Microphone too sensitive Vista

[crunchochango]

This is kind of an odd problem and one that I have been able to find no information on via googling. My dad recently got a new laptop, so I bought him left 4 dead and a headset so we could kill zombies together online. Everything worked fine, with the exception that his microphone was way too loud and picked up continually, even when he was silent. I tried the in game controls, made sure the built in microphone was disabled, turned microphone boost to zero, and moved the mic volume from 75 to 3 in Vista and yet the Vista equalizer still shows it peaking whenever he talks. We switched headsets and the problem remains the same. Does anyone have any ideas?

Laptop is a Latitude E6500 running Vista 32

 

[techmanc]

Can you move the mike farther from him?

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: techmanc
Can you move the mike farther from him?

With a headset? 🙂
Since you switched headsets, and the problem persists, the defect is likely in his sound card mic input. Sounds like a possible impedence mismatch. Change sounda cards and see if it persists. You could also try a totally different microphone and disable the one on the headset.

 

[techmanc]

ah well my headset is bendable 😉

 

[crunchochango]

Unfortunately I can't switch the soundcard as it is a laptop. Furthermore, since it is a dell laptop I'm pretty much at their mercy as far as drivers go.

 

[crunchochango]

And in answer to your question techmanc, moving the microphone further away would not/does not help: the microphone picks up constantly, even when there is no sound to activate it. The sensitivity is the problem, not the position.

 

[corkyg]

OK, since you are dealing with a laptop, you may have to just find a headset that is compatible with that laptop. Apparently the ones you have tried are not. A call to Dell might help identify one.

Another alternative would be to use an external USB sound module and connect to it.