sigmatel microphone array hardly picking up sound

anyone having issues with their microphone array? when using skype or any other program, people can hardly hear me. when testing my microphone in vista settings, it hard registers any sound, i can't change sound sensitivity either. i have a m1330 btw.

 

I guess with an array mike it aims to only output sound that is common to both channels and cancel sounds which arrive at the two mics with different phases.

So if one mic wasn't working it would probably result in almost all sound being suppressed.
Also if one was wired up with reverse polarity the same problem would be likely.

 

I'm having the exact same problem on my M1330...It's turned up all the way and people on skype still say I'm coming through too softly.

If anyone finds a solution, post it here please!

Thanks!

 

Yep, noticed this as well (seems they need to incorporate a Mic Gain of at least 20 dB somewhere in the drivers)

 

I got around to testing my mike using the text to speech setup application and it seems to have the same problem. Played with every setting I could find regarding microphone setup and none helped.

Has anyone reported this to Dell yet? I think it is going to take a patch from them (at the least) to solve it.

 

Have same problem. What screens do you all have LED or CCFL? Since some people report it works fine -- it could be a manufacturing issue. If you have an LED who is your manufacture -- let's see if there is any common thread. My configurations says it is a Transformer Metroplex (LED)

 

It's got nothing to do with the type of the screen, mikes are in a separate unit, integrated with the webcam.

 

Hey, I fixed this problem awhile ago. Just uninstall the driver that came w/ the machiine and use the one provided in support.dell.com

The one off the driver CD also gave me the same problem but my mic worked fine after grabbing the one off the site

 

Driver for what? Sigmatel Audio Codec?

 

i reinstalled the driver on mine (from dell cd)
now its working fine
I have the CHI MEI LED screen if it matters

 

Yes, the audio codec. It should fix the problem

 

Which one did you grab -- I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling -- R160062 dated 7/11 Version 6.10.0.5515.. NO LUCK -- still same

Time to call tech support.

 

Did you uninstall the old audio drivers before installing the new ones? You may also want to reboot before reinstalling. If that still doesn't work, try grabbing the older version available for DL from the inspiron driver sections. My guess is that they should work for the XPS as well. If not, worst case scenario is the microphone still doesn't work correctly and you'll have to uninstall the driver.

 

Yes -- uninstalled first -- then rebooted. Then reinstalled (several times). Also tried several older sigmatel drivers supporting the chipset. Still no luck. Do think it is a marginal driver (or BIOS) -- you should not have to reinstall to make it work. But I will keep tryiing..

 

I installed the M1330 sigmatel driver from Dell's website and it seemed to fix the problems on my XPS. I had little or no mic pickup before and vastly improved mic pickup in Windows Live Messenger after installing the "new" drivers.

 

Isn't there an option to boost the mic by 20dB in the advanced audio settings via control panel? (Is in XP with a card with a mic input usually, cant say about Vista or these drivers) Worth a go.

 

Only a slider --that brings the level to 0 dB. But it is cranked up to max on mine. It really needs another 20 dB.

 

Thats strange. Thats how the slider acted before I reinstalled the drivers. I don't know why it isn't fixing your problem ..

 

But on the mixers mic channel theres usually an Advanced button in XP which opens up other options like the 20dB boost if I remember rightly. Presumably thats dependent on hardware and drivers. No mic in on my soundcard so can't check.

 

This is what I received directly from Dell today, within 30 min of my e-mail. No BS about check your playback volume or something else like that.

Of course people have already given the solution earlier in this thread, but it is nice to hear directly from the manufacturer. I will try it this evening.

I wonder if the Vista defect business is true.

=======
Dear XXXX,

Thank you for contacting Dell XPS Support. I see that you have an XPS M1330 running Windows Vista Business, and your warranty expires on xxxx.

The low playback volume of sounds recorded with the internal microphone is a Microsoft Windows Vista design limitation. This problem is only experienced with the internal microphone, as you have noted. The fix for this issue will be included in the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 release.

