Microphones play an important role in the daily lives of many users. Without it, you will not be able to use all the features that Windows 7 provides.

However, despite the importance of the microphone, many users encounter such a nuisance that the microphone does not work in Windows 7. There are a number of reasons for this. Let's look at each of them in more detail and tell you what needs to be done to make the microphone work in Windows 7.

Correct microphone jack

Audio drivers missing

If after correct connection microphone into the connector, it does not work for you, then you need to check that the drivers are installed for it. This must be done, because for any microphone, whether you have a discrete one or a sound card, drivers are required. The driver represents a program through which Windows 7 will work with the device, and you can safely communicate on Skype. If the driver is faulty or does not exist, then Windows 7 will not be able to work correctly with audio devices.

• To make sure drivers are available, you need to enable Device Manager. It opens on the Computer icon from the context menu on the table.

• It is also quite easy to find in the Start menu by search windows 7. Open Device Manager.

• If an unknown device is detected in Device Manager, an unknown device

then it is advisable to go to the official website of the microphone manufacturer to download the latest drivers for it.

• After downloading the drivers, they need to be installed. After the reboot, the driver settings are also checked in Device Manager. You need to check if a new device has appeared in the device manager. If yes, we can assume that everything is in order. You need to turn on the microphone and check it. If your interlocutors cannot hear your voice on Skype, the microphone does not work again - you should turn to the software part.

Windows 7 Tools - Microphone Settings

• Having solved the problem with the drivers, you need to check software part Windows 7. Microphone settings can be done using the Sound utility - standard Windows tools 7. To do this, you need to use the search function by going to the main Start menu. Also, to find this utility, you can go to the following path: Start, then Control Panel, then Hardware and Sound, then Sound.

• In the Sound window that opens, go to the Recording tab. Here you need to find a microphone with a checkmark, which is located in a green circle. You need to select it, then click the Properties button.

• In the Properties window, in the Device Usage section on the General tab, you need to select Use this device from the drop-down list (on). Click Apply if necessary.

• Go to the Listen tab, where you need to check the Listen with of this device.

• Click Apply. Audio from the microphone will now be played through the connected headphones or speakers. Go to the Levels tab, where we turn the slider to the right in the Microphone section. Here you can listen to yourself speaking into the microphone.

• Here you should also adjust the Microphone Gain. You need to be careful, as interference may increase - you need to find a balance, otherwise the noise can clog your voice. As soon as it is reached correct setting, you need to save.

Go to the Improvements tab. Here it is advisable to check the Disable all sound effects option. In this case, the voice will not change in any way, and as a result there will be no distortion. If there is a lot of interference, you need to uncheck the box and move it to DC Removal, Noise Reduction or Echo Suppression.

• Click Apply. Go to the Advanced tab, where from the drop-down list we indicate the desired sampling frequency and bit depth.

• The higher the sampling frequency, the larger the files recorded from the microphone will be and, accordingly, the sound quality will be higher.

• Click Apply. Having completed all these operations, the setup will be correct, and your microphone is simply bound to work properly. You need to go to the Listen tab and uncheck the Listen from this device checkbox.

Click Apply, your microphone is configured. Now you can talk on Skype, communicate on both your laptop and computer.

Microphone settings using Realtek HD Manager

When you purchase a computer or microphone, the device comes with a disk with programs, one of which is most often the Realtek HD Manager, supplied from the equipment manufacturer. It also adjusts the microphone. In addition, Realtek HD has a more user-friendly interface.

Setting up a microphone in Skype

You can often encounter the problem that the microphone works as standard in some programs, but problems arise in others. In this case, it is necessary to make settings in this program.

Most popular program, for which a microphone is indispensable, is Skype. Skype communication takes place all over the world.

Conclusion.

In this article, we looked at the main reasons why a microphone may not work. We hope that our review will be useful to you.

Internet calls are the most common way of communication today. But sometimes this is impossible, since the microphone is most often poorly configured and the quality of the connection suffers as a result. All versions of Windows have the same microphone settings.

