Alienware M9700 Microphone Issue

[AlwaysInChina]

I have an Alienware M9700 which I recently upgraded to windows 7 professional 64bit, I installed all the windows 7 drivers with everything working except for the built in microphone, the drivers provided were at Alienware : The Best Custom Built Gaming PC for the Ultimate PC Gamer! The sound works, and I also went in and made sure nothing was muted. Any ideas on how to get windows 7 to take in sounds from the built in mic?

 

[Maguscreed]

could you right click the speaker icon in your tray open recording devices and show me a screenshot of that window?
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html#post93869

 

[AlwaysInChina]

Here it is

 

[Maguscreed]

Well first things first, just to make sure there's not some weird conflict here. lets select everything but the actual microphone one at a time click properties and use the drop down to disable it (this can be undone later with the same minor amount of effort)

 

[AlwaysInChina]

I just did that, still not working, I'm trying both the built in mic as well as a logitech headset that works with other computers

 

[Maguscreed]

So it sees the device but apparently can't record from it.
If you yell into it does the little bar beside it show any green?
I'm just trying to figure out now if the system hears something but is not using it. Or if you are just completely dead.

 

[AlwaysInChina]

It dosent turn green at all no matter how loudly I yell, it does however, spike a little green when I move the mic plug in and out of the jack repeatedly. I have a feeling its just dead.. on the other hand, I was wondering, if I were to buy a plug and play USB mic would that work? Since they claim to not need any drivers.

 

[Maguscreed]

As with everything else I've seen mixed info on usb headsets. I personally use a little plantronics thing I got from bestbuy for like 25 bucks several years ago without complaint.

I do have to admit to having been jaded a bit by all the problems I encounter when helping people online. You float around long enough and you'll see just about everything fail.

It may be a possible way out for you since the built in doesn't seem to be complying.

Just to check if you go to properties under listen
make sure it's set to run on battery power (don't know why this feature is enabled on desktops)
obviously check the levels and make sure they are maxed or close to maxed.
then on the final tab ... well just check it against this snip.

 

[AlwaysInChina]

Done, and done..still not working...on the general tab it does say no jack information available under jack information though, if that means anything.

 

[Maguscreed]

Just to be sure are you plugging into the front of the case or the back for this?

 

[AlwaysInChina]

Theres only one jack on the right side of the laptop, and I've been plugging it into that jack every since I bought it 3 years ago

 

[Maguscreed]

sorry for some reason I was thinking this was a desktop.

Have you attended to updating your bios. I noticed in the footnotes on the page you linked above that the audio driver may not work properly if the bios hasn't been updated.

 

[AlwaysInChina]

I actually haven't done that before I installed, I'll look into doing that then

 

[AlwaysInChina]

Okay, so the BIOs update is way too risky for me to do alone, was there anything else I could try to get the mic working? Maybe another driver? all the Soundmax drivers I've tried have given me errors though, and I know soundmax works with my hardware because thats what I had in XP.

 

[fireberd]

In most cases (all that I've encountered with Dell's) you need Dell specific sound drivers for everything to work properly. And, XP drivers are not compatible, you need Vista/Windows 7 drivers.

There is a special Alienware Owners "club" support section on the Dell forum. I would post there and see if those familiar with Alienware systems can help. Alienware Club - Dell Community

Also as this is an older Alienware system, it may not even have Win 7 compatible drivers and what you have is what you are stuck with. The Alienware site, for the older systems, such as yours, does not list anything either.