You are not logged in.

#1 2016-12-01 20:04:01

fahrgast
Member
Registered: 2015-02-26
Posts: 36

[solved] Laptop built-in microphone never worked, works with Skype

My laptop is a Lenovo Thinkpad E-335, it's 3 years old and its built-in microphone has never worked. I did lots of unsuccessful tests with arecord, and I have tried to make it work with Google Hangouts in different browsers. A microphone plugged to the jack, however, has always worked fine.

I assumed that the microphone was broken and I replaced it with a new one, but it didn't work either. Today, I have installed Skype from AUR and I have made a test call. To my surprise, the built-in microphone works like a charm with Skype. So, after three years thinking that it was a hardware issue, it turns out that it has to do with software, and I'm completely lost now.

I'm currently using Pulseaudio, but the same happens when Pulseaudio is disabled.

Some info from my laptop:

arecord -l

**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 0: ALC269VC Analog [ALC269VC Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
lsmod | grep snd

snd_hda_codec_realtek    69632  1
snd_hda_codec_generic    69632  1 snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     45056  1
snd_hda_intel          32768  5
snd_hda_codec         106496  4 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_hda_core           65536  5 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_hwdep              16384  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                90112  4 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_core,snd_hda_codec_hdmi
snd_timer              28672  1 snd_pcm
snd                    69632  19 snd_hda_intel,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_codec,snd_timer,thinkpad_acpi,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_pcm
soundcore              16384  1 snd
cat /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
 
options snd_hda_intel index=1

This is the output of alsa-info.sh: http://pastebin.com/xjeR5pNt

Last edited by fahrgast (2016-12-02 16:11:44)

Offline

#2 2016-12-01 23:04:36

V1del
Forum Moderator
Registered: 2012-10-16
Posts: 21,429

Re: [solved] Laptop built-in microphone never worked, works with Skype

While recording from something "not working" post

sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*
pacmd list-cards
pacmd list-sources
pacmd list-source-outputs

and the command you used to record (and make sure you have pulseaudio-alsa installed)

Last edited by V1del (2016-12-01 23:04:50)

Offline

#3 2016-12-02 16:05:25

fahrgast
Member
Registered: 2015-02-26
Posts: 36

Re: [solved] Laptop built-in microphone never worked, works with Skype

Thank you, V1del, you are awesome!

It turns out that I never installed pulseaudio-alsa. I must have shamefully skipped this line in the wiki. OMG, I have lost hours (and money) with this problem... sad

Last edited by fahrgast (2016-12-02 16:12:18)

Offline

#4 2016-12-02 16:42:22

V1del
Forum Moderator
Registered: 2012-10-16
Posts: 21,429

Re: [solved] Laptop built-in microphone never worked, works with Skype

Yeah you can test as much as you want with arecord. If you use pulseaudio and have no way of redirecting pure ALSA applications to pulse you are not going to get a peep if pulse is blocking the device with something else.

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB