Microphone not working

My Laptop is Dell precision M6300. Its Builtin microphone does not work. How i can solve this problem

DELL PRECISION M6300

DELL PRECISION M6300

Hello. The Precision M6300 is an old Dell model that was built at a time when Dell was not putting mics in most of its laptops. I have tried to research this and as far as I can tell the M6300 did not have a built-in mic. I found reviews from 2007 where one of the negatives about the unit was the lack of a built-in mic.

There is another problem if your operating system is Windows 8. The audio hardware in the M6300 was made by a company named Sigmatel that went out of business before Windows 7 and 8, so there were never any Sigmatel audio drivers for 7 or 8. That means you have to rely on the Windows generic audio driver to get audio. The problem is that on most models the microphone jack on the side of the case will not work with the Windows native audio driver. So if you need to use a microphone you might have to get a usb mic, or a usb audio jack, or a usb webcam.

My laptop is a latitude e6420 with windows 7 proffesional

My laptop is a latitude e6420 with windows 7 proffesional

Download and install a fresh copy of the IDT audio driver for your model.

Test the mic again after installing the driver.

If you have the Dell Webcam software, open it and check out the mic settings. If you have the program find it in Start>All Programs>Dell Webcam. Or type Dell Webcam into the search box.

If still no luck then you might have hardware failure. To check for hardware failure perform a system recovery. A system recovery will fix all software issues with the mic so if it still does not work immediately after the recovery, there is hardware failure.

If there is hardware failure, contact tech support if you are still under warranty. If the warranty has expired you can open the display bezel and check the mic connection. If the connection is okay you might need to replace the webcam.The webcam contains the mic. The instructions for doing that are in the Service Manual on the E6420 documents page.

I look in Device Manage

What do you see on the Recording tab of the Sound properties?

I have an Inspiron 1525

None of the operating systems that came after Vista are supported on the 1525. You could try installing the Vista Sigmatel audio driver and the Vista and the Dell Webcam Manager in compatibility mode. However the Sigmatel is 32 bit and probably will not work with a 64 bit OS.

Hi Jimco, I am currently running Windows 8.1 Pro on my 1525. Under System it does say that 8.1 is a 32 bit OS but the CORE 2 Duo is an X64-based processor. Does that mean it's not supposed to be working?

Anyhow, I found Sound properties and under the Recording Tab I found 2 microphone icons. Both were identified as High Definition Audio Devices. One was check-marked and called 'Default Device' while the other was 'currently unavailable'. When I looked at the Properties of the Default Device the 'Jack Information said 'Front Panel 3.5 mm Jack'. I plugged in an external mic and the volume scale next to the icon looked like it was responding to my test inputs. I then clicked on the 'currently unavailable' icon and made it the Default Device. When I selected Properties for this one the Jack Information said 'Digital Jack'. It appears as though that might have been the problem as the volume scale next to this icon now respond to my test inputs. I must now try calling someone to see if the audio leaves my machine.

Well, I tried talking to someone else and the internal mics didn't seem to work but an external mic plugged in to the front panel 3.5 mm jack did work. Any idea where to go next?

Thanks (so far),

manaranger

Under System it does say that 8.1 is a 32 bit OS but the CORE 2 Duo is an X64-based processor.

If the OS is 3bit then the Sigmatel driver might work with it. It doesn't matter about the cpu.

Well, I tried talking to someone else and the internal mics didn't seem to work but an external mic plugged in to the front panel 3.5 mm jack did work.

Test the internal mic (the digital one) by open Windows Sound Recorder and making a brief test recording. If you can do that then the mic is working and the problem is elsewhere, for example in the Skype configuration. Try it without the Sigmatel driver and if it doesn't work try to install the Sigmatel driver in compatibility mode.

I performed the Sound Recorder test and I did hear my test message but it was extremely low volume (even with the volume maxed out). Is there anyplace to control sensitivity?

control sensitivity?

Go back to the Recording tab of Sound and right click on the internal mic to open the context menu. Click properties (or use the Properties button in lower right corner). Select the Levels tab. There are controls for mic volume (gain) and boost. Increase gain all the way and if that does not provide enough gain then gradually increase boost until you reach the desired level.

On the digital mic all I had was Level, no Boost. Did have both for the external. Moving Level up to max had no measurable difference on the internal.

Downloaded and installed both the Sigmatel Audio driver and the Dell Webcam Manager with no change to problem. Very strange though that both internal and external mics have very low output on the Windows Sound Recorder but the external works OK when I Skype to others but the internal does not.

manaranger