Windows 8.1 USB microphone volume is extremely low

Anonymous
2014-03-14T02:41:12+00:00

I have a Samson C01U USB mic. It is a plug-and-play microphone. There are no drivers for it. There is no firmware for it. You just plug it in, and it works.

This mic has always worked perfectly. When I used Windows 7, I set the volume level of it to about 40-50% and everything sounded crisp, clear, and loud. On Windows 8, it is inaudible unless I set the volume to 90% but even at that point it is not loud enough. Setting it to 100% results in a lot of noise in the background.

This is not the first time someone has brought this issue up as it is extremely common to everyone owning a USB plug-and-play mic:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1323451/windows-8-mic-issue

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/2da97f80-f58b-4635-acbf-9dd7292ed752/microphone-very-low-volume?forum=w8itprohardware

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows\_8-hardware/low-usb-microphone-recording-volume-at2020/9528f797-65c8-4033-a4d6-39995cd0d074

Has there ever been a fix for this issue?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2014-07-31T00:46:56+00:00

Hi,

Thank you for the reply.

As you have mentioned that you have checked the issue with other microphone but you still face this issue. We have already tried to uninstall and reinstall the drivers. I suspect this issue to be a hardware issue. Check the issue with a local technician.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-01-16T13:52:05+00:00

    Hi there, 

    Any further for this?  Or is there a way I can get more directed support ?  This is horrendously slow.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-01-14T17:55:58+00:00

    A long history of being awesome at complaining.

    The only way this is getting fixed for me is if I either swap back to my old hardware, or get MS to fix it.  My old hardware doesn't do what I need.  So, I've no choice but to be patient :)

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-01-14T17:31:00+00:00

    Dude, i don't know where you get your patience from but props

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-01-14T16:59:41+00:00

    My Chipset drivers are all up to date, this is one of the things I did when troubleshooting by myself.

    This issue is NOT related to the microphone, as I've tested with other microphones, against a windows 7 machine, and the issue is replicated.

    This is an issue with the driver that is provided by Microsoft.  All of the files for this driver are created by Microsoft.  Samson does not provide their own drivers, as the product is designed to work with the Windows generic drivers, which have changed between Windows 7 and windows 8.

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