Major audio problem.

I know that the internal mics in laptops are not of the best quality, but I cannot get them to work on my IFL90, I have tried re-installing vista, went through 3 versions of the drivers, and am still left with it not working. The only sound I get out of them is this...

Recorded form internal mic source.

 

My first question would be whether this is a problem with JUST the internal mic or if it is a problem with ALL microphones. Have you tried using a cheap external mic? If the problem does not show up on the external mic, I would contact your tech support to see about warranty repairs.

 

I would assume that all Microphones for Compal IFL90/Sager 2090 have flaws.
Because I have swapped to the 2nd one already with the same issue.

This has caused a tremendous inconvenience since I hate plugging an external mic when I carry my notebook around places.

What's so great about this mic is that it's "stereo". Unfortunately, it can just "whine".

By the way, let's see if we can gather enough complaints to bring this issue to Compal's attention so they will start to take care of this problem. I think it's serious because a manufacturer is supposed to take care of its products, even a serious design flaw.

12.17 Edit:
I have attached my own test for your reference as well.
See if anyone has similar problem like ours.
Thanks.

 

@masterbw
You get the same noise as me, but better results. I can crank the input up to maximum and still not get any external noise(voice), only internal noise(HDD?).

 

I would say it sounds like "CPU Whine" symptom, an internal interference that causes this.
I can actually hear this noise with my bare ear close to the left side of notebook with/without AC Adapter hooked up.

Do you have a list of spec of your IFL90 (CPU, RAM, HDD)?

 

i was playing around with the nero video software that lets you record a vid and I found the mic to be okay, it picked up my voice okay and was clear...I mean it wasn't as if I had my headset on or anything but it worked for what I expected it to do..idk just my opinion.

 

I tested my mics in a skype call: it seems that my recipient heard me loud and clear without the whining but I could clearly hear it in my speakers....

 

@Ayle:

That's a thought. Have you tried using headphones? It's possible the microphone is creating a bit of a feedback loop because it "hears" itself in the laptop speakers. Maybe if you tried with headphones, there wouldn't be an opportunity for a feedback loop?

 

The mic of my headset work fine, maybe the problem is caused by the fact that it's a stereo mic... The whining reminded me of my old acer but in that particular case, it was because the mic was place directly over the fan(stupid design and horrendous build quality)....

 

I got the same problem.

 

What is the latest driver for xp?
I got 5.10.0.5523...

This is a serious issue, I mean, I can barely hear myself behind all the noise. If the boost function of xp is not on, the sound is nice, although too low to be hearable.

I placed my mouth right in front of the microphones and it didn't get any better.

 

I only have Acoustic Echo Cancelling on, and I think I sound fine. Recordings have the little whine, but my voice is louder than that. I found that with every other mic setting on or off (beam forming and noise supression) I either can't hear myself or the whine gets louder. Btw, in the recording I am standing a good 3ft away from the mic.

 

I tried that, but doesn't make it any better.

 

Many of us were just lucky (with defective units) and few of us were very lucky (working units).

vashts121, your issue still exists, it's not fixed. Your machine is just as crippled as the rest of us.

You should let Compal know by emailing to,
[email protected]

She is in charge of notebook service listed on Compal's website.

I have been in contact with them for awhile, however the result was unsatisfying.

 

what do you mean by that? You think that all off ifl90 line was defective accept a few machines? Because me and my friend we have the same machines that we bought together in the same day and he have problems(bsod) with the same programs that i use without any problem.

 

delta90, I am saying that IFL90 have problems with several of their batches, and we are not the only ones to have these problems.

By the way, what kind of program are you running? Maybe I can test it for you on mine.

 

Thats the point.
That on my machine they working just perfectly, without any problems, but on my friends, he have some issues and bsod.
We both cheked our computers with memtest overnight and prime overnight and everything ok. But he still have problems and i haven't. We making music and we working with audio interfaces and our programs is totally depends on audio interfaces drivers. We have the same audio interfaces with one acception he have:
Firewire Edirol FA-101
and i have:
USB Edirol UA-101.
So may be computer's Firewire card is the issue because IFL-90 has the cheep RICOH Firewire chipset.
BTW ours programs is:
Stainberg Nuendo 3, Ableton Live 6, Propellerhead Reason 3, Sony Sound Forge 8....
And VST plugins like:
Native Instruments Absynth 3, Native Instruments B4 II, Native Instruments FM-7, KORG Studio, Arturia MinimoogV, Stylus RMX, Garritan Personal Orchestra, Garritan Jazz&Big Band, Artist Grooves, Wizoo Latigo, Wizoo Darbuka, Stainberg Virtual Guitarist, Stainberg Groove Agent, Vanguard, Cube....
And VST effects like:
Waves, Timeworks, TCWorks...

 

I emailed that person from Compal, here is what she wrote (and what I wrote)

Hi Matt,

Where is your location？　 Can you get you NB to our repair center for checking?

Forward your message to Engineer team for their comments or solution.

Any update, will let you know.



Rgds,

Serena






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Matt [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 12:47 AM
To: Peng. Serena (TPE)
Subject: IFL90 Mic



Hello,

I am contacting you today because of the mics built-into the IFL90. It records the whining noise of other pc components, and seems badly places in my opinion. If I have any option on or off besides acoustic echo cancelling, the whine either gets louder or I can't hear myself. I attached a recording so you can hear for yourself. Will there be a solution anytime soon? Some people on the nokebookreview forums claim that I just happened to get an unlucky batch, while others have the exact same problem.


So, what do you guys think? Should I take one for the team?

 

Oh god, I faint before you - delta90h.
NEVERMIND...

