I recently switched from a USB gaming headset to a V-MODA BoomPro microphone, which uses a 3.5mm jack. When using VoIP, I've noticed that everything that's input via the mic will endlessly repeat over itself - for instance, if I say one "Hello" into the mic, it'll constantly repeat that single word until there's dozens of instances of it playing over itself. It doesn't stop unless I mute/turn off the mic. However, if I record my voice and play it back (e.g. using the native Voice Recorder app), everything is completely fine.
I'm using a VIA HD Audio driver and had no problems at all with my old USB microphone. I haven't changed any speaker or mic settings since switching devices, and I've tried looking for and installing different drivers (including VIA HD Audio, VIA HD Audio (Win 10), High Definition Audio, etc.) to no avail. I'm not sure if it matters, but I'm using a pair of Phillips SHP9500s in conjunction with the BoomPro, and the headphones are working perfectly - it's just the microphone input that has me stumped and quite frustrated, and I have no idea how to fix it.
Any advice/tips on how to solve this problem would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
A shot in the dark but this could explain your issue.
It is possible with all audio recording devices to record also the audio signal coming from selected speakers. This is called Listening. This is a practical feature when you want to for instance record a VoIP / Skype call, record a video with system sounds and so on.
When a recording device like for instance microphone is set to listen speakers, it causes audio feedback.
When listening is enabled, Windows Volume Mixershows the recording device. You need to mute the microphone as shown in this screenshot:Muting a listening microphone in Volume Mixerdoes not mute the microphone itself, it just mutes the looping feedback audio. You can still use the microphone normally.
If you do no longer want the microphone to listen speakers, right click your default microphone in Sound Properties/ Recording devices, select Listen tab and disable listening:
This might not be the reason for your issue but is definitely worth checking.
Kari
Thanks for the reply Kari.
This unfortunately didn't solve my issue, as the "Listen to this device" option was already unchecked. I did turn on listening just to see what would happen, and my mic instantly started picking up (and outputting) noise that repeated over itself, even though I'm in a very quiet room. I believe this is an issue with my sound card/audio driver, as I had to install a different driver to even get my new headphones working after switching from the USB headset, and I've had some problems configuring audio devices in the past as well.
Edit: I've just noticed something interesting - I have the Recording devices window open, and I'm watching a video on YouTube, and the window is showing the microphone output as the audio that I'm hearing:
While at the same time, my speakers are also showing output, but at a much lower level than the mic:
When I listen to music in iTunes, neither the mic nor the speakers show any output at all. This is with listening turned off, and all enhancements disabled.
Could the issue be your microphone being "too good", too sensitive and therefore picking up the sound from speakers? Do the YouTube test again, this time checking the recording levels first in microphone properties. Be sure that boost is off (0 dB) and lower the recording level.
That's also not it, as the boost is already set to 0. At this point I'm almost resigned to the fact that it's a driver/sound card issue - on a couple of occasions since getting the new headphones, my computer has randomly & suddenly cut off all sound despite me listening to/watching something, and has forced me to reinstall the driver and reboot to get it working again.
Thanks, though. I appreciate your help regardless.
