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My laptop is an Alienware m5500 with Windows Vista 32 Bit and it has a built-in mic. The issue with this is that I have an external mic that I need to use.

Whenever I try to use Skype or Ventrilo it just picks up the sound from the Internal microphone not the one I have plugged into the jack.

It does not do this however with a USB microphone because this creates a separate sound channel (I think that's what it's called). I'm looking for a way to separate the two microphone channels to external and internal or completely disable the internal.

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  • Which operating system?
    – iglvzx
    Commented Jan 29, 2012 at 5:07
  • Windows Vista x32
    – Cistoran
    Commented Jan 29, 2012 at 5:14
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    Disable it in Device Manager
    – Moab
    Commented Jan 29, 2012 at 5:32
  • Then I can't use my external microphone.
    – Cistoran
    Commented Jan 29, 2012 at 5:54
  • USB mic will be a different piece of hardware, internal mic can be disabled separately.
    – Moab
    Commented Jan 29, 2012 at 16:18

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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You can always choose the default input audio device from Control panel > Sound settings. And application like skype also has separate settings for that too. Use them to choose which input device you want to use.

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  • You can't do that because they are classified as the same sound channel so they don't show up separately.
    – Cistoran
    Commented Jan 29, 2012 at 5:21
  • THats strange. But the internal mic would be listed in sound settings, under recording devices. You can try disabling it, then connect the external mic and see if that helps.
    – Bibhas
    Commented Jan 29, 2012 at 5:33
  • And external mic should have its own entry in device list. Are you sure it is being detected?
    – Bibhas
    Commented Jan 29, 2012 at 6:30
  • No I'm not sure it is being detected because Realtek doesn't notify me that I plugged something into the jack like it does with Headphones.
    – Cistoran
    Commented Jan 29, 2012 at 20:49
  • Right click on system tray icon of Realtec > Sound Manager. Once the window is open, you can see images of two ports at bottom of the window. Green for headphone and pink for mic. Now plug in your mic keeping the window open. If your device is detected, the window will show the settings for Mic and the pink port will lit up. Check it out.
    – Bibhas
    Commented Jan 29, 2012 at 21:04

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