[Dell XPS 15 7590, Realtek ALC3266, Mic, Internal] Lots of background noise on internal microphone

[Mircea Baja]

Problem: Lots of background noise on the internal microphone. If I record it in Audacity it seems that most of the noise is in the Left-Front channel. The Right-Front channel is still noisy/bad quality, but not as bad.

Hardware: Dell XPS 15 7590 laptop (basically 2019 model)
OS: Ubuntu 20.04 fresh/plain installation:
$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
Release: 20.04

Other tests:
- If I use a external/USB headsets+microphone sound is fine
- If I boot from Ubuntu 20.04 live USB it still has the problem
- Tested with other versions/distributions, but it still has the problem: ubuntu-19.10-desktop-amd64, linuxmint-20-cinnamon-64bit, Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-32-1.6, xubuntu-20.04.1-desktop-amd64, pop-os_20.04_amd64_nvidia_13, ubuntu-18.04.5-desktop-amd64

- I tried many steps involving changing config files e.g. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/PositionReporting + reboot, none fixed the problem, reverted the config files back after every change

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-47.51-generic 5.4.55
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-47-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.8
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: mircea 1400 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c: mircea 1400 F...m pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: mircea 1400 F...m pulseaudio
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Tue Sep 8 12:33:31 2020
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-09-06 (2 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20200731)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
Symptom_AlsaRecordingTest: ALSA recording test through plughw:PCH successful
Symptom_Card: Built-in Audio - HDA Intel PCH
Symptom_Jack: Mic, Internal
Symptom_PulseAudioRecordingTest: PulseAudio recording test through plughw:PCH successful
Symptom_Type: High background noise, or volume is too low
Title: [XPS 15 7590, Realtek ALC3266, Mic, Internal] Background noise or low volume
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 07/03/2020
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 1.8.1
dmi.board.name: 0VYV0G
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A00
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvr1.8.1:bd07/03/2020:svnDellInc.:pnXPS157590:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0VYV0G:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct10:cvr:
dmi.product.family: XPS
dmi.product.name: XPS 15 7590
dmi.product.sku: 0905
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
mtime.conffile..etc.modprobe.d.alsa-base.conf: 2020-09-08T11:02:41.506649

[Mircea Baja (bajamircea2)]

Please close the bug, I reinstalled Windows and issue is present in Windows as well. Will take with Dell.

[vak (khamenya)]

Don't close this bug, please! The input from microphone is terrible :(

[Mircea Baja (bajamircea2)]

Update: in my case I took the case with Dell support, they changed some parts, which included obviously the internal microphone, but also the trackpad (they are positioned close to each other physically. That fixed the issue, the sound is good now. In my case the status 'Invalid' is correct, it was a hardware issue.