X220 Tablet Stereo Array Mics don't work?

Hi All,

I'm a bit confused as to why I can't seem to get my stereo array mics (the ones next to the webcam in the bezel) to work. There's only one audio input device (Conexant 20672 SmartAudio HD) listed in the Recording panel. I checked "Show disabled/disconnected devices" and nothing else shows up. I was under the impression that it was similar to the combined speaker deal (as in, when you plug in your headset, the driver automatically switches sound to your 3.5mm jack as opposed to your laptop speakers) but apparently this is not the case for the stereo array mics. Has anybody been able to get theirs to work?

I've been using the "listen to this device" functionality in the sound control panel, as well as the skype echo service to test if my mics work and both show that the mic does not work.

Also, when I plug in my phone headset with the microphone, I do hear sound, but it is extremely choppy. Ideas as to whats up? I have all the latest drivers from both Microsoft and Lenovo (as through their automated patching utilities) but I have not gone out and hunted down patches manually yet.

Thoughts anyone?

 

Nobody else has had this problem? I've uninstalled my sound drivers and reinstalled them and still no luck.

 

Have you tried the settings in Control Panel > SmartAudio > Audio Director > MULTI-STREAM, or in the Webcam software (Fn +F6).

 

Actually, that does split out the internal and external mics (external being the mic from the 3.5mm jack). It also confirms that the internal mic is busted. No sound whatsoever.. Time to call support... though I should probably do it AFTER my onsite warranty kicks in. Don't want to mail this out...

 

Hihi, I just bought a new X220 and have the same problem.. Were you able to solve yours in the end? Thank you very much

 

Nope. Haven't resolved it yet. I'm currently awaiting for them to properly activate my onsite warranty before I contact support for repair.

 

chaosphoenix: where's the 3.5mm jack for the mic? is it the same as the headphone? or is there a separate jack for the mic? i seem to be having mic problems too...

 

They integrated the mic and the headphone jack. Instead of just ground and left/right channel, they added a 3rd channel for mic.

They ended up sending a technician to come repair it, though they mailed him the wrong parts so he's going to come in tomorrow with the right parts to see if he can fix it. Not sure what the problem is though.

 

i'd bet that your issue is 100% driver or settings related.   my X220's mic wasn't working with two OS installations but finally worked under the latest install of server 2008 R2 enterprise.   the only difference was that the third installation used the microsoft WHQL driver and not the conexant one.

 

Hm. I'll try that. Yea the technician said he suspected it was driver related too.. I'm pretty sure I tried the default windows driver.. but I'll do it again just to double check.

If that fixes it, then my question is, this is with the factory install.. how come other people haven't had this issue?

Edit: Nope. Uninstalled the Conexant stuff and let windows do its own install.. detects all the devices (both speakers, the laptop ones and the headphone jack one, both mics, laptop and headphone jack one too) however I'm still getting nothing from the built in stereo mics.

 

the key is a clean installation of windows.   try that before swapping hardware unnecessarily.   uninstalling drivers didn't do anything for my system but a clean installation without the conexant drivers did.

 

Meh. Classes just started up for me and I don't have the time for a clean install.. :S Maybe I'll run the clean install on a second drive and once that works image it over...?

 

I published exactly this issue more than 3 weeks ago. Currently the only solution I have found is uninstalling the Conexant drivers. The newest drivers as of today are still causing problems. I reported this issue to Lenovo the same day I blogged about it. It's too bad that they'd prefer lots of complaints before taking this issue seriously.

stste: Getting your x220T to work

 

@nachumk: I did uninstall the Conexant drivers and that didn't help either. A technician is coming in tomorrow to swap out the mic physically, and after that I'll try both w/ conexant and w/ windows drivers and report back.

 

I am surprised to hear that uninstalling the drivers didn't help, but I spent the last 3 hours digging deep. I have found the fix, and I posted it on my blog:
stste: alternate solution to x220t microphone problem

This solution involves registry changes. It seems to me that there are some flags to the conexant driver, and a ForteMedia plugin which conflict. Disabling those flags, and disabling the ForteMedia driver fixes the problem even with the Conexant driver.

Tell me how this goes.
Nachum

 

HAH! The technician swapped out the mic just now and it works. >.> (Using the latest Conexant drivers that were already installed) Yay I guess that fixes it.

 

I just bought mine over ebay. I have the same problem with the mic. Does this mean it's an outdated hardware, that it has to be replaced to work with the official drivers?

I tried Nachums' sugestion to comment out registry items - so far it did not work for me.

 

Had the same problem just update the conexant driver.

 

Having same issue with my MIC in Lenovo X220.

Erik, can you provide microsoft WHQL driver which helped you?

 

I hunted in vain for the mic jack! Finally tried my three way cell phone headset 3.5mm and it works fine. Or, I can use my regular earbud headphones and the built in mics and it's fine. I'm running windows 7 pro on a factory build x220 with 8 gig and the second gen i7, not that any of that should matter.