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
    2015-01-20T11:09:47+00:00

    David: try installing audacity (search it on google) and see if, at a 40% level, it picks up anything on your mic.

    If it does, then it's not the same issue.  

    You might just need to remove the checkboxes to give exclusive access for the mic to stop windows turning it down, which might be the issue for you (Sorry if it's not, but the automatic turning down of the level kind of muddys the water as to whether this is the same issue).

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-01-20T06:45:26+00:00

    I recently bought an Andrea Electronics NC-181 headset to use with my laptop for speech recognition (using Windows built-in capabilities). I've successfully used speech recognition in the past (under Windows 7) on this laptop using much inferior equipment (the built-in microphone and a pairing of my android phone with the laptop), but am having absolutely no luck with the NC-181...

    I don't think this is a USB only issue. This headset uses the traditional audio jacks and I am experiencing the same issue. I'm noticing that when I run speech recognition it turns down the levels of the microphone and if I turn them back up it just automatically turns them back down. Does this happen to anyone else?

    Mainly just figured I'd throw this tidbit into the ring...as I don't think USB is the problem.

    Dave

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  3. 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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  4. 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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