Windows Vista Cannot mute microphone

I usually "mute" the microphone as found in the Volume Mixer. But today when I clicked on the volume icon from the system tray, I could only find the playback devices, but not the recording devices. And the internal microphone was echoing every sound to the speakers.

Where can I find the microphone muting function?

 

Hi Steve,
That's what I used to do. But this time it didn't work. From SOUND>Recording tab, I saw a recording device "Microphone" telling SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audit is Working. Two active buttons available on the tab, and they were "Configure" and "Properties" but none of them gave me the mute option.

It seems that the recording device under Volume Mixer has been disabled. Is there a way to resume it?

 

Instability of Windows Vista

After a few days without handling the "can't mute" problem, "time" has resolved part of the problem automatically.

Under the Recordign tab in Sound, The Microphone Properties suddenly shows back the button which can toggle between mute and un-mute.

However, the Volume Mixer still display only playback devices. Where has the recording devices gone?

Can any one explain?

 

Pre-application Volume Control, so called

Hi Arie,

I uninstalled the SoundMAX driver and used Microsoft Windows Vista High Definition driver that came along with Windows Vista. Nothing has improved. So, I wondered if it's the driver's problem. I then found something interesting which might be of interest in resolving the problem.

The volume control uses volmgr.sys 6.0.6001.18000, which I think is irrelevant. On the other hand, there is a file SndVol.exe, which is a Volume Control Applet of the same version, which is being created whenever you click the Volume Mixer icon in the sound icon. The Volume Control Applet seems to have different file sizes and different volume control slide bars inside, at different instant you open it. So, I think if Vista "believes" a sound application is "inactive" then it will not show the sound application on the Volume Mixer. There is a delay in reflecting which sound applications are still active. You may have closed a sound application a few minutes agoe, or a few hours, or even a few days ago, the Volume Mixer may still have the sound application appearing. All a sudden, it disappeared. It seems that the response to "find" "inactive" sound applications has been much faster, after I increased RAM and upgraded to Vista SP1 a few days ago.

The problem is: I don't use microphone very often. I mute it most of the time. It may have given the Volume Manager a false impression that it should be an "inactive" device! Too clever is the design!

Is it the new on-demand application (applet) generator, or so called "Pre-application Volume Control "? I have no idea. Any one has any idea?

Cheers!

 

The only way I could mute the microphone on my T43p laptop running Vista SP1 was to...
1. right-click the speaker icon on the taskbar
2. select "Playback Devices "
3. select "Speakers" and then choose "Properties "
4. Click the "Levels" tab and adjust the Microphone settings there

I even tried disabling the microphone under "Recording Devices ", but this did not help... the "Levels" tab in "Playback Devices" was the only thing that worked for me.

 

Hello HyperV,

I have established a new habit now. Instead of clicking the sound icon from the system tray (notification area), which has unexpected result very often, I dragged out a Sound shortcut from Start>Control Panel>Hardware and Sound. That's 99.999% reliable and give me whatever I need; it never fails me (yet) in the last few days.

Perhaps one day the sound device manufacturers have got used to the design of and provided perfect interface with the Pre-Application Volume Control, I might turn my face back on to the PAVC on the system tray.