sigmatel microphone array hardly picking up sound

I've a Dell XPS M1330 and I fixed the mic level problem... I'm sure that all you can do the same, simply by this way:
- back to the original R160062 driver and reboot (yes, no as mentioned above)
- download the R157031 from the Dell Inspiron 1720 driver download page (but it's the same using this link..)
- unzip the archive content without run the auto-installer (-> tipically in "c:\dell\driver\R157031")
- open "Device Manager"
- open "Sound, Video and Game Controllers"
- right click on "Sigma Tel High Definition Audio CODEC" and open the "property" window
- click on the "Driver" tab and choose "Update driver"
- choose the previous folder path "c:\dell\driver\R157031"
- choose "SIGMATEL STAC 92XX C-Major HD Audio" and agree any warning appear
- rebooted and the problem is fixed!

Note that, as different as you follow the instructions gived in this thread above, now in the "sample rate" combo box are not present unsupported rates (upper than 2 channels 24bit 48000Hz)
You don't need to modify your system registry because 2500 is already good!

NB I've Vista Home Premium and I reinstalled nothing!

 

This worked but with a few changes
I unistalled the current driver
Then I installed the one on the dell m1330 website
Then I downloaded the driver on the dell inspiron website but i did not install it - i just let it save all its files in /dell/driver
Then I went to properties on the mic
then change settinsg
then driver
then roll back - then updated it to the ispiron driver
then rebooted
then it worked

 

I've got replacement 1330, mike works fine with the original driver.

 

Mines works fine with the webcam center but not with anything else like sound recorder. Is it the same case with you guys?

 

Hmm! That's strange. If the mic is working with your webcam, and people on the other side can hear you perfectly, I don't see why your sound recorder is not working. Check your settings again.

 

I dont know how mine works now with the recorder. Before I could record sound, but I couldn't be herad on skype or widows messenger hardely at all. I will check later for you.

FYI - Before I tried all this driver switcheroo crap yesterday, I got on the phone with the XPS 'experts' and all the guy did was have me set the computer back to factory settings. It did not fix the problem at all. He did not tell me to go to the dell website and look for updated drivers. He told me that 'obviously' it was a harware issue, and I sould send the computer in. LAMEZ0R

 

Ah it works with sound recorder now out of nowhere But not with battlefield 2's battlecammo still though.

 

Curious - I was getting ready to try krystal's method (without much hope!).
First I searched on the web for updates to the Sigmatel Codec and also (under System devices) for the Microsoft HD audio controller driver. It said I had the latest.

Then I opened the Volume Mixer and playback devices from the system tray and played with all the settings - one observation was that on first opening the Volume Mixer there were three sliders. After I played with them they became just two ("Device - Speakers/headphones" and "Applications-Windows Sounds"). Now idea what happened to the other one.

Then I went to test the problem (before trying to fix it) and to my surprise the Speech Recognition trainer was now showing good audio levels.

The Sound Recorder continued to have a problem even though I had increased the registry key from 2500 to 3000. Increasing further does increase the signal level but there seems to be a noise floor which also rises... and listening to the recording played back I hear a constant rippling or chirping sound - I am wondering if it is the cpu whine recorded at tool low a sampling frequency to properly represent it (below Nyquist frequency) and thus aliased to lower frequency (that would be a whole new can of worms - if the cpu whine is not filtered out by hardware filters or the response characteristics of the microphone then it might have an effect on any AGC that is taking place).

One thing I was wondering is what percentage of us have these array microphone problems and whether there is any correlation with (for example) the Creative HD Audigy software.

 

I haven't even tried to open the creative audigy software, so i dont know how that effects it.

 

For the record, when I compared my registry keys once I got the microphone working with the way they had been before I found two differences which might be relevant (if I had more time on my hands I might test them to see what effect each has):

For driver version 6.10.0.5511

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sigmatel\Apo\LFX\MicIn\plugins\CreativeAPO
Changed "order" from dword:00000001 to dword:00000000

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sigmatel\PostProcessing
Changed "Index"="2" to "Index"="3"

 

I've tried everything suggested so far and without any luck. Any other ideas? I actually spent 1.5 hours on the phone with the XPS support without any luck. Yes I thought they might somehow have some idea as to what they were doing. Don't know what I was thinking.

Thoughts?

 

Why don't you post exactly what you had done so far (step by step), and I'll see if I can help you out.

 

I uninstalled the driver through device mgr using the delete driver option.

