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Asked: 2010-10-14 16:02:30 +0800 CST

Internal microphone not working

  • 772

I have an internal microphone in my laptop. I think it uses Intel High Definition Audio. But I can't get it to work with Ubuntu. It doesn't work with either the Sound Recorder or Skype.

On the Input tab in 'Sound Preferences', I just see Internal Analog Input Device...

microphone troubleshooting

9 Answers

  1. This is what I had to do to get the internal mic to work on my Acer Aspire 5745G:

    • Install pavucontrol:

      sudo apt install -y pavucontrol

    • Run it with:

      pavucontrol

    Looks like:
    enter image description here

    If it hangs and says:

    Volume Control. Establishing Connection to PulseAudio. Please wait...

    enter image description here

    then you have started it with sudo pavucontrol. Do not use sudo.

    • Go to the "Input Devices" tab
    • Click the lock icon to unlock the channels
    • Set the right-front channel to silence
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  2. I had the same problem, and fixed it thus:

    If you go to the Ubuntu Software Centre and download the Pulse Audio Volume Control or from a terminal type:

    sudo apt-get install pavucontrol

    Then just run it with:

    pavucontrol

    And your microphone should show up there. If your microphone shows up but you're still not getting any sound, unlock the channels, and drop one of them down to zero. This worked for me, hope it helps you!

    • 12
  3. Best Answer

    Add this line to your /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf file:

    options snd-hda-intel model=dell-vostro enable=1 index=0
    • 11

  4. I know this might sound crazy, but go to the sound preferences, under input, and make sure the check mark for mute is unchecked, it is checked by default....

    • 8

  5. Open a new terminal and run the following commands:

    sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

    Add these two lines to the end of alsa-base.conf:

    alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
options snd-hda-intel model=auto

    Save and reboot.

    • 2

  6. The solution given above it probably the right thing to do, I've encountered this problem several times at some friends. However, if you can't find it, it might be the case that Ubuntu detected the wrong default audio device. Which happens are various allocations.

    If this happens, simply open the sounds manager and browse through the devices in the small menu at the top. Just try turn mute off for all of them and then I'm 100% sure that you will figure it out!

    • 1

  7. If you have Fn keys on your keyboard, try enabling the webcam using the Fn keys. in my case the mic and the webcam are disabled and enabled by the same Fn key. I am not sure but you might have a separate Fn key for the mic.

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  8. In case solutions with pavucontrol did not work for you, try boosting your internal mic from alsamixer in a terminal. By default, it is set to zero, but boosting it resolved my problem.

    • 0

  9. I am running Lenovo Thinkpad with Ubuntu 18.04 and I'm connected to the lenovo Dock which may have affected the native headphone controls. Both headphone and headphone mic would not work.

    I tried the top answer by Arpit Phillips:

    • Install Pavucontrol with:

      sudo apt install -y pavucontrol

    • Run Pavucontrol with:

      sudo pavucontrol

    • Go to the "Input Devices" Tab

    • Click the Lock icon to unlock the channels

    and I was able to unmute my headphone there to hear sound, but the mic continued to not work.

    Secondly, I tried the answer by User and oddly it worked in getting my mic working again.

    • Add this line to your /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf file: options:

      snd-hda-intel model=dell-vostro enable=1 index=0

    I tested my microphone with https://www.onlinemictest.com

    • 0