Microphone - no input -

[weezyrider]

Ubuntu 10.10

I cannot get the microphone to input any sound.
I just had an NVIDIA graphics card installed, and since then I think Ubuntu has decided that the NVIDIA is a sound card rather than the built-in Realtek.

The microphone worked before the Graphic card was installed, and it records on XP. I have a separate hard drive for XP, so there is no partition and XP and Ubuntu are using the same resources. XP sees the soundcard as Realtek.

I have researched and tried many of the recommended fixes with no result. If I type in Alsamixer in Terminal, it automatically selects the Nvidia card. I can select the Realtek, but not as the default.

I have HDMI sound disabled in the Sound Preferences. I don't have it and the speakers don't work with it.

I've also tried with combo headphones and mike, and the mike on that setup won't work either.

I need to get the microphone to work with Skype. Are there any solutions to this?
Thanks

[Rubberman]

Have you opened the sound tool to see how it is configured? Right click on the sound icon in the top menu bar and select "preferences". Click on the "Input" tab and see what shows up in the "Choose a device for sound input" window. If your system has both front and back microphone ports (desktops/workstations), then you might want to connect to the rear port instead of the front port.

Also, if the new UI doesn't have this tool, then you might want to switch back to classic Gnome for a UI.

[weezyrider]

Is that thing called the sound tool officially? Yes, I clicked on it. There is a High Definition Audio Controller and Internal Audio in the hardware. The High Definition app doesn't work so I turned it off. On Input, I have tried analog microphone-microphone 1, analog microphone-microphone 2, Analog Input, and Analog Line in. The microphones do not work. I've swapped all ports.

What new UI? I only had the video card upgraded, not the OS. I had 10.10 before, and I still have 10.10.

The new addition is a GRAPHICS CARD. Even if you click on its configuration, it says NO SOUND. So why Ubuntu has decided otherwise is beyond me.

I had the new card put in since I couldn't run Stellarium on the old ATI card, and Photoshop on XP was getting sluggish with the ATI video card.

[Rubberman]

Sorry. I misread your post, thinking you said 11.10, not 10.10. 11.10 uses the new Unity UI which I am not familiar with, and has a lot of changes from the old Xorg and Gnome versions. As for support of HDMI sound, I don't have any systems with HDMI - only DVI, so I don't know how well supported HDMI is with current Linux distributions. That's about as much help as I can give, I'm afraid. Sorry I can't tell you specifically what to do, or if in fact you can do anything. I think you need to do some more internet searching for answers about this.

[unclerichard]

Download the Alsa Mixer (the first one listed in Software Center).

Then bring up the mic ` balance (boost if you think necessary). Check it is not muted.

You will have to mute the keadphones for the Nic to work/

[Ikai]

I can not post the link here for now because of the famous 15 posts, but you can take a look at my posts in this forum, there is something that might help you.

[Rubberman]

I can not post the link here for now because of the famous 15 posts, but you can take a look at my posts in this forum, there is something that might help you.

You can post URL's here w/ less than 15 posts if you mangle it somewhat, such as www(dot)xyzzy(dot)com/dir/index.html

[weezyrider]

It was the Nvidia card. Couldn't fix it, so upgraded to 11.04 - that seemed to get everything in order and Skype, which is the only use for the microphone works. I think that when I installed the drivers, 10.10 saw the card as multimedia and buggered the works. Thanks for the time and efforts.

[Ikai]

You can post URL's here w/ less than 15 posts if you mangle it somewhat, such as www(dot)xyzzy(dot)com/dir/index.html

Thanks for this tip!