M1530 Vista 64 internal mic problem

Just installed Skype and have spent the last hour trying to get the internal mic to work and failed.

It's a Vista 64 install and I've installed the latest sigmatel drivers for Vista 64 from the Dell website. Appears to have installed fine.

I can see the microphone array and sigmatel codec under sound options, and the speakers are working fine, however the mic just refuses to work (sound recorder, skype etc all don't work). Please help!

 

Is your internal microphone set as the defualt recording device?

• Right click on the sound icon in the taskbar
• Click on recording devices
• Check that you device is set to default

You can also check that it is enabled, and also if there are sounds around you it should show a green bar moving up and down representing the sounds the microphone is "hearing".

If everything is set up ok here, then the only other thing i can think of is a setting in Skype, however as i dont use it im not really sure....

 

Under recording devices I have only 2 listed - mic array and mic/line in. As nothing is plugged in to the line in the array appears to have been set to default automatically - when selecting either array or line in the 'set default' option is greyed out.

 

Are you getting something like this?

And something like this when you make a noise?

Please take a screenshot of what you see so we can get a better idea of what the problem is!

Try right clicking on microphone array and choosing enable...

 

Exactly what you have posted minus the headset microphone.

The mic array is already enabled. When I make a noise I do not get the mic array registering it.

Thanks for helping btw! This is REALLY annoying me now. Even got the mic working with skype fine on another 5 year old laptop I have!

 

LOL. Ok, well as far as I can see this is a problem with Skype.

Are there microphone settings anywhere?

Skype might be trying to use your mic. input jack but obviously there will be nothing from that.

Have a look and see what you can find

 

Nah mate it's not a problem with skype because no application that uses the mic works - e.g. sound recorder.

 

what level is your microphone array set at?

 

have you tried to uninstall the reinstall the driver?

 

100% and yes.

Is the webcam driver required for the mic? I have been trying to install that too but so far cannot get the webcam to appear in the device manager list.

 

you shouldnt need that webcam driver for the mic to work.

 

As the webcam will not appear on the device manager list (after installing the driver), I'm starting to think the webcam and mic (which I presume is one unit above the screen) is fubar or not connected. Some other guy has this problem - http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=309115 - sound likely?

 

do you still have warranty? you should be able to call dell and send a tech over.

 

Nope. Didn't buy direct from dell.

 

you should still have a manufacturer warranty..go on the dell website and use your laptops service tag to see if you still have warranty

 

Yeah i do actually, thanks. Sent an email off to tech support to see what they have to say.

 

goodluck hope they can fix it. ^_^

 

Spoke to tech support. They talked me through the diagnostic tests (Fn key whilst powering on), and the webcam was not even listed under the diagnostic tests. They are sending a tech to my house to fix it. Nice one Dell! Appears I have the same problem as that guy I listed earlier. Thanks to all here for the help.

 

Tech guy just left, replaced webcam/mic unit and lead, and hey presto, all working fine. Excellent!

 

I understand this thread is a little old, but I just wanted to list my situation in effort to help anyone out there still experiencing abnormal mic issues.

Assuming you've done the whole hardware configuration and software/driver updates, the next thing you'd want to try is plugging the MIC ARRAY/WEBCAM ribbon back into the slot on the motherboard like in this thread mentioned above.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=309115

This wasnt EXACTLY my problem but what DID happen was that, the pins in that exact same motherboard slot were bent quite badly. This was to the point that the connector looked like it was in, but actually causing some HARDware issues. The funny thing is, everything showed up find on windows. It said the mic was there, and was working perfectly. When in reality it wasnt. So, definitely check to make sure the pins arent bent!