Dell's Sorry History of Microphone/Soundcard Issue (Update)

kony (Troll) wrote:

Class_Action classaction357 AT yahoo DOT com wrote:


FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WILL SOMEONE PLEASSSSEEEE TELL ME
HOW TO GET MY MIC TO RECORD?!?!


Have you tried turning your speaker volume up some?

Do you now see the low mic volume problem?
'

kony (Troll) wrote:

Class_Action classaction357 AT yahoo DOT com wrote:

kony (Troll) wrote:

It is clearly an indication that there is no such thing as a
"Dell low mic volume problem".

Don't you see these as the low mic volume problem?

I have to yell into my Dell provided microphone
Only when I shout really hard I get a fuzzy little noise recorded
I don't want to -eat- this microphone!!!!
I had to practically put the mic in my mouth.
the volume is so low that you have to scream.
Do you know a way to record an outgoing message without "eating"
the microphone?
I have to scream into the microphone

No, I see you only repeating the same thing over and over
again and not making any reasonable attempt to do anything
more than listen to a Dell tech's instructions.

Do you see any Dell Tech instructions in these?

I have to yell into my Dell provided microphone
Only when I shout really hard I get a fuzzy little noise recorded
I don't want to -eat- this microphone!!!!
I had to practically put the mic in my mouth.
the volume is so low that you have to scream.
Do you know a way to record an outgoing message without "eating"
the microphone?
I have to scream into the microphone

Do you see that everything you write is only evidence that
instead of following their instructions you're just wasting
time repeating same thing over and over again?

Do you see any instructions in these?

I have to yell into my Dell provided microphone

Only when I shout really hard I get a fuzzy little noise recorded

I don't want to -eat- this microphone!!!!

I had to practically put the mic in my mouth.

the volume is so low that you have to scream.

Do you know a way to record an outgoing message without "eating"
the microphone?

I have to scream into the microphone

Dave wrote:

If you read the current posts in the Community Forums (the ones you
allege have been deleted) the problem has been solved. Download and
apply the latest drivers from Creative.

The mic on my Audigy in my XPS 600 works fine now.

WEAK MICROPHONE + AUDIGY 2 PROBLEM - TRY THIS...
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfor...ssage.id=62843

Dell support suggested downloading and installing the following
Beta driver from the Creative website:

This improved the mic audio for me,
but the audio is still too low.

Any fix for low/no mic volume yet?
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfor...ssage.id=62902

No luck here with the Beta drivers.

"Tom Scales" (Dell Bot) wrote:


"Dave" wrote:

If you read the current posts in the Community Forums (the ones you
allege have been deleted) the problem has been solved. Download and
apply the latest drivers from Creative.

The mic on my Audigy in my XPS 600 works fine now.


Oh no, you've ruined the Troll's day.

If indeed the driver was the problem, wonder why then Dell jerked
around the customers?

Live Value Soundcard: Mic record level too low (1/29/2002)
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportf...ssage.id=21877

so i contacted Dell tech support they advised me to uninstall the
soundcard and reinstall it. I did that and it made no difference.

They told me to uninstall the windows sound recorder and
reinstall it, that made no difference either,

they told me to uninstall the whole of windows multimedia
I did that and it made no difference

Microphone - weak input, out of ideas... (8/29/05)
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportf...ssage.id=60002

Dell tech support insisted I reformat my hard disk
and reinstall everything.

I am amazed (& frustrated) with the numerous "hoops" that Dell Tech
Support had me jump through over 12 days without ever admitting a
problem.

You had $1500 to spend on a computer ... and you went with Dell?
:retard:

Dell is great if you want a new computer for less than $500. That's
what Dell is for.

