Windows 10: Microphone sensitivity varies of own accord.

The sensitivity of the microphone on my Surface Pro 7 seems to vary of its own accord. From much too quiet up to normal. On turning on this morning I could hardly get it to register on Settings App > Sounds > Input > Device Properties >Volume > Start Test. It stated "the highest value we saw was 4 per cent". Likewise, when testing with the Voice Recorder App, the concentric circles of the input meter hardly moved. Then a few hours later - maybe after a re-start - it was functioning normally, with the test showing over 60 per cent. Now it is back to 7 per cent. This behaviour can mess up my Zoom calls and dictation accuracy amongst other things.

Microsoft kindly sent a replacement machine, with no effect. Then at their instruction I have reloaded the drivers I am on 10.0.19041.1 dated 06/12/2019. I have reset my User Profile. I have altered everything I can think of in the 'recording' section of 'Hardware and Sound' of the Control Panel. I have removed and then reinstalled Dragon Speech Recognition. Nothing I can think of prevents this arbitrary variation of the sensitivity of the microphone. But surely there is a simple fix for this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

:)

 

Microphone sensitivity changing by itself

Hi. I tried troubleshooter, but it didn't find anything. I can't disable microphone access for apps, because I use mic very often in many apps - Discord, Teams, OBS, Bandicam, web browsers and sometimes other software. I need mic to be locked at 80, because
it's very important when I am recording something or streaming with OBS.

I was trying to figure out which app is changing sensitivity, but I failed to. I set mic sensitivity at 80 and was using step by step every app, but none of those changed sensitivity. But when I am using PC "normally", I need almost everyday to change sensitivity
back to 80.

 

Built in microphone not working

Hi,



Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

I understand your concern and will assist you to resolve this issue.

I suggest you to follow the steps below and check if it helps

Method 1: I suggest you to set microphone as default device and check.

• 
  Right click on the volume icon in the system tray and then click "Recording devices"
  
• 
  Right click on the blank space in the popped up window and then select "Show Disabled Devices" and "Show Disconnected Devices".
  
• 
  Right click on Microphone and then click "Enable".
  
• 
  Highlight the microphone and then choose "Set as Default Device".
  
• 
  Click Apply and OK.
  

Step 2: Make sure that the Microphone is not disabled.

• 
  Make sure that the Microphone is not disabled. Follow the steps given to check that:
  
• 
  Right click on the volume icon and select “Recording devices”.
  
• 
  Now, Right Click on an empty space and select, “Show disconnected devices” and “Show disabled devices”.
  
• 
  Make sure that the Microphone is not disabled.
  

And also update the audio drivers from the manufacturer web site and install.

Hope this helps. If the issue remains unresolved, please get back to us and we would be happy to help

 

Windows Automatically Adjusts Microphone Sensitivity


This is the millionth time I've posted this thread because no one has bothered replying!
Basically I have a Samson Meteorite USB microphone, and I use it for Skype and communicating in games. Ever since a few weeks ago, I noticed my sensitivity levels on Skype were going up and up as I spoke, and then not coming down, even though I had "Automatically adjust microphone settings" unchecked. When I look on recording devices on Windows, the sensitivity also adjusts on there. I have tried moving the slider back down on both programs only for it to go back up again. I have also adjusted the microphone sensitivity on Steam, but that changes accordingly too.

It is highly annoying considering it adjusts to stupid levels where my microphone picks up everything and my friends begin to hear echo too. I have been looking at posts about this for a couple of weeks now and a huge amount of people seem to have this problem, mostly to do with Skype, and they all say the same thing:
1. Make sure "Auto-adjust" is unchecked in Skype settings.
2. Make sure "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device" is unchecked in Audio settings.

Basically I cannot find any other more advanced explanations or solutions, apart from some program someone wrote to readjust it automatically every second, which in my opinion is not a feasible solution. This annoys me so much because it should just be so simple and not cause any hassle, but also because I have literally no idea what could be causing it to automatically adjust itself. I had a thought that it could be other programs that have access to my microphone that are adjusting it but firstly I unchecked option 2 ^ and secondly I have no idea what other programs would use my microphone.

NOTE: Also just to add, I have a web-cam and its sensitivity adjusts itself too, so it's not my microphone.
Any help would be much appreciated, and maybe there are other settings I have missed?

Many thanks in advance,
Tom

Windows 10 (64 bit)