Solved Specific sounds not heard on PC calls ( receivers side)

[Hiera]

Hi there!

I hope this is the right place to ask your support on the following issue which to me is beyond comprehension.
To put it simple, when I make PC to PC calls my voice is perfectly hearable on the other side of the call but when my kids talk right next to me or scream or cry loud ( if you have kids you know the LOUD i mean) the person at the other side of the call can NOT hear them. Basically they can see them moving their mouths but they get no sound. But when I talk or any other adult anywhere in the room talks, it is no issue. IT is almost like there is a ' Kids filter On"
Now seriously this is very frustrating as it is not allowing my kids to develop a close relationship with other family members ( we live abroad)
The laptop tech support has been so far pretty useless. They have performed multiple 'test' had me send the unit to the repair center twice with obviously no luck and now they are trying to dismiss me by saying laptop is fully functional. After 3 months of having reported the issue what they have done is replace the speakers ( which I am not sure why since I do not have any problem hearing sounds) and reinstalled the OS, which I had already done as per their early instructions.
Drivers are also up to date.
This problem happens independently of the platform I use for the call ( Skype, Whatsapp, Messenger and doesnt matter if i use the desktop app or the web version)
It is not only happening with one person, I have made calls to several different persons and check with them , and they all have the same, they cannot hear my kids.
IF i use the audio recorder or record a video on the laptop, I can hear my kids normally.
Additionally If during a call, where they dont hear them, I run the audio recorder app on my laptop, at that moment the voices of my kids become audible for the other person, but if I stop it, they stop hearing them


If any of you has any idea of what can be causing it and how could I try to fix it I would immensely appreciate it.

I went ahead and run the speccy

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/aeYYFVifQufpQdSRT1U8BZl

Many thanks in advance and I am very curious to read your comments! Please let me know if you need any further information please do not hesitate to let me know

Many thanks already

Cheers

Hiera

 

[Rustys]

Are you using an external Mic if so, what is the make and model?

 

[Hiera]

no, usually I just use the laptop mic, but we also tried with a headset-mic set and the problem was still there . The headset is the one I usually work for work so I know for sure headset works. It is a Jabra ( audio Jack) I also checked with another 2 headset-mic with the same results ( audio JAck or USB headset)

 

[Rustys]

Check the Mic sensitivity in both windows and programs.

Not all Mics are omni directional so unless they are directly in front of the Mic then they will sound muffles and or if the audio is picked up at all.

 

[Hiera]

I see what you mean. Mic is able to pick up sounds from all sides of the room not only when coming from directly in front of it. . Per example in the call if my husband is talking from the other side of the room totally opposite of the mic, ( or even completely in another room) he will be heard but if I have my daughter sitting on my lap right directly in front of the mic, and she talks normal voice or even very loud voice, she will not be heard. they can see her moving her mouth but not her voice, and if I am speaking right next to her, they can hear me well. Now if at that same moment I open the in built sound recorder, and my daughter talks, then they can hear her.

 

[Rustys]

That was going to be the next test was use the sound Recorder which validates that there is nothing wrong with the system and or the Mic.

The issue lays with the program which is strange since yours and other voices are going through.

yet does not matter if using app and or web base version of the programs.

If she is elsewhere talking like he is does the Mic hear her?

Let me get a couple of other techs to look at this and see what thought they have.

@Pyro
@xrobwx71

 

[xrobwx71]

Which program is it exactly? You mentioned 3 of them.

 

[Hiera]

Thanks for your response It is strange indeed.

In regards to your questions: It doesnt matter where she or my son are. I tried to have them next to me while calling facing the mic thinking that maybe if they were further it maybe didnt detect their voices but if doesnt matter, near the laptop or somewhere else in the room , when they speak, scream, cry..... it is like they are not there.

@xrobwx71 The apps I tried are Skype ,Whatsapp ( both desktop and web app) and Facebook Messenger. If you have any other suggestion of a program where I can test the problem I will do it.

Cheers!

 

[Hiera]

Because I have been dealing with the Tech Service for 3 months now and they didn't seem to pay attention to this I forgot to mention it:

At the beginning of noticing this problem I tried to update the Realtek Audio driver.

When following the instructions It first uninstalled the driver and restarted the pc, and after that I should have continued the installation to step 2 ( installing the updated one) but instead of continuing, I needed to make a call so i didnt confirm the continuation and just finished the process to do it at a later time.

