# HP Pavillion low mic volume



## cairoli (Dec 5, 2006)

hi!

I have just bought a Pavillion Dv2120us, but I find the enbedded mic volume too low, and it becomes impossible to use MSN, Skype, etc without an external microphone.

I have enabled and set to highest volume all recording and playback volume controls.

Any ideas?

Thks!!!


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Hi, and welcome to the forum,

Have you tried turning the Mic Boost on?


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## cairoli (Dec 5, 2006)

Hi, thanks for the reply. :smile: 

It is strange, but my PC does not have this option on volume control.
There are two devices, "Conexant HD Audio input" and "Conexant HD Audio input", and on recording, there are controls for microphone, CD audio and Wave Out Mix, but no advanced features for the microphone.

The mic input works fine, however, the embedded microphone on top of the display is useless...


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Try this. Right click on the volume icon in the system tray:

*Right click* > *Open Volume Control* > *Options* > *Properties* > Select *Recording* > Click *OK* > Click *Advanced* > Check *Mic Boost*.

See if you can hear now.


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## cairoli (Dec 5, 2006)

I have tried this, but there`s no "Advanced" button.


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Odd. Are you sure the volume is really low, or could it not be recording at all? It seems like this has been a common issue on some HP laptops, see if this helps. The DV9000 and DV6000 laptops use the same sound card.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1652727&postcount=12
You could also look at this, it might help.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...7&lc=en&cc=us&rule=7442&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN


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## cairoli (Dec 5, 2006)

Hi, Hatt.

I have gone through the steps, but so far couldn't fix it.

But thanks for the link, that discussion seems to be about the same issue.

[]s


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

No, don't do that, that will do nothing to help.


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## MJMHouston (Apr 13, 2007)

I have EXACTLY the same problem with my Pavilion dv9005us laptop. I have tried all of the standard fixes including:

- I have updated the Conexant HD audio driver from the HP website
- I made certain the the microphone volume was boosted to full
- I checked the external mic on a different system to make sure it worked
- I DO NOT have any trouble with the audio, only recording
- One thing I have NOT been able to do is to activate the "Microphone Boost" feature that some KB's suggest, because the path to get there is grayed out on my system. This seems to be the issue many of us are having.

I'm running Win XP, although the system info says "Windows XP Media Center Edition 2002 SP 2". From what I can tell, this just means that I have extra features (i.e., Windows Media Center) that are not available in Win XP Pro. Does MCE 2002 SP2 disable the microphone boost feature?

Also, I've posted this problem on some other forums and found that there are others with both Pavilion/Presario laptops and HP Special Edition laptops with a similar problem, and while it seems to be a common problem, it is not a universal problem.

Does anyone have a clue how to get the microphones working? I have to believe that it is primarily a software glitch since the audio is fine.

MJM

MJM


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## laboye (Apr 11, 2006)

Hi and welcome to TSF. I've come to notice that HP Pavilion laptops have low quality microphones. It's not software, because I've instlalled linux on a new HP Pavilion, and the same thing occurs. It's merely a bad integrated mic. Nothing more. Sorry about that. Also, not all sound cards have the mic boost option. THAT actually has to do with the driver. There may be 3rd party applications that give the microphone a "leg up". It's worth looking.

-Eddie


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## MJMHouston (Apr 13, 2007)

Eddie,

Thanks for your reply. I can understand how the integrated/embedded mics can have poor quality, but why wouldn't that problem be resolved when I use an external mic? It seems to me that since my external mic works fine on my old IBM thinkpad, it should also work OK on the new laptop... or am I missing something?

Mike


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## laboye (Apr 11, 2006)

Dunno. It's quite common in Pavilions, though. I'll see if I can google some info on it.

-Eddie


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## tech-it-^ (Aug 18, 2006)

I will have to go with laboye. I have a HP dv6000z laptop and the integrated mic is... well its crap. It's not the drivers, its purely hardware, not a software issue. Though again I'll agree by saying that you can search for some 3rd party modded drivers so you can have that mic boost option. Though there shouldn't be a huge difference.


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