Microphone problems using zoom on new laptop

Annie1960

I have a new Dell Inspiron laptop. I've had a number of meetings on zoom, and everyone is telling me that my sound fades in and out. I've checked all the settings and have run all the tests here:

https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-uk/sln287143/how-to-troubleshoot-audio-or-sound-recording-issues?lang=en

(All, except the factory reset and system restore).

All the tests say the machine is OK, but when I'm using it in real zoom meetings then I seem to fade in and out. Is there a setting somewhere that I'm missing?

Any suggestions? 

Carrot007

Annie1960 said:

Any suggestions? 

Buy an external microphone. The ones in laptops have always been bad, and are getting worse for many reasons. Yes they can be used, But they have alwasys been there for last resort not to use for meetings.

Other that that. Do a clean install with fresh media just to see. (Should really be the first thing to do with a laptop but YMMV).

Annie1960

Thanks, Carrot007.
I've done a search, and it seems that this is a common problem with Dell laptops at the moment.  I'm not sure what you mean by a clean install with fresh media. Can you be more specific?

I don't mind getting an external mic, but it rather defeats the purpose of having one in the laptop. And I'm not sure if it would work. Is there a particular type of mic that you think would be good?

IvanOpinion

I have a slightly different microphone problem but what I do might also work for you.  The first time I fire up a zoom meeting, each day, my microphone does not work (others say I sound like a chipmunk, as if 10 seconds is being compressed into 1 second).  So I always fire up the meeting, shut it down immediately and then rejoin - this works for me (only needs to be done for the first meeting in the day).  Give it a go, it may or may not help.

unforeseen

IvanOpinion said:

I have a slightly different microphone problem but what I do might also work for you.  The first time I fire up a zoom meeting, each day, my microphone does not work (others say I sound like a chipmunk, as if 10 seconds is being compressed into 1 second).  So I always fire up the meeting, shut it down immediately and then rejoin - this works for me (only needs to be done for the first meeting in the day).  Give it a go, it may or may not help.

A similar thing happens to a colleague using Teams. 

Swipe

Turn off microphone level auto adjustment in zoom settings