Weird audio problem with my mac book air's internal microphone: any advice?

By Joseph, 10 October, 2016

Forum
Apple Hardware and Compatible Accessories

Hi all,

This is Joseph. So I've been having this really, really weird audio problem with my mac book air's internal microphone. If I record something in, say, quick time or something of the sort, my voice doesn't seem to get picked up, even though my volume level is set at 50% or so. However, when I invoke Siri or dictation, my voice registers just fine, or seems to. Furthermore, if I want to recording something, I have to go into system preferences>accessibility>dictation>enable the dictation keyword phrase and check the box. Then, and only then, will my internal mic work for all applications that use it.

I'm wondering what's going on here, and if any of you smarter mac users can possibly give me some advice as to what might be happening and if there's a fix for it.

kind Regards,

Joseph King

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Comments

By Joseph on Saturday, October 22, 2016 - 20:45

Yep. I've tried to reset the NVRAM, or rather the PRAM. I've also tried to reset the SMC. no luck. But I can give that another go if you think it'll help.

By slj on Tuesday, November 22, 2016 - 20:45

Hi.
What does it sound like? Is it kind of muffled, like if you hide the mic under something? If that's the case, then I have bad news for you from my own experience...

By Joseph on Wednesday, March 22, 2017 - 20:45

I can hear some static from the mic (nothing crackly or anything like that) but not my voice. The strange thing is that if i check the box that says "enable the dictation keyword phrase" in the dictation section of the accessibility prefs, it works like a charm. So yeah. Not sure what's going on there.