Alienware m17x r4 microphone problems (crosstalk)

Hi Everyone, :hi2:

My name's Michal and I am a fresh Alienware owner (for about a month) - m17x r4 3610m, 7970m, 8Gb RAM, Full HD screen - quite standard as I understand.
Last week I noticed that my screen had a bad pixel and some dust under the plexi cover.
Dell customer service was outstanding (thanks so much again) and the next day I had a new screen installed.
However, the tech forgot to swap the camera/microphone module ( oops ), so had to come back today and install it.

Immediately after rebooting there was a terrible high pitched noise being emitted from the speakers.
It turned out that, the microphone array was turned on and crystalvoice effects were on too, so the microphone was picking up the speakers' sound creating crosstalk (I think this is the correct term).
Now, when I check the soundblaster settings and I choose "test crystalvoice" on the microphone array, the crosstalk is just terrible.

I need to check "Noise Reduction" and "Automatic echo cancellation" boxes and reduce the speakers volume and mic sensitivity to about 50% in order to avoid the effect. If I click on "test" without turning "Noise Reduction" and "Automatic echo cancellation" on, the crosstalk is unbearable irrespective of speakers' and microphone array's settings. I believe it didn't use to be like that before the screen was swapped.

Could anyone of you check, please, for a newbie, if it's similar for you - go to crystalvoice settings, turn off crystalvoice and press "test" in the bottom right corrner. If you don't get any distortion, it means I need to call Dell again to reinstall/replace the microphone array.

I would be grateful if you could let me know!
Thanks a lot in advance!
Michal

 

It seems that the seal at the top of the screen was missed as well - now I can see that the upper edge sticks out. I think there should not be any gap there.
Please, see the photo below:


Could someone take a look at their screen, compare and confirm that something is missing?
I'd like to call Dell tomorrow, so your help with both issues would be highly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

Looks like the scren assembly is faulty? I dont have that gap on my r4 well I have one but it aint that big as yours.

 

I think we might need to send it in to be checked or send you another screen assembly with mic. Send me a PM and I'll take care of that for you. I'll need your service tag for that.

 

Hello Sir,

I can't send a pm because my account still does not have enough quality posts.

First of all, thank you for your offer of sending the laptop in to have it checked or sending the replacement screen assembly.
Honestly, I'd rather not do it yet as my chassis has been fixed by a technician- it's not perfect but much better now.

And the mic problem only happens in Sound Blaster's control panel when internal speakers are on. In normal usage everything works perfectly.
If anything more happens, I will definitely let you know.


Second of all - let me thank you for Dell's customer service - your offer (I am amazed that Dell offers help through a message board) and also customer service in Poland who were very helpful in dealing with my service requests!
Really builds confidence in the brand.

I will send a pm, should anything more happen to my mic/camera assembly.

Thanks again!

 

No problem, we are here to help anytime you need. I hope it does not get worse than it is now.