Problems with voice recording

[colmac]

Can someone here help a Newbie. I'm pretty computer literate, but never understood Audio. I'm trying to use my laptop to record with the microphone built in to the actual laptop casing. I also have a Microphone input socket on my laptoip, but I do not want to use that currently (partly because I do not have an external mic.

I've had a good look through manuals, FAQ's wiki entries etc but not found anything specific to help.

As far as I can see, my hardware is OK, although I cannot see a specific entry for the in-built microphone (I've checked in the BIOS and ther are no settings to turn it on/off)





But there is an Audio




and Voice setting in Control Panel, so it looks as if that is OK




When I try the Test hard ware button on the Voice panel, I get a Failed test




The Recording controls are set as follows



I'm not sure that the Microphone setting is the correct one as I said earleir as this may apply to the jack-plug socket ie an truly external microphone. However I did try each of the other options shown in th Recording Control. No luck

The settings available in my AC97 control panel seem minimal. (perhaps cos there is not an external microphone connected (and remember I don't have one to test it with)






I have set audacity as follows, but I'm pretty sure my probs occur long before Audacity






As far as I'm aware, I have never actually used the in-built mic (the laptop is 2 yrs old) So is it most likely that my mic is just plain bust (the laptop is otherwise in immaculate condition) or am I missing an obvious solution.

Any comments would be welcome.

Ta Colin

[kozikowski]

What tells you that you have a built-in microphone? I don't see anything in any of those panels or illustrations that suggests that you do. Especially if the Windows conferencing software couldn't find one, you may have a Hollywood microphone. Looks grand but doesn't do anything.

Koz

[colmac]

Good question.

There is a tiny hole with a microphone symbol just above the screen. According to the manual, this is "built in Microphone".

That of course is a far cry from saying that its is installed and/or working.

Not sure if there is any separate driver for the mic on the disks

Colin

[colmac]

Just Googled my model, and found this on a review

The laptop had a built in microphone dont know why that was important but it did impress me more, the screen is widescreen and gives you much more screen to view.

ANother printed leaflet said this

Audio
2 built-in speakers, built-in microphone, microphone in,
headphone out
Hot key volume regulator
Compliant with AC’97 V2.3
16-bit stereo full-duplex CODEC

So it should work!

[kozikowski]

We can wait for some of the heavy Windows people to arrive. My Windows machines still run on coal.

Also, a the risk of casting you off to the whims of fate, Audacity is a complete slave to the machine it's running on. If Windows can't find the microphone, Audacity will never find it.

Windows Control Panel
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... trol_Panel

You can turn Audacity off and try making recordings in the Windows Sound Recorder.

Windows Sound Recorder
Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment

Once you get that working, then open Audacity.

Koz

[colmac]

Hi

Thanks for your input so far. I'm running XP Home SP3 fully up to date with AVG & ZoneLabs. Its a Fujitsu Siemens Laptop.

I've tried Sound Recorder and it doesn't work either, So yes it does look like a Windows issue. I guessed that some users here might have some experience that might point me at possible solutions.


Ta


Colin

[kozikowski]

<<<I guessed that some users here might have some experience that might point me at possible solutions.>>>

Good guess, except they're 15 time zones away from me. Maybe 14 with Daylight Savings Time.

Koz

[waxcylinder]

Colin,

I have just tested similar on my Windows laptop Windows XP-PRO, which has an inbuilt mic and a Realtek soundcard and it all works fine so I'm a little puzzled about yours. My interface is a different to yours, the laptop cam preconfigured with a tool called the Realtek HD Audio Manager in the sytem tray. See the picture below of the Mixer tab from that tool.

Realtek mixer PNG.PNG (131.1 KiB) Viewed 1155 times

You can see here that I have the Mic selected as input and the slider up to a level where I get good amplitude without clipping.

Turning to your interface ...

The Recording controls are set as follows



I'm not sure that the Microphone setting is the correct one as I said earleir as this may apply to the jack-plug socket ie an truly external microphone. However I did try each of the other options shown in th Recording Control. No luck

The settings available in my AC97 control panel seem minimal. (perhaps cos there is not an external microphone connected (and remember I don't have one to test it with)

It looks to me as though you have your settings correct - the Mic input is selected ok. Have you tried moving the Mic slider in this Recording Control box up a bit more to give more amplitude ?

It is possible of course that it is your onboard mic that is broken, as you suggest - can you test it with other recording software (other than Windows Sound Recorder which you say doesn't work)?

One other difference about our settings is that I have Noise Suppression turned on - whereas you images show that you do not - so try turning that on. I can't really believethat this will make the difference, but it's worth a try.....

WC