Closed - Mic issues

[Gavin]

Here are my laptop specs. One of the senior officers recommended I do this so here goes:

Manufacturer: Dell

Model: Inspiron 1545

Processor: Pentium® Dual-Core CPU

RAM: 4.00 GB

System Type: 64-bit operating system

And the mic I bought...it was only $20 at K-mart. If that's the issue, I can try for a better one, but I've had mics work in the past that were about the same. It's a headset. Hope this helps you with a solution.

Thank you,

Rec. J. Gavin

[Cutts]

I'm not expert on this sort of thing, but I know we'll need a bit more information to help, so to start the ball rolling:

First, what sort of problems are you actually having?

Low levels inbound/outbound? Crackling? Background hum? Etc.?

Second, is it intermittant / partial?

Eg, does this happen all the time, just in one game, or on-and-off?

Third, does your headset/mike use USB, or a pair of 3.5mm audio jacks?

This makes a lot of difference... devices which use audio jacks are essentially using analogue lines into and out of

your sound card, and analogue signals can be degraded by interference from other nearby electronics. Almost all

analogue headsets suffer from background hiss, and often crackling, due to all the other high-frequency electronic

shit inside your PC! A USB device will typically handle all the audio digitally on board the headset device itself, so

doesn't usually suffer from such problems.

Fourth, if using 3.5mm audio jacks, what is your soundcard? If you don't know, we can probably deduce it from the

Dell model numbers.

-----

Just as an aside, I used to have crazy problems with an analogue headset... no matter what I did I couldn't get rid

of a lot of hiss, and intermittent crackling. I realised that the audiojack I was plugging into was just an extension

cable in the case, and the cable ran directly past pretty much every single component on the motherboard. If all 4

CPU cores were running, the crackling would get worse! The best solution was to ditch it, and just buy a new USB

headset instead, which has worked flawlessly since then.

Mine is a Corsair HS-1, which cost about £70 (somewhere just under $100, I expect). Corsair aren't particularly

known for audio equipment (more known for RAM and other core components), but I must say it sounds great,

it's absurdly comfortable, and it just works which is the most important thing!

Other brands that are supposedly good, are:

Sennheiser (in my experience they have unbeatable sound quality, but often break quite quickly and usually quite expensive),

Creative Labs (one of the most solid PC-audio brands around... always acceptable, sometimes amazing),

Plantronics (I have an old one of theirs... its taken quite a beating and still works)

But anyway, before you start shelling out cash, give us a bit more info, and maybe we can help fix the stuff you

already have!

- Cutts

Edited August 15, 2012 by Cutts 1st MRB

[Gavin]

I can supply you with details.

1. I experience a LOT of background noise that doesn't gradually die down; it just doesn't stop...and it gets louder.

2. When I tested the mic out before starting DoD:S, it worked perfectly. It worked at the main menu of the game as well. But then when I enter a server, everything just falls apart.

3. The headset I got uses audio jacks.

4. I do not know anything about my sound card.

Thank you very much for getting the ball rolling on this, Sir! The 20th is coming fast and I still need to check in as a recruit. Hopefully this is enough for a possible solution.

Thanks for taking the time to help, Sir!

-Rec. J. Gavin

[Cutts]

Ok, first up a couple of standard fixes:

1) Make sure all your drivers for your soundcard and motherboard are updated.

It could be a known issue that has been fixed by the manufacturer in the latest driver.

2) Is your mic plugged into a front panel or into the usual back panel? If in the front,

try it in the back instead. It might be as simple as that.

3) Check if it works in ventrillo, because if it does its possibly an issue with valve voice,

which I have suffered from before. Valve voice is a bit weird; I'm not certain, but I think it uses

sound hardware a bit differently to many other programs, and I believe this can cause issues

with certain sound cards, particularly onboard ones.

If it does seem to be an issue with valve voice and your onboard sound, you may well need a

USB headset. Do you have a mate with one you can borrow? If so, try it out and it may well not

suffer from the issue (this will confirm where the problem is). If your onboard sound does turn

out to be the problem, the easiest fix is to buy a headset that works... there may be some other

way of doing it, but I never found it when I had this problem.

I throw that open to anyone else who may have experience?

[Cutts]

Also... don't call me Sir!... I work for a living!

Edited August 16, 2012 by Cutts 1st MRB

[Holland 1st MRB]

Has the problem been resolved?

Please post back here, confirming whether or not the problem still needs to be worked on, and if there is any further information you can provide us.

[Holland 1st MRB]

Topic closed.

Feel free to post another ticket if any further problems come up.