There are three types of microphones that can be installed on your computer with Windows platform:

1. Standard analog microphones. They are devices on sticks or stands. But they should not be confused with those intended for karaoke. Typically, standard microphones are connected to the computer through a jack that is pink. In order for the microphone sound to be of high quality, the input must be in the Windows sound or motherboard. This is important because the lack of a quality input significantly reduces the sound quality of the microphone.

2. Microphone built into the camera. Typically, webcams have regular analog microphones that are connected via a cable. Cheap cameras, as a rule, have weak microphones, which, before producing sound, must convert it through an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). If the ADC works poorly, then the interlocutor hears the sound very poorly.

3. A USB microphone is a device that connects to a computer, but is not connected to the camera. There are very few such models, and they are most often used for communicating on Skype.

Microphone setup via Realtek HD codec

Typically, all microphones are configured in the Windows mixer, which is available on all platforms Windows 7, 8, 10. Most often, the microphone can be configured using the Realtek HD codec:

First of all, you need to connect the microphone, after which the Realtek HD manager will ask how to determine the device connected to it. You need to select a microphone input from the list.

Now, to configure the microphone, you need to go to the Realtek HD sound manager, which is launched through the tray icon. You can also adjust the microphone through the Windows volume mixer. To do this, right-click on the volume control icon and select “Open volume mixer” from the menu, and then select the “Recording” tab.

When the Windows volume mixer is open you need to find the microphone input. Depending on the location of the socket (front or back panel), as well as its color, the name of the microphone input may change. Usually the name looks like this: “Mic in at the name (color) of the socket.” When the connected microphone is found, in the list to configure it you need to click the “Properties” button.

In the new “Properties” tab, open the “Levels” tab. Here you can adjust the input signal level, setting it from 0 to 100. Also, the microphone gain level will be set from 0 to 30 dB. It is in the last parameter that the problem of a quietly working microphone often lies. For some Windows, the minimum allowable frequency is 20 dB, but if the setting allows you to set it to 30 dB, then the noise increases. To eliminate them, you need to go to the “Improvements” tab.

In the new tab, you need to uncheck the “Disable all sound effects” box and put it in the “Noise reduction” box to eliminate noise. If there is an echo in the microphone during a conversation, you can remove it by checking the box next to “Echo suppression.”

You can also configure another setting that will allow you to reduce the level of all sounds during conversations on Skype. To do this, go to the “Communication” tab and select one of the items in the list.

Setting up the microphone via the built-in audio device

The microphone can also be configured through the Intel codec, which is a standard built-in audio device on most Windows platforms. But even if you install a different codec to configure sound on a computer running Windows 7, 8 or 10, you can configure it in the same way.

So, to configure a microphone in Windows, you need to double-click the sound mixer through the speaker icon in the tray.

If you don’t see the icon you need, you can use the following path for all Windows: Start – Control Panel – Sounds and Audio Devices. In the new window that opens, you need to check the “Show icon on the taskbar” option.

In the volume tab, you need to click the “Advanced” button and check the box next to the “Advanced settings” line, otherwise you will not be able to adjust the microphone gain in Windows.

Now you need to set up the recording mixer. To do this, open “Options” - Properties. There you need to select the “Record” column. In a new window there will be a list of available inputs, in which you need to select “Microphone” (Microphone input) and check the box next to it.

After clicking the “Ok” button, you can configure the microphone. In the recording mixer tab, you need to find a line called “Microphone Gain”. But in some versions of Windows this setting may be called differently, such as "Microphone boost". But no matter what this line is called, it means that the microphone can be adjusted to gain up to 20 dB.

In some versions of Windows, it may be that there is no “Adjust” button under the volume level that allows you to turn on the microphone boost. In this case, you need to know that this button is located in the volume mixer and therefore going to the recording mixer is not necessary. The presence of a button allows you to turn on microphone gain without going to unnecessary tabs.