As for the mic problem, low pickup is totally normal in the default
Windows settings on every version of Windows I've used (everything up
to win2k - XP could be different but I doubt it)

Please just try this. You probably have two different volume
controllers - the standard volume control that is part of Windows and
an audio deck that's related to your sound hardware. The standard
Windows audio control should look like a little speaker down by the
clock on your taskbar. Might have an icon of a plain looking little
yellow speaker. Open it up it should be titled "Master Volume" and
it's pretty plain looking compared to any audio deck you may have. Go
to Options - Properties.


http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/8182/volcon19be.jpg

There should be a list of what volume controls to display; by
default, mic is usually off, so tic that box and close Properties.
Now a new control will appear for the mic, crank it up and make sure
it isn't muted. Notice the new control compared to the previous
screen:

[img:d8c5bf33fb]http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/8650/volcon25mu.jpg[/img:d8c5bf33fb]

Now, under Options - Preferences it should also have "Adjust
Volume For: " and list Playback, Recording, Other. Right now this
should be on Playback and we've changed the mic setting under that.
Select Recording now.

[img:d8c5bf33fb]http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/1241/volcon34aa.jpg[/img:d8c5bf33fb]

This will bring up another set of controls, with a different mic
control.

[img:d8c5bf33fb]http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/5830/volcon44pb.jpg[/img:d8c5bf33fb]

Make sure the mic here is also turned up, and not muted.


I doubt this is any defective hardware or software on Dell's part,
although it is certainly possible. If so I would think the most
likely defective part is the mic itself (you can test this easily if
you have a stereo with a tape deck or a tape recorder). But frankly
this is SUCH a common thing with people with not much experience with
Windows, I'm inclined to think it's 99.9% likely that is the problem
from the way you're describing it.

Don't be fooled by the Dell tech support guys telling you to reinstall
your OS etc... they obviously aren't very good.

A very much better solution for you would be to take the thing back
and get your money back, if you still have that opportunity. IMHO,
Dell is much more well-suited if you are looking for a low-end system
under $500 for browsing, word processing, etc; this is their primary
market and they are pretty good at that.

"Tom Scales" (Dell Bot) wrote:

"Dave" wrote:

If you read the current posts in the Community Forums (the ones you
allege have been deleted) the problem has been solved. Download and
apply the latest drivers from Creative.

The mic on my Audigy in my XPS 600 works fine now.

Oh no, you've ruined the Troll's day.

Good grief! It's the driver after all, Tommy?

But what about your "bet", Tommy?

---------------------------
(Tom Scales)(10/31/05)
I'd be willing to bet the price of the [powered Radio Shack] mic
that it fixes the problem.

Mic recording low
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportf... =205621#M848

I have a powered mic plugged in to the sound card, a Radio Shack
model. Since my last post I also discovered the Ymf-diag.exe from
the knowledge base, downloaded and ran it. I get exactly the same
results as from running MS sound recorder; very low output either
directly or if I saved a wave file and played it back.

On the sound recorder modulation line there is no apparent
modulation unless I have the mic touching my lips. From a normal
recording distance (~ 12") there is such a low sound to the
speakers as to be undiscernable.

Radio Shack mic will not record on Creative PCI 64V card
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportf...essage.id=1716

This computer is exactly two days old. It did not come with a mic
so I purchased one from Radio Shack. With two fresh AAA batteries,
installed, I launched Audio Recorder. No good. I tried to send an
ICQ voice message; no good. Today I returned the mic to Radio
Shack & they provided me with a replacement which tested aok on a
hand-held cassette recorder in the store. INserting the two
-contact banana plug into the red jack on the sound card proved
this mic would not work, as well.
---------------------------

"Tom Scales" (Dell Bot) wrote:

"Dave" wrote:

If you read the current posts in the Community Forums (the ones you
allege have been deleted) the problem has been solved. Download and
apply the latest drivers from Creative.

The mic on my Audigy in my XPS 600 works fine now.

Oh no, you've ruined the Troll's day.

Good grief! It's the driver after all, Tommy?

Wonder why then Dell have reformat the hard disk?
Also wonder why then Dell replaced the soundcard?
And wonder of all, replace the motherboard ?!
'

Microphone - weak input, out of ideas...
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportf...ssage.id=60002

Dell tech support insisted I reformat my hard disk

WEAK MICROPHONE + AUDIGY 2 PROBLEM - TRY THIS...
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportf...cending&page=3

Well, I just installed my second Audigy 2ZS replacement card
and not surprisingly the issue remains exactly the same

can't get mic to work on Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfor...ssage.id=57660

Dell tech support called tonight to see if my system now worked
after 3 replacement sound cards and a new motherboard.
It doesn't.

