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claptrap

Member

Registered: 2014-04-19

Posts: 13

[SOLVED] In-built microphone not working (Realtek ALC233)

Hi! I just got a new Laptop (ASUS R510L, at registering it was recognized as X550LD) and I'm having some difficulties with it.

At the moment I'm focusing on the in-built microphone. I'm running pulseaudio with ALSA. The mic is recognized by the system, for example if I do:

$ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC233 Analog [ALC233 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

As you see it is a Realtek ALC233. But if I try to use the microphone it just won' work. Trying it with Skype does not work, from Gnome settings a "Internal Microphone - Built in Audio" appears, but the bars only go up when I turn it off and on again. I have also try:

$ arecord -d 5 test-mic.wav

And just in case also:

$ arecord hw:1,0 -d 5 test-mic.wav

and just to be sure:

$ arecord hw:0,0 -d 5 test-mic.wav

Without any result.

I checked the mixer settings with alsamixer and gnome-alsamixer. I have two mic options: "Mic" and "Internal Mic", both are unmuted and volume is up, "Mic boost" and "Internal Mic boost" also have the volume up. "Capture" is active and also on its maximum volume.

I edited (created) /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf to add:

options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=1

I also tried it with:

options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=1 model=mobile

Neither of them worked.

I'm out of ideas. If it helps, I get some microphone movement in the sound settings of Gnome when I modify the "Internal Mic Boost" volume with gnome-alsamixer or I mute/unmute the "Internal Mic" there.

Maybe someone has some idea I can try, or some suggestion. I would appreciate it.

Thank you in advance

Last edited by claptrap (2014-04-19 17:56:35)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,794

Re: [SOLVED] In-built microphone not working (Realtek ALC233)

Are you using PulseAudio?  If so, fire up a tool like pavucontrol, go to the input devices tab, and see if it is muted there.  There is also an audio level meter there that will bounce in response to input sounds when things are working.

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claptrap

Member

Registered: 2014-04-19

Posts: 13

Re: [SOLVED] In-built microphone not working (Realtek ALC233)

Are you using PulseAudio?  If so, fire up a tool like pavucontrol, go to the input devices tab, and see if it is muted there.  There is also an audio level meter there that will bounce in response to input sounds when things are working.

Hi, I am using PulseAudio, so I installed Pavucontrol. The microphone is not muted and the meter doesn't bounce

Thanks anyway!

claptrap

Member

Registered: 2014-04-19

Posts: 13

Re: [SOLVED] In-built microphone not working (Realtek ALC233)

Hi, I found a solution, at least for the moment. Looking in internet I show this thread:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2203855

Same laptop, same problem. I went to Pavucontrol and indeed there is the option on the select tab "Microphone" instead of "Internal Microphone". Switching to it fixes the problem, although the volume seems a bit low even with the volume bar at 100%.

Thanks for your help, ewaller!

eugen.b

Member

Registered: 2014-02-27

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] In-built microphone not working (Realtek ALC233)

Hi there,
Did you manage to find a better fix for this problem? I started to have it too recently, probably some update messed things up.