LibriVox Forum

I have searched the internet far and wide. I have tried each and every suggestion for fixing this problem but nothing is working.

My computer is suddenly auto-muting. I turn it back on and it auto-mutes again after a few seconds.

I thought I could just restore back to a previous date but it won't let me do that either.

Any one else come across this problem or know how to solve it? It's extremely frustrating and I can't record anything until I fix it.

It would help us to know more about your computer. What operating system it is particularly.

Acer Switch 11 with windows 10 .. I'm not very computer literate so that's about all I know about it. Sorry

I am just reading this thread and it looks rather curious. What do you mean by "muting"? Turning the internal microphone off? Are you using the built-in microphone to record?

Some laptops have special "keys" (or touch spots) right above the keyboard to control some functions, like brightness, volume, wi-fi, etc. Does yours have a mute "key"/"button"? Could it have been damaged somehow? Or, if it's optical, can it just need cleaning?

Is some other software that might be using the audio drivers running at the time when you record? I mean, Skype or some such.

Is there any "auto-gain" setting for the microphone that you know of? Can you turn it off?

Do you record using Audacity? Which "host" is switched on (see Preferences - Ctrl+P, Devices)?

Link to Switch 11 information on the Acer pages.

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/NT.G2TAA.002

tovarisch wrote:I am just reading this thread and it looks rather curious. What do you mean by "muting"? Turning the internal microphone off? Are you using the built-in microphone to record?

Some laptops have special "keys" (or touch spots) right above the keyboard to control some functions, like brightness, volume, wi-fi, etc. Does yours have a mute "key"/"button"? Could it have been damaged somehow? Or, if it's optical, can it just need cleaning?

Is some other software that might be using the audio drivers running at the time when you record? I mean, Skype or some such.

Is there any "auto-gain" setting for the microphone that you know of? Can you turn it off?

Do you record using Audacity? Which "host" is switched on (see Preferences - Ctrl+P, Devices)?

auto-muting - computer mutes all microphone incoming sound by itself whether it is internal mic or my external USB mic

No keys damaged and based on internet research other people are having similar problems with many other computers (not just my model) but I couldn't find a fix for my model

I don't know if any other software is using the audio drivers when I'm recording but I want to say, "I don't think so" because I don't usually have anything else turned on and it's happening for other software as well as Audacity. It's doing it when I use Skype, Audacity or even if I just sit there staring at the audio control panel.

I'm sorry I don't know what "auto-gain" is can you explain that one.

yes, I use Audacity, will check host when I get home.

mzmolly65 wrote:auto-muting - computer mutes all microphone incoming sound by itself whether it is internal mic or my external USB mic

Oh... External as well? I have two laptops at home from other manufacturers (although one is related to Acer: Gateway), and I've not had that problem. I know an Acer laptop bought about four years back, and it also is OK.

mzmolly65 wrote:No keys damaged and based on internet research other people are having similar problems with many other computers (not just my model) but I couldn't find a fix for my model

I'll take your word for it. What surprises me is "many other computers".

You say no fix is in view for your model, but there are others? Could you perhaps give a link? Maybe we can figure something out from what they did...

mzmolly65 wrote:...It's doing it when I use Skype, Audacity or even if I just sit there staring at the audio control panel.

Then it's not Audacity or its choice of the "host". It's between the hardware and its driver.

mzmolly65 wrote:I'm sorry I don't know what "auto-gain" is can you explain that one.

yes, I use Audacity, will check host when I get home.

The auto-gain feature is sometimes present for recording devices. Try right-clicking on the speaker icon in the system tray and choose "Recording Devices", then in the list of your devices select the mic that is affected, and click "Properties". A separate window will open. Take a look on all "pages" under all "tabs", perhaps somewhere there is "AGC" (auto-gain control) which is enabled... Try turning it off.

This is all outside of my expertise but I did have some setting at one stage that only turned the recording on if I was actually speaking. Could it be something like that lurking in the depths of a change to "improve your experience" ?

Anne

You're on to something, Anne. Sound-activated recording. Still, since more than one application is affected by it, the place to look for it would be in the recording device properties (along with "AGC")...

ETA: just thought of something. Molly, try turning Cortana off, if you know where it is.

ETA2: https://www.groovypost.com/howto/turn-hey-cortana-on-off-windows-10/

annise wrote:This is all outside of my expertise but I did have some setting at one stage that only turned the recording on if I was actually speaking. Could it be something like that lurking in the depths of a change to "improve your experience" ?

Anne

Actually I discovered that I had a problem when I was in the middle of recording and it suddenly flat-liined. So it's actually the opposite. It works for anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes each time I turn it back on and then it self-mutes again, even if I am talking/recording.

tovarisch wrote:ETA: just thought of something. Molly, try turning Cortana off, if you know where it is.

Cortana has never been activated on my computer. I'm sitting on the Canadian/USA border and my computer is always confused about which country I'm in and therefore which language to use (even though it's all English). So even though I tried to get Cortana working, it could never get passed the choose a language stage so I abandoned it and I never bothered with it at all.

I've been using this same computer for close to a year now and this self-mute is a whole new thing...

tovarisch wrote: You say no fix is in view for your model, but there are others? Could you perhaps give a link? Maybe we can figure something out from what they did...

I've tried everything suggested on this page

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1670664/microphone-adjusting.html

most of the searches I did had all the same advice as that page

I'm about to try this one

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2820067/windows-auto-muting-sound.html

I'll let you know how it goes .. ETA: uninstall the audio/sound driver didn't work either. getting really frustrated with this, have spent days trying to find the solution.

I think I'll have to take it in and let the pro's figure it out.

I had a similar problem with the speakers and it turned out the problem was with the mute key, although there was no visible damage.
Before you resort to more heavy-handed measures like reinstalling Windows etc, I would advise checking the keys more carefully.

You can check the keys pressed on this page: https://dmauro.github.io/Keypress/
It will not show the function keys on the keyboard animation but it displays the key numbers at the bottom of it. Just leave the page open for a while until it unmutes/mutes then check if the number changed.

I may have a malware .. according to some websites anyway.

I found an FMAPP application attached to my audio manager. Some website say it is malware, others say it isn't. *sighs* of course no one agrees.

I'm wary of removing it in case it's NOT malware and essential to my computer but how do I find out?

I've scanned my computer and AVG says there's nothing wrong but I don't know if I believe it.

As far as malware goes, MalwareBytes is probably a better solution, it's free to analyze and do cleanup if you care to download and install it... If you do, forgo the "trial", just install the basic version.
Rarely do I find myself saying this, but let's hope that your computer is infected, and that it can be cleaned away.