[Q] microphone not working - Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

OK everything been fine with my phone until this evening. My phone comes from the 2 week delivery estimate from the Nov. 27/2012 order batch
I needed to look for a local restaurant. Pressed the mic on google search bar and it would not recognize that I was talking. Tried a few times. Then reset the phone. Tried again. Turn the phone off and on. Tried again. Downloaded a voice recorder. It recorded static but no voice at all. Downloaded sound meter. It flux between 20-30db. I then called my wife. She couldn't hear me. Switched to speaker phone and she could hear me just fine. So now I reset my phone to factory and same results.
Any ideas? I know it worked earlier because I used voice recognition to send some texts without problems. I visually checked the mic hole in case lint or smeg might have blocked it. But it's clean. Blew into it just in case too. The top noise cacellation mic seems to work picking up ambient noises according to the gray rings around the google search mic icon. But it doesn't light up red.

Same issue. I used to be able to make it work better by plugging a cable in the charging port. Now nothing.

Does anyone know if there is a way to set sensitivity of the mic? I am assuming the same mic is used for speaker phone as with every other app including phone.. Since speakerphone seems to work..

So I decided not to waste any more time and get the RMA process going before I am outta my 15 day return period.
Was quick and easy. Exchange will arrive with in 3-5 days. Return label was in my email before I hung up.

on the iphone 4s and the gs2... speakerphone uses different mic. i could be wrong, but the reason i say this is... in my iphone.. i got sand on/in my phone and was blowing it out with air compressor. i ended up dislodging the bottom mic and had to use speaker. then on gs2 the leaked roms, specifically showstock... needed noise reduction turned off in order to use bottom mic. had something to do with the 'mic swap' from international to att version. but the end game was... i had to use speaker.
as far as maybe getting it back in shape before your rma arrives... did a piece of lint or something get lodged in the mic hole?

phermey said:
on the iphone 4s and the gs2... speakerphone uses different mic. i could be wrong, but the reason i say this is... in my iphone.. i got sand on/in my phone and was blowing it out with air compressor. i ended up dislodging the bottom mic and had to use speaker. then on gs2 the leaked roms, specifically showstock... needed noise reduction turned off in order to use bottom mic. had something to do with the 'mic swap' from international to att version. but the end game was... i had to use speaker.
as far as maybe getting it back in shape before your rma arrives... did a piece of lint or something get lodged in the mic hole?
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Click to collapse
Running a sound tester app or recording, initially it gets sound, but it seems to be static. It looks like what you are talking about with the gs2, the noise suppression kicks in and stays that way.
I really wish I could troubleshoot it before having to send it back, just to know what caused it and not repeat it on the replacement..
I looked at the bottom mic again, looked like a grain of sand. Got it out but still same results.

Related

Bad mic on my vibrant? people cant understand me on the other line...

Anyone else have this problem? Everytime I call anyone they say I sound like a robot and they can barely understand me, its definitely the phone and wondering if this is a common issue or I just need to go replace my phone. Also being inside the 14 day return, can i just go in there and get another phone from tmobile or do i have to send it off?
i had a similar problem, i was on the phone with my gf the other night while in a car and she couldn't understand me because of all the noise, this may be because there is no second noise canceling mic. the funny thing is when i use to call on my g1 it wasn't a problem and that phone only has one mic, this is making me reconsider and go back to HTC
With all the phones getting noise canceling mics, I am starting to wonder if they really help alot....iPhone, Nexus, Droid X even has 2...
I saw some vid test of iPhone noise canceling and it didnt seem to work.....
2071 said:
i had a similar problem, i was on the phone with my gf the other night while in a car and she couldn't understand me because of all the noise, this may be because there is no second noise canceling mic. the funny thing is when i use to call on my g1 it wasn't a problem and that phone only has one mic, this is making me reconsider and go back to HTC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take the phone back and exchange it for a new handset. I have no problems at all. After reading this post, I even tested it out and called a few friends and asked them if they could hear me ok both on the phone and on speaker.
If you're talking about the HTC HD2, that's the worst OS ever. Windows? Seriously? Over Android?
Well, if it's any help:
My first Vibrant had a faulty headphone jack, that would short out at the slightest touch. I'm talking: 'brush-the-cable-or-jack-and-it-shorts' shorting out. It was completely unacceptable.
And that's what kind of worries me with the phone. It doesn't rattle or anything, and is solid in terms of plastic construction -- but it just feels cheap.
I guess we'll find out more in the coming weeks. Thanks for reporting that microphone issue. I'll be asking my friends to report on my voice quality to ensure that mine is working properly.
I have the exact same problem....this only after I rooted... what the heck is going on?
There's no automatic gain control. The mic input easily clips. Most other devices adjust the input to the noise floor where a loud voice easily walks over the background.
Any solujtion guys?
I don't have any solution, but I can't hear and they can't hear me when I'm driving in my car. Never was an issue with my G1 or MT3G. I've been using the headphone w/mic that came with the phone for when I'm driving. (to cheap to buy a bluetooth headset) I did cut one of the sides off of that so it's just for one ear now. (left the side with the mic obviously.)
As of about 2 weeks now, i have been getting this same complaint from a few people. They used the exact term "u sound like a robot or something" i have no clue what it may be and im past my 14days, thinking about just calling tmobile and complaining b/c its getting annoying.
$5 says one of you in this thread has your finger over the mic hole... just saying.
I noticed through the Bluetooth in my car which has always worked flawlessly my Vibrant comes through as having really muffled scratchy sounds at times. Full signal strength. I sound bad and the person talking sounds bad. This works flawlessly with my 5800, 3 iPhones, E65. All on the same routes I use every day.
s15274n said:
$5 says one of you in this thread has your finger over the mic hole... just saying.
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Click to collapse
I tried that and it didn't help. The microphone was saturated and clipping. The other party couldn't hear anything over the noise.
while driving I have been told that I sound like I am under water.
this was one of the reasons, I traded in mine for a new unit. waiting on a fix
this happens to me especially when i'm driving and i have the air on high. Im sure it doesn't help that i have a 3inch exhaust and a big turbo making noise either though
I have the same problem on my UK version (Galaxy S).
I have tinkered with the voice TX levels in one of the service menus but it made no difference. No matter how loud I speak into the mic it never gets louder at the other end! It's only just audible and it's driving my friends mad to the point where they can't be ar5ed to phone me!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks guys.
I just want to jump in here even though this is an old thread so i can log my complaint too - the voice quality of the mic microphone on this phone is really poor - i am under the 14 days return and i'm am really close close to returning both of them i bought... anybody come up with a fix? A replacement microphone with better quality would probly go a long way.
I've been getting complaints from the other side as well. Even when using the voice recorder it doesn't sound very clear. I've been using the headset a lot, but I don't think its any better w/o it. Oh and also, often I try to use voice search and it says i didn't say anything... I then plug unplug and then it works. Dunno whats going on.
Also, I put it to charge yesterday, and it wouldn't turn on - only the home keys were lighting up. So I pulled out the battery and it smelled burned. Still does 24 hours later.
But it seems to be working fine anyway.
How long does warranty replacement take if ur past 30 days?
Thanks!
The vibrant is pretty much unless for me for phone calls. I switched back to my nokia N900. i can not make phone call from in my car the people on the other line can not hear me at all. Even in quiet areas its still muffled/choppy. My finger is not over the mic hole. My nokia has no problems with this at all even in a very very loud car with the windows down going 60.

