Hi Guys, I've posted a description of my problem to several places to no avail. Hope this time somebody may point to the right direction. {XP Pro, SP2; Intel Motherboard DG965OT; Core 2 Duo EC6700; on-board audio SigmaTel STAC9271D @ Intel 82801HB ICH8 - High Definition Audio Controller; All latest updates BIOS, chipset, drivers, etc.} Problem: Microphone has very low level input signal. Despite I was reading a lot lately that it is some very common issue, I wasn’t able to find a solution. And I am just curious - “why!?” I have two mics (nothing special, I don’t even know their brands) and they are extremely sensitive. I can record birds and dogs four blocks away when slider set to 80% of record volume. They both work on my old win 2000 Pro box with PCI Sound Blaster 16 (Equisonic -1997 date of birth!) They both worked with described power on my previous Gigabyte mobo with unbelievably bad quality Realtek audio. With SigmaTel I need to put mic literally inside my mouth to produce something that can be recorded and/or heard on the other side when I am chatting. And you must not express any kind of emotions because that will create over-peaks. I tried Plantronics USB mic USB mic is much better even Ok concerning input signal level but it has this constant static buzz (rather whistle). It can be easily edited for recordings but it's unacceptable during on-line chat/VOIP. I contacted Plantronics. Their conclusion was: "The issue you have described is most likely caused by damage to the headset's microphone or cable….” I tried another Plantronics mic and got the same result. Could it be some grounding issue? And if so what can be done? I found an advice somewhere, which sounds mystery to me because there were no further explanation. It stated: "try lift the ground on your USB connection". I wish I knew how. I have some recording Software(s) with mic input amplification. It somehow helps during/for recordings but what would be the trick to amplify and “send my voice overseas” during the chat? I mean: so the amplification can be picked up on a driver level. I am still a bit resistant to buy hardware mic amplifier. Thanks in advance for any help. Regards
I know this thread is long dead but I found a fix, and it appears anyone has yet to post one. In the latest driver release they have addressed the issue. Ensure you uninstall all old audio driver installations(intel audio studio and or sigmaltel audio) and reboot the computer. Download and install the latest package from intel. XP Audio drivers Once installed open the IDT Audio Control Panel. Click on the top most icon/tab(looks like a speaker), under recording control look under mic, click advanced and enable mic boost and set it to an appropriate level(test by having input monitor unmuted).
Hi Jaketeck, I really appreciate your reply. Let me start from saying: "Me bad!" I should've came here earlier and post a message about the same finding. Usually I do notify others about some progress and/or solution no matter what forum and regardless having responses or not, because it may help somebody else. In addition, I may say, that I was contacting Intel support, and because the new driver was released shortly after that, it was , probably done for me personally . But this time I was carried away by unrelated issues. In addition testing the new driver raised some questions like: - I'm having some problems with surround with Sigmatel Control installed; - it works fine with Intel HD Audio Studio but that one does not address mic amplification; - too much noise added during amplification, when without amp. and mic "inserted" in your mouth noise filtering works perfect; - choosing and testing USB mic in parallel So sending a message here was postponed "until more questions answered", which turned to be forever... Thanks a lot again. My best regards