In the meantime, the workaround for this issue is to download and install the latest SigmaTel audio driver. This driver will help to increase the recording sensitivity of the internal microphone, which in turn should increase the playback volume of recorded sounds. You can download that driver at the following URL: ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/audio/R160062.EXE

You may followup on this case by responding to this e-mail, by going to www.dell.com/chat, or by calling our XPS Premier Support Phone Line at 1-800-232-8544. Please have your case or dispatch number ready if you choose to call or chat in about this issue.

Your Dell Case number is: xxxx

Thank you for choosing Dell.

Respectfully,

xxx
Dell Rep ID xxxx
Technical Support Specialist
Dell Small & Medium Business XPS Technical Support

 

My microphone is working but I'll give these drivers a test just to let people know how they work on the Inspirons (since the driver in this link is for the xps). It is a newer driver than the one Dell is providing for the Inspirons but I don't see why it wouldn't work so I'll give it a try and report back.

 

When I plug in an external mic (which works fine even without a boost) the 20dB boost is available in the setup for this mic. It is not available and not displayed for the internal mic. I don't know if that's the Vista defect the Dell rep was talking about.

 

Same here, tried external mike, works just fine, has a boost available.

 

I just tested the driver in that link and it wouldn't let me boost my sound on my internal microphone. I'll go back to http://ftp.us.dell.com/audio/R157031.EXE which was working for me before and allowed me to boost my internal mic.

 

Thanks for the link to the other driver. Guess what --it worked! Loud and clear. Very strange indeed - I guess Dell/Sigmatel needs to do some work on their drivers.

 

That is curious - Dell told to install R160062 but that is the one I also tried and didn't work.

Incidentally, looking in the registry, it looks like there are gain keys.
See:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\\Sigmatel\LFX\MicIN\plugins\gain\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\\Sigmatel\LFX\presets\_Initial\Gain\MasterGainDbX100

Anyone feeling brave? I suspect the secret may be the second of these.
Mine is set to 0x000009c4 (2500)

I may compare these keys with those after I try R157031.EXE

 

I've installed that driver R157031.EXE, from the factory installed R160062.EXE. Still no boost on the built-in mike array, and the programs like Dell Webcam thing doesn't pick the sound up...

 

I have now also tried to revert to R157031 and it didn't work for me either.

To be precise, I uninstalled first, then re-installed R160062 - that didn't work.
I uninstalled and rebooted and the system automatically re-installed R160062
I uninstalled and Installed R157031.

None helped.

 

Yes, the second one works, thanks! The correct location is

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\\Sigmatel\Apo\LFX\MicIn\presets\_Initial\Gain\MasterGainDbX100

As you said, the value is 2500 decimal. Raising it to 3000 decimal worked well for me. 3500 was too high, it saturated the volume and led to hissing at my normal voice level. YMMV.

(Incidentally, installing the downloaded driver made no difference .)

Since this is a Master Gain setting, it probably overamplifies the external mic input. But if the internal mic is usable, on does not need an external mic.

 

I tried both drivers, and now am on the R157031. Where did you go to find the boost function for the internal mic?

 

Right click on the volume speaker on your startbar and go to recording devices and properties for your mic and then levels.

 

Ah - Bummer. I'd imagine its the driver that just doesn't provide the option and may explain why new drivers work fine (even with the "Vista problem") - they've probably just upped the line level.

 

Well. I installed both of the newer drivers, and mine still doesn't work. The highest level I can raise on my Array Mic is to 0 db. Testing the mic array in the setup menu will only barely move the bar in the yellow zone, and no where near the green zone.

I also changed the Hotkey from 2500 to 3000 then to 3500 and that didn't help the array mic to pick up sound better at all.

I looked at the R157031 driver after I had installed it, and the Hotkey still shows 2500 as the initial base number. I changed that to 3000 and then 3500 without any improvement, so I left it alone.

I don't understand why the new drivers and the hotkey changes helped some people, but at least in mine, not at all.

 

Try going to the driver in the Device manager and uninstalling it and then make sure you check -- to remove software. Then try a reinstall with the R157031 driver.

 

I am going to move my M1330 issues over to the other at:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2324934

 

Has anyone fixed this issue with the microphone yet? I dont really want to plugin a mic just to do videoconferencing.

 

I did a complete uninstall of the original driver, rebooted, and then tried R157031, and my mic works much better now. People on skype say I'm coming through loud and clear.