During that call ( with the Realtek uninstall but the new version not installed yet ) we found out they could hear my kids. I checked the sound settings and what I saw was the High Definition Audio Device driver.

I re run the Realtek installation, and when it finished the 2 steps, problem was back.

I repeated the process again, terminating the update installation half way and it seemed to work. So I thoght ok problem solved I wont install Realtek again.

However Realtek keep auto installing itself and each time problem was back.

I told the guys at the tech service about it but they just keep doing their troubleshooting and didnt seem to think this was a the cause of the problem and kept insisting to have the latest Realtek driver installed and so I did.

I didnt think about that for a while because to this guys it seemed unimportant and but since they have not been able to find any other solution, today I wanted to test that again to see if it was still making the problem disappear. At this moment I just want to finish all this process so if uninstalling Realtek makes it work, even if it is not causing the problem, i am good with it.

To my surprise I now cannot do it again. For some reason after I got my laptop back form the tech service center when I run the installation program for Realtek audio driver and it restarts after uninstalling the already installed version, It doesnt give me chance to choose to continue/cancel the process, it just continues by itself automatically.
I have been reading how to stop Realtek to auto install, but the different methods that i read, dont work for me :

1.- I have tried to roll back the driver but it rolls back to another Realtek version with which sound problem is still there, and I cannot roll back that version because the button is grayed out

2.- I have disabled Automatic Driver Installation, which seems that didnt stop it

3.- I have disabled in the device manager the Realtek device under sound, video and game controller and update it to Microsoft High Definition Audio Device, but Realtek still auto installs

4.- I have tried to disable Windows access to Realtek System files but I cannot finalize this process because I am not able to find C:\Program Files\Realtek\Audio\HDA , I cannot see any realtek folder anywhere to find it manually either.

Do you have any suggestion on how could I uninstall Realtek and go back to the HD Audio device? Because if that makes the trick again and we can make sure Realtek doenst install again by itself to me that would be enough.

Sorry for the long post but I guess too many information is better than to little, if it helps....

Thank you!

 

[xrobwx71]

In Device Manager choose Disable Device.

 

[Hiera]

If i do this, after computer restarts I have no output device at all. There is no High definition audio device at all .

 

[xrobwx71]

This is what happens when you disable the Realtek only?

 

[Hiera]

yes

 

[xrobwx71]

Uninstall Realtek drivers then, go into the BIOS and find anything that pertains to onboard audio and disable it, save, reboot, test.
Report back results.

 

[Hiera]

I have uninstalled Realtek on the device manager and I have also check in the control panel that I dont have any Realtek audio.

Went into the BIOS but i cannot find anything that looks related to Audio. I have attached picture of what I see as I might be overlooking it? ( Apologizes I am not really familiar with the BIOS)

And after exiting the Bios and load windows again..... Realtek is back! So if I disable it I have no audio device and I cannot hear and If I uninstall it it keeps coming back......So from an already puzzling case of why my kids voice is not transmitted on calls whereas all the other sounds are, to a case where I cannot get rid of Realtek and back tot he High Definition Audio.......pfff

Anything else we can try please?

 

[xrobwx71]

What I'm suspecting is you have an onboard Realtek chip on the motherboard. Usually, you can disable this in the BIOS but as you've shown, it doesn't appear to be there.

Hit start, type services, open services. Look for Realtek Audio Universal Service and disable it. Reboot. Do whatever method you use to get the mic working with the Children.

I would not disable everything related to Realtek but one at a time to pinpoint which one is the culprit.

Let me know.

 

[Rustys]

Something else to try is create a second user to log into a system and see of the issue replicates.

Might also attempt a clean boot and see if the issue persist.

How to perform a clean boot in Windows - Microsoft Support

Describes how to use the clean boot process to troubleshoot a problem in Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, or Windows Vista.

support.microsoft.com

 

[Hiera]

I will try those 3 things one by one and let you know the results. I can only do it tomorrow so please kindly bare with me.

Rgds

 

[Rustys]

Thank you for letting us know looking forward to seeing the results.

 

[PeterOz]

Not wanting to add too much to over burden you.
Post #11 pic what option do you have (if any) with Microphone array.
Can you change and test.