FZ190 Microphone frustration! (design flaw?) HELP

This must be one of the biggest design flaws ever. My VAIO has a built-in camera & microphone (just like most VAIO's I'm sure)... anyway, here's the issue:

The microphone is always active and is constantly feeding whatever sound it picks up directly to my speakers. For instance: Every time I close my laptop (as one normally does multiple times a day to make it enter sleep), the microphone lays against the bottom case and picks up the electronic resonance from the internal components and then sends this horrid noise through my speakers, creating the most ear piercingly awful and embarrassing sound that lasts until the computer goes to sleep....

Furthermore, if I'm watching a video or playing music the microphone picks up the noise from my speakers and then sends that noise back through my speakers. So there's this awful double sound effect from whatever is playing.

I want to be able to use the microphone when I need it, for Skype or Google video chat, whatever, etc. so I don't want to deactivate it or turn it off (if I don't have to).... is there simply a way to stop the microphone from feeding its signal to the speakers? I've looked but can't find anything.

This is a huge oversight in my opinion....who wants a microphone to feed back into their own speakers? Stupid. Please HELP!

 

Not happening on my FZ190. What OS are you running? What driver do you have loaded? What app is runnig when you close the lid that would be playing back through the speakers. The drivers don't playback themselves. Some app has to be running for this to be happening.

Gary

 

Thank you for your reply!

I do not have any programs running at start-up or otherwise that would be using it. It seems I'm unable to find the driver info for the microphone, can you walk me through how to find it?

 

Yes you do. You must. There is no other way for what you are describing to happen. There is no hardwired way for this to occur. It is a software issue, pure and simple. The hardware has no physical way to cause a feedback loop like this, only software can do that.

Before we go ANY further what OS are you running?

Gary

 

Windows VISTA SP2 (fully up to date).

 

What software IS running? Any messenger apps, Yahoo, MSN, Googletalk, Skype etc? What other software is running, even if you don't think it has anything to do with audio, list it anyway.

What AUDIO driver are you running? (There is no micorphone driver per se, it is part of the audio driver.)

Gary

 

Driver: Sigmatel High Definition Audio Codec
version: 6.10.5614.0
driver date: 9/13/2007

Is this a defunct driver? Not running messenger/audio/video apps of any type.

 

1) Right click the speaker icon in your system tray and select "Recording Devices"

2) Double click on Microphone (Default Device).

3) Select the Listen tab.

4) Deselect the "Listen to this device" option.

5) Click Okay to close the dialog.

6) Click Okay to close Sound Properties.

This doesn't affect the ability to use the microphone - it will still be available for IM applications, etc.

--L.

 

Alright...I don't have the same promps as you....

1) I right click on the speaker icon and choose "recording devices"

2) ...then a new window opens showing three tabs: "Playback", "Recording", and "Sounds"... with the recording tab auto-selected but says no device is installed so it is blank. I click on "Playback" and choose "Speaker / Headphone SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC"

3) Then a new window opens with four more tabs: "General" "Levels" "Effects" & "Advanced"

....I can't find anywhere a "Listen to this device" option (under any of the tabs)....suggestions?

 

Well the fact that the recording tab is blank, means that clearly there is a problem. You should have TWO devices there, a built in mic and an external mic.

I would suggest you first create a system restore point. Then go into device manager and remove the sound card. Then reboot and let Vista find the card and reinstall the drivers.

Personally I got rid of the Sigmatel driver and used the stock Microsoft one. I did so because the Microsoft one has the "loudness" compensation option and they give a bit more output from the anemic speakers on our FZ190 models. However there is one BIG drawback with the Microsoft drivers. They do not do a good job of autosensing the use of external speakers/headphones or the use of an external mic. For the headphones/speakers they will autosense when an audio app is NOT running. Once an app starts they will not switch. You have to stop the app and plug in headphones and then restart the app. The microphone NEVER autosenses and you have to manually switch between internal and external. But once you get used to this it really is no big deal, and the better sound (for me anyway) is worth the extra hassle.

I would let Vista reinstall the Sigmatel ones for right now, till you get this issue worked out and then think about switching to the Microsoft ones latter.

But MAKE SURE YOU CREATE A RESTORE POINT FIRST!!!!

Gary

 

As Gary said, something is clearly wrong with your audio drivers. You should definitely have something in the recording tab. Give Gary's suggestion a try, and see if you can't resolve the missing microphone/recording controls.

-L.