External microphone not detected

Razzie89 · 24 Sep 2012

I recently bought a Zalman ZM-MIC1 because the built-in microphone of my pc (Qosmio X500) is rather crappy. However I've been trying for hours now but I can't get it to work at all. It doesn't even show up under recording devices, the only thing that is displayed there is Conexant SmartAudio HD.

The microphone works fine on a different laptop, on which the Realtek HD Audio Manager pops up as soon as I connect it. From what I've gathered online, it looks like Conexant and Realtek are two different hardware types? Does that mean that this microphone is not supported by my pc?

It just seems weird to me that a certain type of microphone would not work at all on particular pcs, especially as there is nothing mentioned about Realtek on the box the mic came in. But, I'm out of ideas. I've updated all drivers and the only sign of life I get when connecting the microphone is a short waiting animation in Conexant SmartAudio.

If anyone could shed some light on this I'd really appreciate it. Thank you!

fireberd · 25 Sep 2012

It should work OK. Go to the Control Panel/Hardware and Sound and finally the Sound Panel. In the Recording section, with the mic connected, if its not shown, RIGHT click in a blank area in that panel and then click to show disabled and disconnected devices. That may make it appear and you can enable it.

However, even if that makes the mic appear, you should have a System Mixer or may be called System Mixer. That should be set as the default recording device, then whatever is used will record (or if you want to record streaming audio from the internet you need this function).

Razzie89 · 25 Sep 2012

Hey fireberd, thanks for replying. However I've already tried that as well and it doesn't make it appear. It's very very strange.

fireberd · 25 Sep 2012

If none of the other items mentioned, such as System Mixer (or Stereo Mix) is not listed, it sounds like the driver may not have been installed correctly.

Go to the PC vendor's site and download the correct Win 7 64 b it sound driver and reinstall it. See if that helps. The vendor's sound driver is the preferred driver, non-vendor drivers can either not work or not work correctly.

Razzie89 · 26 Sep 2012

Unfortunately I already downloaded and installed the latest sound drivers from the Toshiba website, it didn't help.

There is indeed only one item in the list called "Microphone - Conexant SmartAudio HD" which is the laptop's built-in microphone. Even with both checkmarks checked (disabled and not connected devices), nothing else appears in the list.

fireberd · 26 Sep 2012

According to what I see this is "high dollar" media PC. Best suggestion is to contact Toshiba support and see if they can get it resolved. It should have lots of audio/media options.