Then I downloaded and installed R157031. I changed the registry value to 3000. Rebooted. Had the same issue

I uninstalled the driver using the delete option noted above. Reinstalled the R160062. Rebooted. Uninstalled the driver R160062. Rebooted. Installed R157031. Rebooted. Changed the registry. no result. rebooted. tested again. No result.

I tried rolling back the driver to the previous driver without luck.

I tried going to the update driver option (2nd tab) and selecting R157031 directory. Selected SIGMATEL Major HD Audio, rebooted and the problem was still there.

Also fully ran windows update and installed everything available.

 

Try, as I previously suggested in this thread, to update the R160062 driver to R157031 using the "Update driver" function in Device manager. Let unchanged the system registry.. If the problem will be fixed you don't need to change anything!
Let me know,
Francesco

 

I tried this - but doesn't let me update, it tells me that my current driver is up-to-date.

A few observations:
I've noticed that the ticking or unticking the 'enable audio enhancements ' seems to make a difference (this can be found by right clicking the system tray sound icon, then selecting: Recording devices -> Mic Array -> Properties -> Advanced). Sound Recorder records at a reasonable volume but with a lot of background noise when it's ticked and, when it's unticked, it records too faintly but with no background noise. Furthermore, windows at one point told me something along the lines of "windows has detected that the audio enhancements [is causeing problems]" and asked whether it should disable it.
Hope this is a piece in the jigsaw.

 

Okay. First, you should not mess with the Registry yet. Leave that at the default 2500. Second, make sure you don't have the R160062 anywhere on your computer. Search for it if you have downloaded it before, and delete it.

Once you have deleted the download, follow instructions I posted to delete the Sigmatel Audio driver completely. Do not reboot. Immediately after deleting the Sigmatel driver, download the R157031 to your desktop and double click on it. Click yes when Windows Defender prompt you to, and let the new driver install itself. Now you can reboot the system.

My best suggestion is this. If this doesn't work, try it again a few more times. It may work the second or third time if the first try is unsuccessful. You don't need to mess with the Registry until the driver update works for you first. The Registry is more of a personal preference, or fine tuning if you will.

 

Tried everything in this thread and still no workie for my m1330...volume is very very low. In the control panel, it starts at 0.0db and i can only go negative!

 

I tried this with the latest drivers and it works were nothing else would!

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sigmatel\Apo\LFX\MicIn\plugins\CreativeAPO
Changed "order" from dword:00000001 to dword:00000000

 

That is because you have to do the roll back first.

 

Ok, this sucks. I had a perfectly working microphone. I had some hissing in my headphone jack, so i installed a new audio driver. Now my microphone doesnt pick up any sound. Or very little. I installed my original driver, but the mic still doesnt pick up sound. Wow. The only difference that I notice is that in my device manager, I am now missing an item under Sound devices called "Bluetooth Stereo." I wonder if this has anything to do with it.

 

Performed the steps as provided by krystal. Works again.

 

Finally got mine working and I'm now positive it has something to do with the audio enhancements.

First, I got it working partly because I finally put my scoffing aside and leaped with blind faith into the counter intuitive advice on this tread. I had installed the older driver, but this didn't work, so I didn't put much truck by Krystal's advice here (i.e. to install the same driver, but in a different way). At first, windows refused to 'update' to the older driver, but then - following Directgirl's advice - I did the following: 1. installed the older driver regularly 2. rolled-back to the original, newer driver 3. followed Krystal's instructions exactly (and for some strange reason doing 1. and 2. cured the problem of windows not allowing me to update to an older driver).

Second, I now find that when I turn off the audio enhancements I go straight back to exactly my original problem. But with the audio enhancements on I have good volume not only in Sound Recorder but also in Skype (as I say in the above quote, previously it would be good in SR, bad in Skype). Also, Windows has so far not reported any problem "Windows has detected that the audio enhancements is causing problems ..." message.

I hope this helps anyone who still has problems.

Finally, the main problem is solved but there is still the issue (albeit less annoying issue) of the background noise. I've attached a Sound Recorder recording to give you an idea of what I mean - anyone else getting this? any suggestions?

 

I tried the different drivers, loading them in different ways etc. but nothing changed, the mic volume stayed at an extremely low level. Your above registry edit worked perfect, changing the 1 into a 0 made it work perfect instantly (with latest M1330 drivers loaded). Thanx Goldserve!

Emile
(Netherlands, ordered M1330 first week July, delivered first week September. Black, LED display)

 

Hey, thanks for the step-by-step instructions! It works now. I use OneNote to record lectures and I couldn't hear anything before! I'm actually excited to try it now that it actually picks up sounds.