If the above methods did not help achieve a comfortable sound level and the microphone is still very noisy and operates at a low volume level, then you should consider buying a webcam with a built-in microphone or purchasing a new expensive microphone.

You can also improve the sound level by installing a new sound card on Windows with a good microphone input. Another solution would be to install an amplifier on the microphone.

All of the above methods for setting up a microphone are common to all available Windows versions. If all conditions are met, you can configure any microphone that will work at a decent level.

With the advent of the Internet, life has become easier for many people. In particular, it became possible to communicate with each other and see each other even on different parts of the world using Skype or another similar program. Everyone has known and gotten used to this for a long time. Technologies do not stand still. But still, despite the craze for calls over the Internet and the growth of modern technologies, the audibility of the interlocutor often leaves much to be desired. And it’s not about the speed of the Internet or the quality of the program used. The main reason poor hearing interlocutor - poor microphone quality.

Cheap Chinese headsets and microphones on a stick, combined with the low quality microphone input built into motherboards, cannot provide a comfortable volume level.

This is exactly what we will talk about today. Today I will teach you how to choose a microphone, configure it and remove strong interference.

Microphone settings

Setting up a microphone is a painstaking task. Even if you have Skype set up in the best way, the other person may have difficulty hearing you and the reason for this will be the microphone settings. At times you have to raise your voice a lot so that the other person can hear you.

Setting up a microphone for the Realtek HD codec in Windows

The essence of this setting is that we are setting up not the microphone itself, but the input for it. Therefore, before all manipulations, it is necessary to connect the microphone. Most often, the standard microphone jack is pink.
After connecting the microphone, the realtek manager will ask which device to connect to it. You need to select "Microphone input". That's it, the microphone input is available and you can configure it.

The microphone can be configured through the Realtek HD sound manager, or through the sound control panel in Windows 7. Realtek manager can be opened by clicking on its icon, which is located in the system tray, near the time and date box. And to launch the volume mixer, you need to right-click on the corresponding icon and select “Open volume mixer” and go to the “Recording” tab, or immediately select “Recording devices”.

The same windows can be found in the panel Windows management. To do this, you need to go this way: Classic Control Panel and find the corresponding shortcut.

Let's start setting up the Windows panel. Open the volume mixer using any method described above.

First we need to find the microphone input. Depending on the slot (rear or front panel system unit), into which the microphone is connected, and from the settings Realtek dispatcher HD (to combine input jacks or not) it is called a little differently. Most often, this socket is marked with the phrases “Mic”, “Microphon” or “Microphone”. If you do not connect a microphone, it will not be in the device descriptions and the settings cannot be made. In order for all connectors to be displayed, even those that inactive, you need to right-click on any free space open window and check the boxes “show disconnected devices” and “show disconnected devices”.

When you connect the microphone, you will need to click on it in the window and select “properties”. Then go to the “levels” tab.

In this tab you can adjust the input level in the range from 0 to 100 and the microphone gain level in the range of 0 and 20-30 dB. This is precisely the main reason why the interlocutor cannot hear you well - low gain level. Most often, the microphone needs a power level of +20 dB. Because for them this is generally the maximum value. If you increase the power to +30 dB, the sound quality can deteriorate, as additional noise will appear; the higher the gain, the more extraneous noise.

But you can fight noise. To do this, go to the next tab “improvements”.

To ensure that excess noise does not affect the sound quality, you need to uncheck the"Disable all sound effects" and "Noise reduction" should be checked. If you suddenly hear an echo when talking through the microphone, then it is better to check the “Echo suppression” checkbox. If you have a cheap Chinese microphone or a built-in audio codec, then after all these settings your voice will be modified and take on a metallic tint. Installing an external sound card will not be a guarantor for solving this problem. If the sound gets better, it won't be by much.

Microphone settings in Realtek HD Audio Manager

Click on the Realtek HD icon and launch the sound manager.

You need to go to the tab with the name of your microphone. Here you can already give free rein to all your desires. In this tab, you can adjust the input level for the microphone, boost the microphone if it is too quiet, and suppress noise and echo. I think looking at the picture everything will become clear to you.