Hi Class,

Are you actually interested in fixing this problem? If not, you might
have more fun at ihatedell.net or something. If you are interested in
fixing the problem, let's verify that all your settings are correct
first so everyone will know that we can eliminate them as the
potential source of the problem.

The first, and most likely to be incorrect, setting is not the mixer
but windows volume control. Very common problem. If you can post
screenshots of both mic controls in your windows volume control,
everyone will know for sure that your settings there are ok and we
can move on to eliminate other things.

Replacing hardware - even the motherboard - and updating drivers isn't
going to help one iota if your settings are screwy. In windows, the
mic is almost always muted by default so even reinstalling your OS
won't help.

Many of us have tried installing the updated drivers from
Creative's site without success.

We get an error message saying that the update program
cannot find an Audigy 2ZS installed in our systems.

A working, properly configured system would not issue that error
message. Given that, why would you blame someone else (Creative) for
a problem that obviously on *your* end.

So here's a guy with a very popular system (Dell. Millions sold.)
using the industry standard in sound cards. I'm sure hundreds of
thousands have a working config as relates to their sound/microphone.
Yet a handful of unfortunate souls hose up their setup somehow and
whine on a public forum and now all of a sudden it's an industry-wide
problem.

I *really* have trouble understanding the mentality behind that sort
of attitude. I guess it has something to do with the "victim-based"
society we live in. Sad.

Folk wrote:

Many of us have tried installing the updated drivers from
Creative's site without success.

We get an error message saying that the update program
cannot find an Audigy 2ZS installed in our systems.

A working, properly configured system would not issue that error
message.

When the Dell oem Audigy is not the same as the Creative retail
Audigy?

Given that, why would you blame someone else (Creative) for
a problem that obviously on *your* end.

Before open your big, fat foul mouth, why don't you read some posts in
this thread?


So here's a guy with a very popular system (Dell. Millions sold.)
using the industry standard in sound cards. I'm sure hundreds of
thousands have a working config as relates to their sound/microphone.
Yet a handful of unfortunate souls hose up their setup somehow and
whine on a public forum and now all of a sudden it's an industry-wide
problem.

I *really* have trouble understanding the mentality behind that sort
of attitude. I guess it has something to do with the "victim-based"
society we live in. Sad.

Do you think you can shut up your big, fat foul mouth for a minute and
respond to these posts in the Creative forum?

another mic not working thread
http://forums.creative.com/creativel...ssage.id=16295

so i got the soundblaster live 24 bit and my mic isnt working.
yes all of the volume options are turned up.
yes my onboard sound is off in bios.
no my mic is not muted.
yes it is plugged in and in the right slot.

does anyone have a fix for this being that this is such a coomon
plroblem with many posts about it and no solutions ?

You guys should just make a MIC sticky
http://forums.creative.com/creativel...ssage.id=16479

I have read through countless threads on this site concerning
the problems with the sound blaster 24 bit and mics.

I see a lot of these threads go unanswered, by the forum admins.
Now, I know you guys aren't support or anything, but you should
put a sticky up by the faq , just to let people know there is
a general problem with the mics and the soundblasters. I haven't
even seen one post that could help. Just a thought.

On Sun, 04 Dec 2005 11:36:17 -0700, Class_Action
wrote:


Before open your big, fat foul mouth, why don't you read some posts in
this thread?

Are you SURE that's a good idea? Seems like the more anyone
reads, the more they realize you had no intention of fixing
the problem rather than whining about it. IF you actually
had a problem, I'd have had some sympathy up until that
point where you *decided* you're not going to do what they
required.

Seems awefully fishy though, maybe even fraud-oriented that
you claim mic isn't working right NOW, rather than back when
system was brand new and you could've simply asked for a
credit (refund) towards the card. For all we know they
might even offered that but you were too busy whining then
too, rather than anything constructive to resolve this.