Microphone volume too low

Anonymous

I just bought a new Toshiba Satellite L500D, with Windows 7, and I'm having a problem with the microphone volume, in that recorded sound is barely audible.

I followed all the suggested steps on this forum topic: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7music/thread/06582922-0014-4dac-9f74-b63f143fbb8e ...but nothing fixed it.

It's a built-in microphone and the sound driver is Realtek. I did a driver update check and it has the latest version. I have all the microphone volume settings set to maximum, and have tried doing test recordings in both Skype and the Windows Sound Recorder. They record, but it is extremely low volume, even when I lean closer to the mic and speak loudly. Various Skype call recipients could barely hear me. The only thing that records loudly is when I run a finger over the matte plastic of the monitor frame -- that records super loud for some reason.

I welcome any suggestions as soon as possible. I need my microphone to get work done!

I hope the Microsoft people can remedy this situation as soon as possible, because it's crucial to fix!

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous

I had this problem for a few weeks, i recently read a forum post telling me to untick the :allow applications to take exclusive control of device:

Well, I found that setting and changed a couple of others, and I think it's fixed it

I went via Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Manage Audio Devices to get to the Sound panel.

I then selected Playback > Speakers > Enhancements and made sure everything was un-checked.

I then selected Playback > Speakers > Advanced and un-checked 'Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device'

I went to Recording > Microphone > Listen and ensured 'Listen to this device' was unchecked.

I went to Levels and ensured the Microphone level was at 100% and the Boost was at +10db

I went into Enhancements and ensured everything was un-checked.

I then into Advanced and un-checked 'Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device'

And finally I went into the Communications tab of the Sound panel, and changed 'When windows detects communications activity' to 'Do nothing'

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45 additional answers

Anonymous

2011-12-15T07:15:16+00:00

I have tried everything listed in this thread and my recording volume for the mic is too low on windows 7. I didn't have this same problem with Windows XP. I have to record for music projects and there is definitely something wrong with the sound setup on windows 7. I don't know what it is but some of us paid a lot of money for this operating system and it fails to deliver the high quality sound recording options that I would have expected from this company.

If anyone knows how to find some way to get the microphone volume on the sound recording to go up about 4 times the volume of everything set on the maximum levels, or thinks they know of another way to fix this, please post. Thanks.
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Anonymous

2012-07-01T06:26:30+00:00

so are microsoft planning to respond to this or still rolling out the user problem template and ignoring the issue?

im one step away from returning to xp, no latency, no usb latency, no network latency, working directsound, no mic issues.

win7 is pretty but i need functional, windows 8 is an ugly interface for win7 so i wont be upgrading thats for sure.
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Anonymous

2013-04-11T15:25:28+00:00

Still having this same problem today
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Anonymous

2013-04-29T00:01:48+00:00

Is Microsoft deaf? This problem has been reported by thousands of people for several years. They need a driver that actually boost mic signal. There isn't even a boost option for external mics.

Microsoft is a piece of - well, you know. Saying it would violate Microsoft's code of conduct. Oh, I wish they'd take their COC and shove it up their -- ops, there I go again!
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