headset and mic

marc.knuckle · June 9th, 2009, 08:41 PM

i just bought a philips shm6100 to use and this is the first headset and mic i have bought.
i have plugged it into the front ports with the grey connector with the headset picture on it into the green port and the white connector with the microphone picture on it into the pink one.
there is sound from the earphones but no speech is detected when checking in the test hardware part of xp.
the motherboards audio software is soundmax and i have messed around in there but it doesn't matter what setting i click on the microphone part of, nothing gets detected when running that test hardware section.
the main speakers are connected round the back of the pc so i didn't want to swap them out every time and as i said, the earphones are fine.
in device manager it also shows ati audio in there but i think all the settings in audio and sound in control panel are set as soundmax.

any help guys, i dont hav a clue.

Absent · June 9th, 2009, 09:10 PM

The headset picture is for the speakers in the headphones, Headsets have two inputs, in most modern computers the green input is the speakers and the red/pink input is the mic, make sure they are both connected.

marc.knuckle · June 9th, 2009, 09:50 PM

i now have it working as shown in the soundmax panel and also windows wizard which should have sorted the correct volume.
the problem now is that in the left 4 dead audio options, the voice is low even with volume on high and the boost thing enabled when i test the mic. when i go onto a game they keep kicking me and some have said to turn the mic off as not working.????
what am i doing wrong?

Iggy · June 9th, 2009, 09:51 PM

Did you make sure that you don't accidentally have the Mute box checked in the sound control panel?

Double click on your little speaker icon in the system tray, click on Options -> Properties, the check the button for Recording. Make sure that Microphone is selected, then click OK. Then make sure you have Microphone selected.

marc.knuckle · June 9th, 2009, 10:17 PM

cheers iggy, in the master volume, yes it was muted but i though if in recording mode it was not muted then in playback mode it should be muted(??)
i have now unticked the mute for microphone in master volume and suddenly it comes to life but i can hear everything now even if i am not in the game or test or anything. also, in the left 4 dead mic test now, i initially hear my voice load and clear but then with a slight echo after?

EDIT...going to bed now, thanks for the help so far, hope i can pick your brains tomorrow (sounds like an old sentence from a zombie movie

)

Iggy · June 9th, 2009, 11:12 PM

Originally Posted by marc.knuckle

cheers iggy, in the master volume, yes it was muted but i though if in recording mode it was not muted then in playback mode it should be muted(??)
i have now unticked the mute for microphone in master volume and suddenly it comes to life but i can hear everything now even if i am not in the game or test or anything. also, in the left 4 dead mic test now, i initially hear my voice load and clear but then with a slight echo after?

EDIT...going to bed now, thanks for the help so far, hope i can pick your brains tomorrow (sounds like an old sentence from a zombie movie

)

Following the same steps from my previous post, but DONT click on Recording, check the Play Control screen and mute it there so you have it muted in Play control, but NOT muted in Recording control and see if that fixes it.

marc.knuckle · June 10th, 2009, 06:48 AM

i believe that is where i had it originally and when i unmuted in playback i guess i simply was hearing myself instantly as i was speaking.
that though brings me back to where i was with a very quiet voice when testing in left 4 dead and the players kicking me???

Iggy · June 10th, 2009, 01:05 PM

Under your Recording Properties, do you have a check mark in the box for What U Hear?

If you get rid of the problem of hearing yourself, but your voice volume is too low, then go to the Recording Properties and move the Microphone volume slider up. You should be able to test the volume in the game's Options menu.

marc.knuckle · June 10th, 2009, 05:16 PM

iggy, i can't find the option 'what u hear' i double click the sound icon in system tray, choose options then properties and the recording tab but it simply says what volume controls will be seen.

Iggy · June 10th, 2009, 05:33 PM

Originally Posted by marc.knuckle

iggy, i can't find the option 'what u hear' i double click the sound icon in system tray, choose options then properties and the recording tab but it simply says what volume controls will be seen.

Are you using XP or Vista?