Just wondering, what is the optimal setting for recording in large lecture halls? is it 0.0dB or something lower?

 

I followed the process described by DirectGirl and it’s amazing. It really works. However, in my case it needed a few iterations and other considerations but finally it worked out. Great thanks to all who contributed to this.

Here is what I did (extra):
- Ensured that the installation routine had admin rights
- Directly after each reboot switched off all applications that uses the mic, such as Skype and Windows Live Messenger
- Also switched off Bluetooth and similar devices (e.g. didn’t use my Bluetooth mouse any but used the mouse pad)
- Noted the details of the mic driver by going to Control Panel / Device Manager / Sound, Video and Game Controllers / SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC / Properties / Driver: Driver Data and Driver version. This was essential for me to keep track what Windows actually installed based the steps I followed.
- In case I was not on track of DirectGirl’s process I went back to square one and started all over

Doing all this I noted that at certain steps at of the process my WiFi did not reconnect automatically. I had to disconnect and re-connect and sometimes even to restart my WiFi router. It failed at least 2-3 times. Now the driver install process is finished it seems to work normally. No idea whether there is a relationship between the mic problems and the WiFi connection or not. Just to let you know.

What still worries me is this:
1. How can Vista drivers be on the market that obviously are far from mature? From my perspective, I can’t judge whether there is one root cause for this dilemma with the SigmaTel mic or it’s a combination of various components (e.g. Vista itself + driver development out of specs + HW dependencies / ports numbers, ...)
2. Dell does not seem to know about all this or they don’t really care. First, Dell asked me to install the latest driver from their web site while I just had received the laptop. Haven’t they done it already? Then they sent a technician who replaced the mic. No surprise that this didn’t fix the issue either. Then emails back and forth. Then telephone support. They advised me to go back to an older version of Skype, etc. They don’t seem to understand that their drivers (or the configuration of it) do not do their job properly.
3. How sustainable is the situation? My system works now and I hope it will continue to do so even when the first Dell / Microsoft patches are being distributed.

Thanks again to the Cyber Space community,
Mike

 

Friends... Ah have had this here problem and read this thread with increasin' annoyance that a system so darn expensive could have an error like that at shipping.

And you know what that means people?

...Thars gonna be a lynchin'

Anyone who's with me saddle up and head over to Review City to deal them thar Dell boys a lesson they'll not fergit in a hurry.

I already did the influential CNET.COM, giving my cherished M1330 a fat 1 - abyssmal

Not because the mike doesn't work but because these dream machines are tremendously expensive and the mike's don't work.

C'mon y'all - lets gun them faulty system dealin' varmits down.

(No happy smiley despite the humour - I really am quite cross)

 

You give review sites too much credit. You realize half the xps 1330 ratings on cnet were given before anyone had ever laid eyes on an actual computer? Only suckers use those numbers. The actual comments are where it's at. Some people have worthwhile information to say...some are just wasting their time typing their worthless dribble.

Somebody at Dell's blog referred readers to this forum's "1330 build quality poll," which at one time showed less than 20% of 1330s arrived without issues. "There you go," they said, "they're all crap!" Never mind the statistical validity (or lack thereof) of any such poll. I guess it's true: numbers can be used to prove anything

Notice how reviews on this website don't use any stinkin' ratings? People here just tell it like it is and use industry-wide benchmarks. People here put Cnet reviewers to shame

 

Hey guys, can anyone help me? I bought inspiron 1420/windows vista OS. The problem is that i could not hear any sound coming out from the microphone. but the mic is working properly and i have installed properly the driver on my computer and working just fine. Does anyone have stereo mix for sigmatel driver for vista inspiron 1420? Need your help.

 

Now that I agree with.

Unfortunately I bought mine almost as soon as it came out so didn't have the benefit of anything much to go on beyond the specs. Hope yours is still going well Pookie. ...And am I still annoyed about Dell's QA?

LOL don't ge me started on that one. I still have no idea how they could ship an entire model (the LED ones) without someone, anyone? notcing the mikes were quiet before the machines went out the door.

You know what I am saying. If I had brought an Inspiron and they had loused the drivers up I would just have patched it instead of getting as steamed as I did with their attitude to high end XPS builds.

 

So can someone post the complete procedure for Dell Inspiron 1520? not sure if I can follow the xps ones.

 

i thought 1330 is the same mic with 1530?

my array mic works great, my voice can be recorded vry clear from 0-1.5m distance..

but i cant use it well when playing music on speakers