Microphone volume too low

darkassain said:

im wondering if a sound driver install would make this go away
look at both and look at which one has this as the Jack info...
Attachment 18742
that is your internal mic
you not being able to boost your mic (is this a stereo or mono mic?) should be more than enough for me to think that its a driver problem...
also have that mic as the default communication device...

I have attached screenshots of the properties of both mics (not sure if the images will automatically load in the message or not- apologies if they don't, I'm not that familiar with this forum).

Mic 1 is described as a digital jack, mic 2 is described as front panel 3.5mm jack.
I assume from that that mic 1 is my internal jack (I have plugged external mics into the 3.5mm jack at the front of my laptop before, which must be mic 2).
If this is the case, how do I go about testing the drivers?
I have been in device manager and under sound, video and game controllers there are 2 options- both called 'high definition audio device' but I don't think either of these are my internal mic. It seems there's an automatic driver software update which I ran anyhow on both of these and it says the drivers are up to date.
I've attached a screenshot of my device manager if this is of any use.
Thanks
[IMG]file:///C:/Users/Steven/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot.png[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/Users/Steven/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.png[/IMG]

I downloaded new drivers from the Dell website.
Now my mic settings look like this.

Have just been testing the mic and it is working on normal volume but then pretty much fades to zero for a few seconds, before coming back to normal.

Not sure if this is the same issue as before, presumably still a Windows 7 bug?

By the way, will users of the release candidate get updates to Windows 7, or do all the updates appear in the paid-for version?

Have you tried skype>tools>options>audio settings and untick automaticaly adjust microphone settings?

darkassain said:

have you boosted the mic at all? (get to the properties of the array mic click on levels and then slide the mic boost to +20...

I don't have the mic boost option on the levels tab

Dwarf said:

Have you checked the settings on this tab?

mmm...tried this and still no joy unfortunately.
Mic is working- I don't think it's too low anymore- it's more about background noise/clarity and the whole fading in and out issue

Any other ideas anybody?!

you not being able to boost your mic (is this a stereo or mono mic?) should be more than enough for me to think that its a driver problem.

That and the mic boost option is on the Custom tab (or at least it alwys has been for me),



which is missing from all the screen shots that Steven has posted.

Just had a look at what is available for an audio driver for his laptop, and Dell has a 32 bit Vista driver for it (BTW you running 32 0r 64 bit?). That being said time for some of the Sigmatel experts to weigh in here.