 

To masterbw :

I am very sory for that long post.
May be you think that I am trying to make an empression on you, by all this audio stuff.
But i didn't.
And I belive that, it is many things that you know and i didn't know.
The only purpouse of counting almost all of programs that i working with, is to show you that it is imposible to test them and even to have them.
But thank you alot for you proposition.

Another thing I want to tell, that before IFL-90 All my Computers was IBM ,Accept the very first, that was Apple. I had IBM ThinkPads Pentium 1,2,3 and my last was ThinkPad G40 P4 2.4Ghz, 1GB SD-RAM.
And all this setup works fine without any problems on ThinkPad G40.

But I wanted More Performance And I Get A huge performance gain with IFL-90 Compare to my old IBM.

But I lost my TRUSTABILITY.

I Will explain.

When I had my IBM and something goes wrong like BSoD or other issues, the first thing that I sought:"may be it is software issue or drivers or something like this."
Now when something happen, the first thing that I think:"may be it is Hardware or computer design."

This is what i call TRUSTABILITY !!!

I don't know why, because till now I have no hardware related problems with my computer (accept incompatible memory that our retaler exchange for us to compatible one), but My friend has. And I read many things from other people here on this forum.
But you live in Taiwan. And Compal is Taiwanese producer.So what do you think about Compal?
Maybe there in Taiwan them more Trustable?

P.S. I forget to tell you. I even don't know how to explain this, but as I told you my friend has Firewire audio interface and when he connects to my USB interface by analog input output, we hear the constant machine noise, as you, through your internal mic.
But when he disconnects AC power and running on battery, the noise disappears.
So I think, maybe something wrong with power design of IFL-90, that affect an audio I/O.

 

Compal is a Taiwanese Designer, Chinese Producer since they don't make everything inside Taiwan. Although Compal OEMs for many reputable companies. But I wouldn't call it entirely a Taiwanese product if it's made outside of the island.

I don't recall my low-end version of ASUS notebook doing this to me. And this is like a mental disturbance when you understood that you have a unit that's half working and half malfunctioned (especially when you have to assume if it’s computer design issue). I can’t say that I am being picky or fastidious because when I purchase something I expect that it is at least fully functional (99.99%). It is a joke when any consumer can detect this obvious problem, and especially when this is not an individual case.

When I asked among retail stores in regard to Compal and Clevo, they are rarely visible. Compal is a first-line manufacturer while Clevo being second, but it seems Clevo has higher build quality. Second-line means they don't make everything themselves and rely on some factories for certain parts.

And what makes me most dissatisfied is when I contacted Compal, they could not help at all. If Compal cannot help, I can almost guarantee that Sager (US Importer) cannot help the US consumers too. I believe that all of us understand that we cannot return this notebook for a refund, so at least fix the problems. And do not ask us to bear with it.

Regarding the power design, I would assume that Compal engineers had forgotten to plug something on there and somehow the CPU noise got through thus interfered with the audio circuitry. My CPU (T7700) always whines with and without AC adapter hooked. I can hear that noise with my bare ear if I listen carefully. This noise does come from speakers, but I am sure it’s loud enough for mic to pick it up. And I don’t trust if this is Intel nor Realtek related issue. If this is design issue then a hardware revision would be required, if problem is minor Compal can escape freely. But in this case Compal may be in a big trouble because now this involves RECALL and will hit them big time. This could be the reason why Compal is passively processing our cases. Say if this takes long enough we would just forget it.

Finally, I hope Compal can do something for its customers instead of ignoring them, and before they lose their patience.

 

I can hear myself thrugh this terrible noise, but there is not only noise, there is also huge play delay (latency), something about 100+ milliseconds between you say something and hear it. And this can be fixed only by Realtek driver.
Human ear start to notice real latency from 21 milliseconds.

 

So I've got a question: How much of this is related to the microphone?

I've got a very similar problem, but it persists even when I have the mic muted. The sound is more of a hiss - continuous and very annoying.

It appears to be *directly* related to CPU clock and drive usage - the tone is different depending on the CPU's current clock and disk activity. I've tried multiple driver versions under both XP32 and Vista64, but none of them appear to help.

Another odd (possible) symptom is that when using headphones I need to keep the volume as low as possible just to keep from blowing my eardrums out, but when I plug it into my speaker set I need to crank the volume all the way up just to hear anything.

When I disable the HD-audio driver the hiss goes away, but then I don't have any sound :/

 

Seems like you have a different sympton but also related to electronic noise.
Currently, it is un-repairable.

 

I'm thinking this is related to Realtek's (crappy?) hardware - the audio chip had the same hiss in my CL56, although it wasn't as obviously tied to the CPU and drive.

 

Nein, I talked to Realtek Taiwan's engineers already.
It's not their fault after we ran several diagnostics.

It's Compal whom should be responsible for flawed design.

 

Here is my audio test using Audacity 1.3 Beta (Unicode) and it also have the "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuwiieeeeeeeeeeeooowooouuuueeeee" (you have to read that with a high pitch), noise.

The serial numbers on my notebook are:

10-7019-050020
ML3054
COYT2T9YPX73C8AT

RoHS
2202/95/EC

PS208HA55758

7439303212946383

Only one channel get activated during recording Wasn't it supposed to be recorded like in stereo? I ask because there are two little microphone holes.

I bought it from RJ Tech.com at the beginning of December.

 

If there's an audio problem in my IFL90, I sure as heck can't hear it, through either the built-in speakers or headphones. (Then again, my hearing ain't so great anymore).

 

edilcs, your problem is exactly same as mine.