Windows 7 on M1530 - Mic problem

Installed Windows 7 but my mic is acting up. There's all this static and noise for some reason. I've tried different Sigmatel audio drivers but I can't seem to fix it. I reinstalled Vista to make sure my hardware hadn't stuffed up but it's working fine on Vista.

I've attached a recording of 'Kalimba' from the music samples of Windows 7 which is playing from my speakers while my room is silent..

On Steam however, it's much worse as the noise increases and you can't make out anything you say.

I'm out of ideas on what's causing the problem..

 

I had the same problem with my M1330 and now with my XPS 16

 

Ahh looks like it's some problem with Dell computers? It's the main problem I'm having with W7 atm. I don't want to use Vista because I like the new W7 features but this mic problem is really annoying.

 

Omg I figured out what the problem is! Go to Control Panel>hardware and sound>manage audio devices>recordings tab. Right click microphone array and click on the third tab (levels). The bar will be at 100 which is too high! Change it to around 5-10 and it will be fixed. The higher you make it, the more sensitive the mic becomes to sound and it'll start cracking and making static sounds. No wonder it was making so much noise before. It was on 100 making it ultra sensitive to even things like background noise (even if there wasn't any like in my case).

These settings also exist for headphone mics that are plugged in but they don't have any problems set at 100. Also make sure you set whichever one you want to use as default.

Hope this helps anyone else who comes across this problem. No idea why it was set on 100 in the first place though.