Do you have a screen like this?

Iggy · June 10th, 2009, 05:48 PM

If you are using Vista, it looks like you get to it differently.

Here is a link:

» Windows Vista and recoding "What you hear" (How to!)

I would double check to make sure What U Hear is disabled and see if that helps.

I don't have Vista, otherwise I could experiment.

marc.knuckle · June 10th, 2009, 06:52 PM

no i am on xp on this machine.

Iggy · June 10th, 2009, 09:06 PM

Hmmm...OK. I wonder why I have it and you don't.

Anyway, at this moment, you are NOT hearing yourself, but your volume is low?

If so, then have you tried moving the microphone slider up? And then adjust your mic in the game settings....

Just as an afterthought, you don't have any kind of a mute button on that mic, do you??

marc.knuckle · June 10th, 2009, 09:31 PM

hey iggy, no buttons at all on the headset.

i thought i had it sorted then, i went into microphone in soundmax preferences and saw it was set to standard microphone so i set it to headset. also in left 4 dead i had the volume that it is received at too low and when i adjusted it i coul hear myself loud and clear in the left 4 dead audio microphone test. however, that last game the other players kicked me after saying my mic was messed up but didn't say how.

could this maybe work where it mentions the steam launch properties towards the bottom? Mic dun work in game

also as a side note, how do you type while in game?

Iggy · June 10th, 2009, 11:01 PM

Originally Posted by marc.knuckle

hey iggy, no buttons at all on the headset.

i thought i had it sorted then, i went into microphone in soundmax preferences and saw it was set to standard microphone so i set it to headset. also in left 4 dead i had the volume that it is received at too low and when i adjusted it i coul hear myself loud and clear in the left 4 dead audio microphone test. however, that last game the other players kicked me after saying my mic was messed up but didn't say how.

could this maybe work where it mentions the steam launch properties towards the bottom? Mic dun work in game

also as a side note, how do you type while in game?

Type the letter Y to type in game.

First I would make sure that you have your mic working properly in Windows. A way to test it would be to go to your Windows Sound Recorder (under accessories) and make sure you can record and play back correctly.

marc.knuckle · June 11th, 2009, 08:02 PM

yes i have done the sound recorder thing and it plays back fine (oddly though it says not enough memory and stops working after the first time even though i have 4gb of ram??) so due to the sound recorder playing fine and left 4 dead options sounding fine i dont see how the other players in game can hear something different

Iggy · June 11th, 2009, 08:44 PM

Originally Posted by marc.knuckle

yes i have done the sound recorder thing and it plays back fine (oddly though it says not enough memory and stops working after the first time even though i have 4gb of ram??) so due to the sound recorder playing fine and left 4 dead options sounding fine i dont see how the other players in game can hear something different

Have you got a buddy or friend that you can play with, and have them tell you exactly what is wrong with your sound, rather than rely on strangers who will vote kick you without telling you why?

marc.knuckle · June 11th, 2009, 09:04 PM

yes a couple of people have now said on the micromart forum that they'd do just that but it is getting together at the right time to have a go

edit... i have just downloaded a free recording software program and again the voice recording is perfect???

edit 2... i just played a game and the other person with a mic said i sounded fine so maybe all the messing around we've gone through has sorted it (??) fingers crossed

warmonger256 · June 12th, 2009, 01:11 PM

If you can hear sounds in Windows and other applications, check your mic settings in L4D, set Voice transmit to max, and turn on microphone boost. Also go to Console > type in voice_enable and make sure it is set to 1.

marc.knuckle · June 12th, 2009, 09:13 PM

i dont get it.
i had a fine game last night and the voice was all clear. i just tried it with a friend and the first game, without touching the mic settings from where they were last night, the mic was terrible my friend said. i went back to start screen and into options and moved sliders around then back to where they were and went back into game and it was fine again and he said pretty good quality also. ?????????????????????????????

headset and mic

Problems and Errors: Technical issues or difficulties running Left4Dead or Left4Dead2 on your computer or XBox.