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During Zoom calls, I have a problem with the audio output on my ACER laptop which uses Windows 10. I can hear everything fine at my end, but the other people on the call do not hear me properly. Sometimes the sound comes and goes, other times they cannot hear me at all. I don’t use the laptop very often to listen to stuff, but when I do it works fine for me – Youtube, radio, mp3 files.
Zoom works fine on iPad and our other PC so not a broadband issue – probably.
Help! And thanks.
If you can hear them, the problem is not your audio output.
If they can’t hear you, perhaps the problem is you microphone. Have you tried updating the drivers for your microphone (audio in)? An alternative might be to use an external mic.
Get a basic set of earbuds, like these:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004MMEI0A/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Plug them into the headphone/speaker jack on your laptop, and put the earbuds into your ears.
Now get on your Zoom call. You will hear them perfectly, and they will hear you perfectly.
Also works on your cell phone.
External mics are cheap. You might try that.
here is a list of checks to carry out on your device:
Is the mic muted?
Is the mic disabled in your device’s settings?
The wrong mic or speakers are selected within Zoom itself?
Interference from other programs that you have running?
Problems with your mic’s hardware?
Outdated device drivers for W10? (my top suspect)
You might try a USB mic to eliminate out put driver problems.
Suggest you at least consider suggestion above from MrJimPhelps…
Try using a set of earbuds, or a headset with a swivel/”boom” mic, just to eliminate the possibility that the audio/speaker output on your end is feeding back into your mic(s) and causing/contributing to your audio problem.
Hope this helps.
Basic earbuds do it for me. I participate in a weekly zoom conference call. I plug my basic earbuds into the headset jack on the computer; and everyone can hear me, and I can hear them. And there is no in-line mike on my earbuds! Amazing!
Zoom lets you test the audio and the mike before you join the conference; that way you can test this before going live with it.
If that doesn’t work, then I’m with Wavy on the USB mike. I haven’t tried a USB mike myself, but what he says makes sense.
@WSepzcaw has already stated that an external microphone has been tried with very limited success…the problem goes away for a bit only to return. Then, when they switch back to the internal microphone, the problem goes away…only for a bit.
Those symptoms make it sound to me like either the driver’s in need of re-installation, or the audio signal processing chip on the motherboard itself is in need of replacement.
I’ve seen it happen recently with a person who’s in a Zoom meeting with me every two weeks. Her audio sounded really lousy, but she could hear the rest of us just fine. Everyone else had a hard time hearing her or understanding her due to the lousy audio we were getting from her. We set her up with a technician we all trusted to do some troubleshooting and he nailed it down to the chip on her computer’s motherboard, after eliminating all other sources of poor audio such as a slow connection, loused up driver, weak wifi signal or physical problems with the microphone itself. She was heartbroken because it had been a Mother’s Day gift from her daughter a little over a decade ago.
@WSepzcaw , these are all things to consider in trying to troubleshoot your audio issues, but your symptoms sound identical to the woman I just described.
By the way, her daughter, when informed of the fate of her mom’s Mother’s Day gift from years ago promptly bought her a new computer, but this time she bought her mom a laptop, and Mom was eternally grateful, as she said she’d gotten tired of “that big ol’ lump of metal taking up space on the desk”.
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