Onboard Sound Card screwy, mic won't work

[Smurvis]

I'm running a RealTek ALC883 integrated sound card on a ABIT motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...27026&Tpk=AN52


The Microphone just... won't work. It's quiet as all hell, and all the advanced options for input volume are greyed out. Some people mentioned "Rear Pink In" but I don't have that option. I've spent an hour and a half googling this, and it's irritating me. Anyone ever had problems with RealTek ALC883 before and know how to fix this?

[thetruecoolness]

Re: Onboard Sound Card screwy, mic won't work

Get an actual sound card? You can get cheap ones for $20 that will sound better than the on motherboard ones.

Other than that check their site see if there are any newer drivers, but otherwise I think you're just going to have to deal with the Mic not being very loud, as motherboard sound usually sucks for recording/microphone. Also motherboard sound is pretty much always subject to noise and interference since it's on the motherboard and not on a separate card.

As for what they were suggesting most motherboard sound 'supports' surround sound by allowing some of the inputs to be changed to outputs (line in usually becomes rear, and mic becomes center/sub).

[Red Dragon]

Re: Onboard Sound Card screwy, mic won't work

I don't need to steal your topic Smurvis, but speaking of motherboards is it possible to change a motherboard on a laptop? My laptop currently has a graphics card (I think other stuff too) soldered onto it, making it impossible to upgrade. I searched newegg for laptop motherboards and got squat.

[thetruecoolness]

Re: Onboard Sound Card screwy, mic won't work

I don't need to steal your topic Smurvis, but speaking of motherboards is it possible to change a motherboard on a laptop? My laptop currently has a graphics card (I think other stuff too) soldered onto it, making it impossible to upgrade. I searched newegg for laptop motherboards and got squat.

Umm, nope, well maybe some obscure custom builder might, but certainly not anything in the mainstream. Best bet you have there is getting a portable PC (mini case) and getting a microATX motherboard. But unless you're really good at soldering and unsoldering stuff it's not possible to change the motherboard, and you would likely have to buy a new laptop to get a new laptop motherboard anyway. Even then laptop parts are typically made specifically for a certain laptop, beyond memory, hard drive and battery.

Of course googling around I did find someone who made a laptop out of a XBox 360, so you could probably make a custom miniPC that used a battery like a laptop and had the same dimensions, but good luck with that. So laptops are pretty much unchangable internally, but some allow you to upgrade the Video Card, which means you can change everything but the motherboard inside of it (since memory, harddrive are upgradeable and you can buy PC Cards to expand sound or networking).

[Kire]

Re: Onboard Sound Card screwy, mic won't work

...so that's why you won't vid chat with me?

*puts away lipstick*

[Smurvis]

Re: Onboard Sound Card screwy, mic won't work

Topic thief!




And yeah, I got my buddy to install my old sound card from my previous computer in there, and it's still pretty quiet... but Ventrilo works.

[thetruecoolness]

Re: Onboard Sound Card screwy, mic won't work

Topic thief!




And yeah, I got my buddy to install my old sound card from my previous computer in there, and it's still pretty quiet... but Ventrilo works.

Do you possibly have a Mic Boost option in the Volume control panel (usually under advanced). That usually helps, and I'm not sure how many people know of it's existence. So goto Volume Control, then Options > Advanced Controls, and make sure you can see Microphone and it has an Advanced button under it and it should have an option called Microphone +20dB Boost. You have to be a bit careful though as it can introduce distortion, or does on my Audigy2 anyway, though it's mild.

[Smurvis]

Re: Onboard Sound Card screwy, mic won't work

Oh yeah, I did all that long long ago. On this new computer though, there is pretty much no way to fix it. RealTek ALC883 on-board sound cards have amazing output, but the mic input is ****. Seems to be a general consensus everywhere, and there's no fix to the problem except another sound card. So using the old one, and yeah it's mic boosted and all that good stuff.