinging into action. I'll be plugging the microphone into a different computer and keeping my fingers crossed.

Sound in the BIOS? My goodness! What am I looking for? I'll have to get back to you on that later.

 

[Grenage]

Strange. One of those things where it's worth uninstalling the drivers and just playing about with it till it kicks in. As I said, mic support is buggy at best, but at least once it's working it generally stays that way.

Carlsberg don't run I.T departments, but if they did they'd probably be more fun.

 

[gpalmer711]

JillC,

If you decide that you want to have a look inside the machine page 71 & 72 of this document ftp://download.intel.com/design/motherbd/bf/C3263401.pdf

Show you where the front panel connectors are.

[NOTE]
Before opening the case, unplug the power cord and any other cables. Once opened, touch any metal part of the case to discharge static and ensure that you and the inside of the PC are at the same voltage.

If you are at all unsure about opening the case, then get someone experienced to do it.

Greg Palmer
Freeware Utilities for Windows Administrators.

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk

 

[JillC]

Hi People,

Well ... talk about a run of bad luck. I've had a string of things going wrong this last week culminating in a burglary where one of the things stolen was the microphone!

So I had to go and get another one. This time I took my PC with me and asked for it to be set up. That took some doing as I forgot that my UPS monitor would shut the system down within 1 min if it wasn't disabled and it took about 15 attempts to get the mouse to be recognised early enough for us to close the UPS down.

Finally done, though. And the problem - although I'd checked the boost microphone in the sound card settings in Control Panel, I also needed to check the microphone booster in the SoundMAX settings.

Glenn9999:
My PC recognised the stereo microphone and set it up, but some systems have only a mono port apparently - there is a small adaptor which you can get which will turn the stereo mic into a mono one. Maybe that will help you?

Otherwise, I eventually decided to download Sony Sound Forge trial and in a few minutes of playing around I discovered I could increase the playback volume. I've no idea what I'm doing - I'll have to find a tutorial somewhere I guess.

Thank you everybody for your attempts to help me.

 

[itguy8423]

Hey Jill,

I work with SoundMAX quite often. You may have already done this, but go into the SoundMAX Control Panel. To get there, go to Control Panel>>SoundMAX. Under the Record section, there is a little button next to the Microphone mute button. If you hover your cursor over it, it says Advanced Options. Click on this button. In here, you should see a check box for Front Panel Microphone. Make sure this is checked.

I found this post while looking for other issues and thought maybe I could help.

Good Luck.

 

[linney]

I wonder if the burglar got that microphone working, if he hasn't he may post on Tek-Tips too, more likely on Ebay, perhaps?

 

[mjschmidt]

Jill -

I have gotten many answers from the user "itguy8423" at different sites and different forums. He knows his stuff. I actually had the same problem you are having at the place I worked and I followed his reply......it worked great and the entire office thinks I am a hero!! Good luck and thank you "itguy4823".

Bye,
mjschmidt