 

I think I am having the same problem on my vostro 1400 except mine has a lot of background noise/static also...

I am testing the different drivers but I noticed this still happens even if you use the diagnostic partition to test your hardware which makes me think it's not a vista or driver issue at least for some...

 

If you completely uninstalled the original driver, when you reboot the system, it will automatically installed whatever driver that came with the Dell system. So how did you manage to get it to use the R157031 driver?

I have been trying with my M1330. But everytime I completely uninstalled my Sigmatel driver and rebooted the system, the M1330 will automatically search and installed another driver again. What I wanted to do after rebooting is to download the driver and then activate it by clicking on it. If I download it before completely removing the original driver, when I reboot the system, how do I know that it is installing the new driver (R157031), or whatever came on the hard drive partitions?

 

I have a 1420 and I uninstalled the Sigmatel driver and the immediately installed the driver from the Dell website, then rebooted. The mic and webcam work great now. Good luck.

 

Do not reboot after uninstalling the driver. Just go ahead to install the R157031 and then reboot. After that, change the registry key (from 2500 to 3000). Worked for me.

 

I just wanted to share a tip on this. I gave up a while ago because I had tried both steps and had no success. I tried again today and nothing. Then I decided to do EXACTLY what I was told instead of thinking I knew exactly what I was doing.

Here's the key step. When told to uninstall your driver via Device Manager, ACTUALLY DO THAT. I was just uninstalling it via add/remove programs. No dice. When I uninstalled it from Device Manager and then add/remove programs, installed R157031, and rebooted, the problem was solved! I didn't have to change the registry either.

 

step by step instructions please for a computer noob.

 

I can't believe this. It worked! If you guys trace my posts here, you will see that I have tried everything 2-3 times and nothing works until today. The Registry Edit was changed from 2500 to 3000.

You guys are absolutely correct. Uninstall the Sigmatel from the Device Manager completely, then download the driver from the link above, install the new driver, then reboot.

Step by Step on fixing the M1330 Microphone Array:

1) Click on the Start Windows icon on the lower left of the screen
2) Right click on Computer and choose Manage. Click Accept on the ensuing pop-up window.
3) Click on Device Manager
4) Click on the + next to Sound, Video and Game Controllers
5) Right click on Sigma Tel High Definition Audio CODEC
6) Choose uninstall
7) Check the box "Delete the Driver Software for this device"
8) Download the R157031 driver from the link on this thread to your Desktop
9) Double click on the R157031.exe that you just downloaded to your desktop, and wait for it to install itself.
10) When the installation of the new driver is done, you will be asked to reboot the computer now or later. Choose now.

Congratulations! You just fixed the Mic Array on your M1330. Now, go and video chat with your favorite Messenger program. Thanks to all who had contributed to this thread, and for all your directions.

 

OK - that sort of works though I hate going back to an earlier driver (I tried the above procedure with the latest driver and it didn't work).

The crucial step seems to me to have been to uninstall the Sigmatel device from device manager instead of what I had done before - opening device properties and uninstalling the driver itself.

One other observation: training Speech Recognition now shows levels in the green part of the band - but the Sound Recorder continues to show very low sound levels. Still we know from earlier testing that that can be changed by the registry hack so I suppose when I do that everything will be working well.

 

I should have quit while I was ahead. I decided to reinstall the latest (R160062) driver and check it with the Speech Recognition as the last time I may have only checked Sound Recorder. Result was that the volume levels were too low again.

So I went back to R157031 - using the same process as described by investor27 each time. Now it doesn't fix the problem for Speech Recognition. I repeated the process once again - still not fixed.
This is really beginning to bug me.

 

Thanks a bunch! Worked like a charm... Of course, it'd be nice know why older drivers work and newer ones don't, after all, this is only a temporary solution

 

I did everything exactly as specified above, and it completely killed the mic. No sound at all. (Yes, the mic was enabled and the slider set to max, i.e. 0 db.) I rolled the system state back using a backup I had made the previous day, and now it works again, at low volume but it works.

 

I also tried the uninstall/install in Safe mode. It didn't help.

 

That worked for me! I tried the driver uninstall/reinstall and noticed no difference. As soon as I made that change to the registry everything is golden! Thanks!