Asus F5N built-in microphone too low to pick up any sound

[Lex Ross]

When using the system testing tool I cannot hear anything recorded through the built-in microphone.

When I turn up the sensitivity in the sound preferences to the max it does seem to pick up sound, albeit with a lot of amplified static.

The speakers are turned up and other sounds play normally (e.g. the logon sound). The microphone works OK in windows.

Same thing applies to external microphone when connecting a headset. On top of this, the sound goes to headphones only when speakers (analog output) is selected in sound preferences. When I select analog headphones there is no sound. And I do use analog headset with normal microphone and headphone jacks.

AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC660-VD Analog [ALC660-VD Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1

DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: alsa-base 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu5
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 16 14:05:01 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: onair24 2695 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'NVidia'/'HDA NVidia at 0xfd778000 irq 20'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC660-VD'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0660,10431339,00100001 HDA:10573055,10431316,00100700'
   Controls : 23
   Simple ctrls : 15
CheckboxCommand: alsa_record_playback
CheckboxData: The sound is very low and can barely be heard against solid and loud noise.
CheckboxDescription:
 Open the volume control application by right-clicking on the speaker icon in the panel and selecting "Sound Preferences". Select the "Input" tab and choose any alternate (non-default) device(s). Select the "Output" tab and choose any alternate (non-default) device(s). When you are done, click the Test button, then speak into the microphone. After a few seconds, your speech will be played back to you.

 Вы услышали вашу воспроизведенную речь?
CheckboxTest: alsa_record_playback_alternates
Date: Wed Nov 4 13:14:57 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027.1)
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: alsa-base 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu5
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=ru_RU.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Tags: checkbox-bug
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Front Mic should be raised and unmuted; Front Mic Boost should be raised fully:

Simple mixer control 'Front Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%]
  Front Right: 0 [0%]

[madbiologist (me-again)]

Linux kernel 2.6.33-rc5 may help you. The release notes contain the following comment:

Date: Thu Jan 14 12:39:02 2010 +0100

    ALSA: hda - Fix missing capture mixer for ALC861/660 codecs

    The capture-related mixer elements are missing with ALC861/ALC660 codecs
    when quirks are present, due to missing call of set_capture_mixer().

    Reference: Novell bnc#567340
     http://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=567340

    Signed-off-by: Takashi Iwai

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

Hi Lex,

Please, if you are still having issues, test with the latest development release of Ubuntu. ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p alsa-base 474016

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds .

Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text.

Please let us know your results.

    [This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Ubuntu 9.10 (karmic) reached end-of-life on April 30, 2011
Bug report did not expire due to bug watch
No reply to request for information
No comments from anyone affected for around 9 years
Marking "Invalid" to close