Other ways to improve microphone performance

If all of the above methods did not help you configure the microphone to the quality you need, then I advise you to buy a webcam with a built-in microphone. If you don’t need such a camera, then simply change the microphone to a better one. Also, do not exclude the option of purchasing a separate sound card with a good microphone input. You can try to find a microphone amplifier that comes separately. But, to be honest, I have never seen such good quality.

Such amplifiers can be found either as very expensive professional ones, or as inexpensive printed circuit boards, with which you will have to assemble the amplifier yourself. Such a “constructor” can be bought on the radio market or searched on the Internet. But finding such a device is half the trouble. You will still have to assemble it yourself, and without certain skills and tools this will not be possible.

That's all. I hope my tips will allow you to improve the quality of your microphone, and you will finally be heard clearly and without unnecessary noise. Thank you for your attention, if the article helped, don’t forget to share it!

Hello, dear visitors! Many owners of laptops and home computers, having purchased a microphone for communication or gaming, do not know how to set it up correctly. Our instructions for setting up a microphone are designed to correct this annoying misunderstanding. What is this communication device typically used for? Yes, for a lot of reasons. For example, for conversations with family and friends on Skype (by the way, we have a separate article), or for communication in online games such as Dota, World of Tanks (WoT) and Counter Strike.

In our publication, we will tell you not only how to set up a microphone on a laptop and computer, but also how to connect it, and also how to check that all drivers for the audio card are installed. The fact is that the microphone setting depends on installed driver in your operating system Windows. In one case, the driver may be standard and all settings are made through the built-in system software. And in the second case, Realtek High Definition Audio software may be installed on your laptop and you need to connect the microphone through it. We will look at both options for connecting and setting up a microphone.

How to set up a microphone on a computer or laptop

So, we’ll start with the simplest thing - by connecting a microphone to a laptop or computer. In fact, we already have an article, and everything is already pretty well described where to connect the microphone to the computer. But we’d better repeat this information. After all, not all of you, dear readers, know how to connect a device to a computer or laptop. For a microphone, the audio card has a special connector - 3.5 jack, like regular headphones. The connector on the computer sound card should be pink:

If your computer does not have an external audio card, then the microphone connector will also not be difficult to find. It is located on the built-in audio module motherboard:

The same goes for laptops, netbooks and ultrabooks. The connector is usually located on the right or left side of the laptop and is marked with a special graphic icon.

As you can see, nothing complicated. We will assume that we have physically connected everything. It's time for him Windows settings. The next setup step is to find a microphone in the operating room Windows system. As we already said, everyone's system and drivers are different. Therefore, we will split this chapter into two parts − standard setting on Windows and setup via Realtek HD Audio software. Depending on which driver you have installed, select the right option settings.

Checking the audio driver of a laptop or computer

Before setting up the microphone on your computer correctly, let’s deal with one popular mistake made by novice computer users. Often, in addition to the setup itself, problems arise with the audio driver. Of course, if there is sound coming from the speakers, then everything is fine, but it often happens the other way around. Therefore, we advise you to check its presence in the system. Making sure that an audio driver is installed on your laptop or computer is not at all difficult. To do this we need to get into the dispatcher Windows devices. There are several ways to do this. The first way is to click on the computer icon on the desktop and select the desired menu item.

Or find the device manager in the command line through the Start menu:

The third way is to find the Device Manager through the Control Panel. To do this, you need to open it through “Start” > “Control Panel”, in the control panel find the “System” item and there will be a link to the device manager. Which method you use is not so important. The main thing is that in the “Sound, video and gaming devices” section you have installed drivers for the sound card and there are no unknown devices, as shown in the following screenshot.

If there are unknown devices, then in order not to suffer later with a non-working microphone, it is better to go to the website of the manufacturer of the laptop or computer motherboard and download drivers for the sound card of your PC. So, we made sure that the driver for the sound card is installed. Let's start setting up the microphone.

