I searched these forums but did not find any posts with a similar problem, so here goes:

I have an HP Pavilion dv9005us laptop running WinXP. The laptop has embedded microphones, as well as a mic jack, but neither seems to work well. When I try to record sound it is very faint unless I am almost yelling, and there is a lot of background hiss. I have done everything I can think of including:

- I updated the drivers from HP for Conexant HD audio
- I made certain that the mic volume was boosted to full
- I checked the external mic on a different system and it worked fine
- I DO NOT have any trouble with the audio, just 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. 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

"MJMHouston" <michael.murray@charter.net> wrote in message
news:MJMHouston.2ozt70@no-mx.tabletquestions.com...
>
> I searched these forums but did not find any posts with a similar
> problem, so here goes:
>
> I have an HP Pavilion dv9005us laptop running WinXP. The laptop has
> embedded microphones, as well as a mic jack, but neither seems to work
> well. When I try to record sound it is very faint unless I am almost
> yelling, and there is a lot of background hiss. I have done everything
> I can think of including:
>
> - I updated the drivers from HP for Conexant HD audio
> - I made certain that the mic volume was boosted to full
> - I checked the external mic on a different system and it worked fine
> - I DO NOT have any trouble with the audio, just 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. 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.

You have an HP OEM system. Contact HP for support.

Frank,

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately HP tech support has been less than helpful on this, which is why I posted it here. Apparently this problem is not unique to my system, although it seems to be more prevalent under Vista than Win XP.

What I have learned is that I have the Venice chipset installed, and that for some reason the ability to boost the microphone volume is not available even though HP tech support tells me that is what I need to do.

If anyone else has had this problem, I'd appreciate learning how you solved it.

MJM