Mic very quiet on Teams, Zoom - both laptop mic and Bluetooth headset mic

[Rumcajs997]

Hi,

Not sure if that is the right thread, please move if not. Here is the story, one of my colleagues has got a problem with her Lenovo company laptop. Her mic is very quiet during Teams calls (tested on Zoom and Teams Web and it`s the same issue). I was trying to troubleshoot it with her over Teams with shared screen, checked everything I can think of and nothing seems to work. We tested her Bluetooth headset too, to rule out the laptop mic, but it was exactly the same problem. She joined the call on Teams on her phone too, and guess what, it was still very quiet! But when I called her on that phone directly, the volume was perfectly fine.

I checked all known settings in Windows and mic volume was at max, tried the mic boost setting too, and again, didn`t work. Tried all settings in Teams and Zoom too, and all of them seem fine. I asked her to record something on "Windows Voice Recorder" and she says that it seems to be working fine in the program but I wasn`t able to check it myself.

The only thing I wasn`t able to do, was to uninstall mic driver and try a different one, as it is a company laptop and that option isn`t available. She will try some USB mic which I think might work, as USB mic will most likely install it`s own drivers.

Have you got any suggestions? I am running out of ideas really.

Cheers!

 

[Rumcajs997]

Nobody?

 

[sneekypeet]

I would guess, if you have a chanceof fixing it, it is chipset related. MEaning look up what the audio chip in the lenovo is, and hunt for a proper driver with some form of a software suite. May have better luck that route. Could simply be that both mics suck, but Im assuming at least the BT setup works elsewhere fine.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Hi,

Not sure if that is the right thread, please move if not. Here is the story, one of my colleagues has got a problem with her Lenovo company laptop. Her mic is very quiet during Teams calls (tested on Zoom and Teams Web and it`s the same issue). I was trying to troubleshoot it with her over Teams with shared screen, checked everything I can think of and nothing seems to work. We tested her Bluetooth headset too, to rule out the laptop mic, but it was exactly the same problem. She joined the call on Teams on her phone too, and guess what, it was still very quiet! But when I called her on that phone directly, the volume was perfectly fine.

I checked all known settings in Windows and mic volume was at max, tried the mic boost setting too, and again, didn`t work. Tried all settings in Teams and Zoom too, and all of them seem fine. I asked her to record something on "Windows Voice Recorder" and she says that it seems to be working fine in the program but I wasn`t able to check it myself.

The only thing I wasn`t able to do, was to uninstall mic driver and try a different one, as it is a company laptop and that option isn`t available. She will try some USB mic which I think might work, as USB mic will most likely install it`s own drivers.

Have you got any suggestions? I am running out of ideas really.

Cheers!

What happens when she screams? Is the volume level the same or does it increase with the screams? Is there any background noise during usage? or is there an echo?

 

[Rumcajs997]

What happens when she screams? Is the volume level the same or does it increase with the screams? Is there any background noise during usage? or is there an echo?

Haven`t checked screaming but asked her to try speaking right next to the mic and there was no difference really. No background noise, as she was at home, no echo. The voice is clear, it is just very, very quiet. You can even see it on that visual microphone scale, that it barely reaches 25-30% on her laptop, when a mic on my laptop gets easily to 80-90% on the scale when I speak normally.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Haven`t checked screaming but asked her to try speaking right next to the mic and there was no difference really. No background noise, as she was at home, no echo. The voice is clear, it is just very, very quiet. You can even see it on that visual microphone scale, that it barely reaches 25-30% on her laptop, when a mic on my laptop gets easily to 80-90% on the scale when I speak normally.

There is a setting you are missing somewhere. Can you list the settings that you have tried?

1. Control Panel > Sound > select the correct mic > properties > levels > 100%
2. mic properties > Listen tab > uncheck Listen to this device.
3. CP > Sound > Communications tab > set to either Do Nothing or Mute all other sounds. (can set to reduce volume later on)
3. Personalization from the context menu > Sound > Input > select the correct mic (same choice as #1) > device properties > volume 100
4. Personalization > Sound > scroll down to App Volume > master volume 100 and check input device is correct.

If the setting on the Communications tab is set to reduce volume of other sounds (either 50 or 80 percent) and the Listen to this device is set to on, this can reduce mic output as well.

 

[Calenhad]

If it is the same problem with her computer and her phone, it really have to be a Teams setting. There are volume settings in Teams as well as Windows. Same with auto-gain, which should fix this problem normally. But try changing that setting if possible.
How about user settings? Are you the only one complaining about low volume? Or everybody else in Teams meetings? I don't remember if you can do this in Teams, but most "Teams-like" apps have the option to right-click other participants and set their volume on your end.

I would guess, if you have a chanceof fixing it, it is chipset related. MEaning look up what the audio chip in the lenovo is, and hunt for a proper driver with some form of a software suite. May have better luck that route. Could simply be that both mics suck, but Im assuming at least the BT setup works elsewhere fine.

Bluetooth does not use the built-in audio chip. So this is not the issue.

 

[Rumcajs997]

If it is the same problem with her computer and her phone, it really have to be a Teams setting. There are volume settings in Teams as well as Windows. Same with auto-gain, which should fix this problem normally. But try changing that setting if possible.
How about user settings? Are you the only one complaining about low volume? Or everybody else in Teams meetings? I don't remember if you can do this in Teams, but most "Teams-like" apps have the option to right-click other participants and set their volume on your end.

Bluetooth does not use the built-in audio chip. So this is not the issue.

To rule out Teams settings (which I checked anyway but can`t remember auto-gain), we checked Teams Web app and Zoom too. All had the same issue. It is not only me that can barely hear her, others report the same issue.

There is a setting you are missing somewhere. Can you list the settings that you have tried?

1. Control Panel > Sound > select the correct mic > properties > levels > 100%
2. mic properties > Listen tab > uncheck Listen to this device.
3. CP > Sound > Communications tab > set to either Do Nothing or Mute all other sounds. (can set to reduce volume later on)
3. Personalization from the context menu > Sound > Input > select the correct mic (same choice as #1) > device properties > volume 100
4. Personalization > Sound > scroll down to App Volume > master volume 100 and check input device is correct.

If the setting on the Communications tab is set to reduce volume of other sounds (either 50 or 80 percent) and the Listen to this device is set to on, this can reduce mic output as well.

I'll double check, but I am pretty sure I went through everything I could think of when it comes to Windows / Teams settings.