Microphone settings in Realtek High Definition Audio

Realtek HD Audio Manager is a microphone configuration program that is very popular and can be found on most modern laptops (if this software is not installed specifically on your PC, then read the next chapter of our article). But many of you probably don’t know if Realtek HD Audio is installed on your laptop or computer. The Realtek High Definition Audio driver can be found in Device Manager. Or find a column icon in the Windows tray, as shown in the following picture.

You can also find the Realtek audio driver through the “Control Panel” by going to “Hardware and Sound”:

Having opened the manager, go to the “Microphone” tab. Here you can adjust the main microphone volume. If it works quietly, then it is best to set the volume to maximum. Here's a screenshot:

You can also configure the gain in the manager. If the microphone is noisy or humming, then it is better to set the gain to the minimum. It’s better to check the operation with several gain levels:

If your laptop has a built-in microphone, and you decide to connect another additional external microphone, then in the Realtek HD manager you need to set the device that you want to use by default. In the screenshot below, the “Set standard device” option is responsible for this.

As you probably noticed in the same picture (located above), on the tab you can adjust the microphone sensitivity. In principle, this is where you can finish setting up Realtek HD Audio. We are waiting for the final chapter of the article, in which we will look at how to set up a device in Windows. Below will be discussed detailed setup microphone on Windows 7, but this instruction will be relevant for Windows 8 and Windows Vista. If you are Windows user XP, then there is nothing wrong with that. Our tips on how to set up a microphone on a laptop or computer are universal and will definitely come in handy.

How to set up a microphone in Windows

So, as we saw above, the driver for the sound card is installed and there is sound in the computer. It's time to understand the microphone settings in Windows. Open the “Control Panel” via “Start”, go to “Hardware and Sound” and select the “Sound” menu item.

Or you can do it even simpler and find the sound settings through command line Windows:

You can also find the settings in the system tray by clicking on the column icon. Again, it doesn’t matter how you get there. Having opened the sound settings, go to the “Recording” tab. This is where our recording device should be displayed. If there are no other microphones in your system, then there will be one. If your laptop has a built-in microphone and you connect an additional headset or webcam with a built-in microphone, then there will be two devices. We highlight required device and click on the “Properties” button.

After clicking on the “Properties” button, the settings of the device you have selected will open, to which you can configure the microphone. You don't need to configure anything special on the General tab. Just make sure your device is turned on.

On the next tab, which is called “Listen,” we recommend checking the “Listen from this device” checkbox. This option will allow you to output sound from the microphone to speakers or connected headphones. It is worth noting that when using this option and the microphone and speakers are close together, unwanted whistling may appear in the speakers, which, however, does not always happen. Therefore, if you do not need this option, you don’t have to check the box.

On the “Levels” tab, you can adjust the microphone volume (adjust the volume level) and set the sensitivity. The volume option is especially useful if the sound is poor in an online game or when talking on Skype. And amplification can be useful if the microphone hisses when communicating. In general, if the device is not working well, then the “Levels” tab is just right for correcting various distortions. Just don't get too carried away. The volume can be turned up to 100%, and the gain is better set to 10-20 decibels. Otherwise, wheezing and clicking may appear, and extraneous noise may appear.

Next we have the “Improvements” tab. The “Disable all sound effects” option is responsible for distorting the sound in the device. but if you are using a cheap microphone and you hear a lot of noise when broadcasting audio, you can disable this option and enable noise suppression options. Removing a constant component - helps with unintelligible and choking sound. It turns down the microphone sensitivity.

The next tab “Advanced” is more for setting studio microphones. On it you can set the sampling frequency and the number of channels used in the microphone.

So, we've sorted out the settings in Windows. We hope that our instructions for setting up a microphone on a computer or laptop were useful to you. If you have any questions or difficulties connecting, please ask in the comments. Finally, I would like to answer another fairly popular question from our visitors - how to set up a microphone on headphones. Everything is absolutely the same as described in the above instructions. Whether a regular microphone or a headset with headphones, both gadgets are configured in the same way.