Aces High Bulletin Board
Help and Support Forums => Technical Support => Topic started by: gofaster on February 19, 2006, 09:42:17 PM
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Specifically, Dell XPS with the MS XP OS seems to barely pick up my microphone, even though it worked just fine under Dell Dimension with MS Windows ME. WTF? They call that an advancement in technology?
I tried another microphone, same problem. Under Windows' "Test" program, it barely registers, but when I run under one of the Creative Lab panels it picks it up just fine. WTF?
Sliders all the way up.
Ideas?
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Dual core+WinXP=Teh sucks. It's only been posted a hundred times.
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Apparently I didn't get that memo. :(
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Sorry about sounding kinda rude there. :o
There are threads here, and especially on the Hardware/Software forum, of people complaining about this. Pretty sure there's a sticky in the H/S about it too.
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Uhmm,..if you have all the Creative Labs utilities loaded on that computer, you will have problems. Also note, by default, there are many, many programs/utilities loaded at boot time on that Dell which need to be disabled.
Look in the Windows Task Manager, under the Processes tab. Should be about 19 to 21 processes listed (look in the lower left corner for the total). My guess is there are probably around 40 to 45 loaded. I hope I am wrong, but it seems OEM computers have taken the direction of loading up as many programs as possible during boot time.
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Total Processes: 60 :O
The kicker is that the mic works fine under the Creative panels. Its the Windows mic volume and hardware test that blows monkey chunks.
Would disabling the Creative processes really improve the mic volume for Windows?
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I had the same problem with my new Dell.
Try going to Control Panel>Sound and Audio Devices>Playback Control>Advanced Controls for Microphone.
Click on microphone + 20db boost on the bottom of the page.
Worked for me.
zrex
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Yeah, I did that. The mic is now so sensitive that its picking up the clicks when I'm typing this message. I can hear myself breathe through the headphones.
But when I go over to Windows Start ->Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices ->Sounds and Audio Devices ->Voice Recording -> Test Hardware and it tells me that it can't detect my microphone unless I'm swallowing the *&@ thing. WTF?
Also, what is "What U Hear"? I can't find any documentation on that "feature".
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Here's a new wrinkle.
So I'm poking around the "Help" titles and I find the following instructions:
To adjust the voice input volume
On the Options menu, click Properties.
In the Properties dialog box, click Other.
Click Voice Commands.
Select the check box next to the device that contains the volume you want to adjust, and then click OK.
Drag the Volume slider up or down to increase or decrease the volume.
In my menu box, the "Other" field is greyed out so I can't get to "Voice Commands". Do I need to do something to enable it?
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I don't know. It's grayed out on mine also. On the sound and audio page when i click on volumne on either playback or recording i get sliders to adjust. On the record control page I have selected microphone. On the playback control page I have auxiliary muted. I've had my computer since last spring , but I remember going through this BS. I couldn't believe not only all the processes that were running, but also all the crap software they had installed on it. G/L
zrex
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Unfortunately, once you load the Creative utilites, they cannot be removed. Very invasive programs and they cause more troubles than you can imagine.
So Dell has kicked up the number of garbage processes to 60. New record. I think HP/Compaq are only at 48 right now. If they see Dell at 60, they will be forced to add more to be in the race for the "Most Ill-configured Computer in the Market" award.
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Skuzzy, I had a second-hand SB Audigy 1 and I could get drivers from it, from the creativelabs online autoupdater, but I could not get any control over the features of the card (it was basically a sound blaster) until I found a long, convoluted way of installing SB Audigy 2 files onto my Audigy 1. I didn't have the CD so I had to download something, and there was no official version anywhere..
It was a pain, but I got it working. The main reason was that I could not toggle to digital output without these drivers.
From an uninformed end-user point of view, they don't seem that invasive. They install to a simple directory, don't seem to scatter files into the system folders or anything, and don't seem that annoying. All I did was disable some start up processes it installed.
Should I be worried about these files? What have you heard/what do they do that's shady?
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Krusty, Creative drivers (at least for all of the Audigy line) can be installed as a separate option. The problem with the utilites is they change many Windows system registry entries so they can take over the sound card.
The remover does not restore those altered entries.
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aahhhhhhhh.... I did notice that my sound icon in my system tray is the creative one and not the windows one. I think I saw a toggle option "Use creative sound control" but that's only for when the software is still installed.
I'll have to be careful if I ever uninstall this.
I guess, then, that the only fix is a repair re-installation of Windows?
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Pretty much Krusty. I installed the stuff once, just to see if I could clean it out. It could be done, but you need to have a thorough understanding of the Windows registry and values of various keys before you can even attempt to repair it. (i.e. you have a printout of the previous entries so you know what they should be at, before installing the Creative utilites).
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Originally posted by gofaster
"What U Hear"? I can't find any documentation on that "feature".
