Computer problem - "shup and listen"

My partner is having a weird problem, and I am hoping maybe someone here might have a clue as to what is up.

We use SL voice and skype a fair bit (mostly the latter), but for the last weeks he can't do more than listen to me yap. He was talking to someone on skype one day and suddenly the other person couldn't hear him any longer. He assumed the microphone had died, and bought a new headset with a microphone (not usb-connected). Nope. He can hear me, I can't hear him.

The really weird part is that I can still hear sounds from his computer - something that never occured before. I hear him teleport in SL, sounds from youtube, system messages, other people talking to him in Yahoo (I could carry a convo with someone he was connected to via yahoo voice while I was talking to him in Skype - scratchy but we heard eachother). Yet NO sound comes in throu the mic (on either headset).


Any ideas anyone?

yeah, he needs to reset the default sound device to the microphone, apparently something changed it. (that's my guess)

ya sounds like a setting problem..
probably something with a setting like whisper if they have that in skype..something for mic sensitivity where it picks up the sharper sounds..
i have had that problem in the past in WoW on raids where i could hear but nobody hear me..
infact i think it was with skype..

I think I am having the same problem. It started about 3 weeks ago maybe. I don't remember if it started when I downloaded the new viewer or if it was after. I can hear SL voice but nobody can hear me and I only get the green lines over my avatar for about 2 seconds after I click the talk button and then they go away completely. Skype no longer seems to work for me either. Also... I was at a music event the other day and someone IMed me to tell me I had left my mic open... however my mic was not even plugged in at the time. I noticed that sounds from my UI were somehow being transfered over SL voice and causing the green lights to light up over my head.

Yes, sounds like the input device was changed from microphone to whatever the primary sound card/device is. That would send the WAV or "sound out" signal from the sound card into the mic's input.

Thanks for the responses people! We are having a moment of mild optimism here as other people have experienced this too.

Now the question is: How does he go about doing this?



heh, we just tested inworld and sure enough, when I spoke (with "push to talk" OFF) the voice was transmitted from him. Oy how awkward that could have become... hehe

If you figure out how to fix this please send me a note in world or PM me here. Or you could post it here. I would really appreciate it. I looked on JIRA but I didn't see anything that sounded like this.

Woot! Messing around in some settings fixed it. Can't say exactly what he did, but whatever it was it worked. *relieved*

I quote: "I can't believe it was so simple!"



Oh, and I still hear the sounds from his computer... which we can live with as long as the rest works..


Eli: No idea if the issue is the same, but he went to "sound speech and audio devices" then to "sound effect manager" and changed the settings to this.

It sounds like your partner has got his/her SL voice input device and/or OS recording device set to Stereo Mix, or What You Hear, or whatever similar name the sound card manufacturer is using these days for the full audio mix. To eliminate the computer sounds from coming through, your partner will need to change that to just the microphone, not the full mix. Forward the following instructions to him/her.

First, make sure the OS recording setup is correct.

For Vista:

1. Go into your Windows audio settings. (Control Panel -> Sound)

2. Click on the Recording tab.

3. Click on Microphone to highlight it, and then click the Set Default button at the bottom.


For XP:

1. Go into your Windows audio settings. (Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices)

2. Click on the Audio tab. Under where it says Sound Recording, you should see your sound card selected, and under that, you should see a Volume button. Click that to open the Recording Control mixer.

3. In the Recording Control mixer, you'll see a bunch of volume sliders for all the various audio sources you can record from. Make sure Microphone is the only one that's checked.


Now that you've got the OS recording settings right, go back into SL's voice setup, and make sure that's correct as well:

1. Open the Voice Chat Device Settings dialog. (Edit -> Preferences -> Voice Chat -> Device Settings)

2. Under Input Device, click the dropdown menu, and you should see a listing for Mircrophone with your sound card right after it in parentheses. Select that and close the dialog. Hit Apply on the main Preferences window, and you should be all set.


That should do it. If after making those changes, you're still hearing those same kinds of sounds coming through, then the next thing I'd look at would be any other audio software you've got that might be resetting things. It also wouldn't hurt to update your sound card driver, in case something's corrupted.