This is a very handy utility for...borrowing...sounds. This will copy everything that is going out your speakers and act as if it were a microphone input. Basically, select that as your input, turn the volume up, play some music and begin recording in Sound Recorder. You'll see what I mean.
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Originally posted by gofaster
Yeah, I did that. The mic is now so sensitive that its picking up the clicks when I'm typing this message. I can hear myself breathe through the headphones.
But when I go over to Windows Start ->Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices ->Sounds and Audio Devices ->Voice Recording -> Test Hardware and it tells me that it can't detect my microphone unless I'm swallowing the *&@ thing. WTF?
Also, what is "What U Hear"? I can't find any documentation on that "feature".
The what you hear is a great feature for recording, uh, what you hear... like streaming music, or if you have old records / tapes plugged in via the line-in.
BTW if you mute your Mic in Windows, it should work in game with the usual T / F12
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"What U Hear" has promise. Might be time for me to dig through "Band of Brothers" and grab some good quotes for AH special effects.
/Dale Dye voice ON "What is the problem here, Mister Sobel!"
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Originally posted by x0847Marine
The what you hear is a great feature for recording, uh, what you hear... like streaming music, or if you have old records / tapes plugged in via the line-in.
BTW if you mute your Mic in Windows, it should work in game with the usual T / F12
When "What U Hear" is selected, all other inputs are turned off. When "Microphone" is selected, all other inputs are turned off.
Sadly, AHVoice has an issue with it for some reason...it gets all garbled to the point that you can barely tell it's a song.
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Originally posted by OOZ662
Dual core+WinXP=Teh sucks. It's only been posted a hundred times.
I've got an Intel dual core and Windows XP Pro, and it works great.
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Originally posted by OOZ662
Dual core+WinXP=Teh sucks. It's only been posted a hundred times.
FALSE.
The Intel Dual Core machines are fine, maybe you should go re-read those posts. I think those were processors from 'Brand X' (can't remember who, but it wasn't Intel).
I'm running a Dell XPS 600 Dual Pentium 850 and I've never been happier. AH doesn't take advantage of the Dual Core so its really not a factor in this specific program.
I will tell you I spent the first day removing all the crud that dell pre-loads on the machine. Mine is down to 21 processes running.
My Machine with the Nvidia 6800 is pushing 75fps at almost all times in AH with all sliders and options maxed out (except ugly animated water) at 1600x1200 resolution. Animated water hits for about 50% frame rate and I don't like the way it looks anyhow, so I don't use it.
Tell me again about my sucky Dual Core.
Anyhow, the mic is a little soft... I have found that using the mic jack on the back of the machine gets better results than the one on the front panel.. I assume that there is a 'Y' split in the line inside the computer and it robs voltage from the mic, but I haven't looked.
I am still trying to boost the mic volume... but mine works well enough on the jack at the back of the machine.
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I don't want to distract from the original problem in this thread, but since the number of running applications was brought up I'll post this here.
I use a free version of WinPatrol by BillP Studios to control running processes. http://www.winpatrol.com/
They also have a premium version with some extras if you pay for it.
A little window pops up when you click on the little scotty dog icon in the system tray which shows your Startup Programs, IE Helpers, Tasks, Services, Active Tasks, Cookies and Options.
If you click the Startup Programs tab, click on a file name, it shows the folder location, Name of the process, Company who created it, and the registry key where it's located. You can click on a Full Report button to get a list of all the running programs on one page. You can click on Disable or Remove button to make the application quit loading every time you start windows. This is a lot easier to use than msconfig.exe because you can decipher what the running process is and decide if you want it to load when you start Windows or not.
When you install new software, it pops up a warning that the program is trying to install itself so that it loads every time you start Windows, at which point you can tell Scotty the Watchdog no. The programs still work fine when you want to run them, they just aren't loaded at startup and running in the background.
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Originally posted by Kurt
the mic is a little soft...
Just to check -- you might want to make sure you have your "+20 db mic boost" option checked in the advanced options of your microphone.
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I have just a couple of Creative programs installed from the Audigy disc (Audigy Gamer). I remove the taskbar, and the Creative HQ is disabled from startup, via "Selective Startup".
I fried the GeF3 Ti-200 I was using. So now I use a Hercules - DDR-DVI (essentially a GeF1). I get FR's of 60, and low 30's in the thick stuff.
My System?
I currently have a Pentium 3, 800Mhz
384MB of RAM (133)
XP Pro
Audigy
I have 15 processes running (incl. AH2)
I installed SP 2 and it hiked up to 24, I uninstalled SP2, and go with SP1
I use FSAutoStart, and have for 2 years. Good program.
I laugh because I ger better gameplay from "my POS than they do from their 'home built super computers' ".
However. Next week I will getting an HP 3800+ AMD, w/ 250GB SATA, 1GB of 3200, and a wide open PCI-e slot.
It looks like I'll be hacking my way through the processes.
Karaya