Nothing I do has helped the speaker balance...

I've tried and tried...I've massaged the cfg file till I'm blue in the face...but nothing has helped my TF's speaker balance; the right is far louder than the left.
I think I'm going to RMA it.
One thing that's interesting is that if you tap on the left side edge..you can get the left speaker to be really loud for a second (but distorted) sort of like having a short in a car stereo speaker installation.
I've had the same issue since April. I gave up and decided to RMA it. They have turned it around very quickly - now just need to see if they have fixed the problem.
They fixed the speaker balance with the 2nd 3.1 update last month yo. If that didn't fix it for you then sounds like a hardware issue.
I called Asus and got an RMA number...this was going to bug me forever.
Now I'll be without the TF or the dock for a while...(my dock is RMA'd for the power drain issue.)
You have a hardware issue that's why balance fix doesn't work. Its a lose speaker connection somehow tapping it makes it work for a little while. You don't realize the left speaker does not work because you can slightly hear the right speaker from the speaker holes on the left even if you cover the holes on the other side. After all they are situated in the same unit. Same thing happened to me. 35 days into my purchase. Brought it back to the store and was offered RMA but i demanded a replacement.
How long have you had yours. I would always opt for a replace rather than repair.
cruks said:
You have a hardware issue that's why balance fix doesn't work. Its a lose speaker connection somehow tapping it makes it work for a little while. You don't realize the left speaker does not work because you can slightly hear the right speaker from the speaker holes on the left even if you cover the holes on the other side. After all they are situated in the same unit. Same thing happened to me. 35 days into my purchase. Brought it back to the store and was offered RMA but i demanded a replacement.
How long have you had yours. I would always opt for a replace rather than repair.
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Click to collapse
I have the same issue. Update didnt work. Its a B5 and can exchange but what serial series should i go for? Im still within the exchange period but im not sure if toys r us will have the newest ones.
I had the same issue from day one. When none of the updates fixed the problem I RMA'd it. They just sent it back with the same problem as if nothing was wrong. I have now had to take it back to the retailer, but all they will do is RMA it again. All a bit frustrating.
Probably not a hardware issue.
My B4O had it, the B5O had it and the brand new B6O has it.
I refuse to believe that there's a serious disconnection of the speaker in all three. Here's a test, go to this YouTube video on your TF and listen to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUMxZ34Ptco
On your PC you'll notice that the sound only comes out of the left channel starting at 0:44. On the Transformer the same effect is there as well. The right speaker is completely dead at 0:44 and all of the sound comes from the left side which is usually quieter than the right.
I'm beginning to wonder if this is maybe some issue with stereo sounds and possibly mono sounds being played through the right speaker only instead of both. The left speaker is indeed working. The video above proves it.

Very Low Microphone Volume... Anyone Else?

After having the phone for a few weeks all of a sudden the microphone has gotten very very low, no one can hear me on the phone and Google Voice commands barely register. I almost took the phone back (unrooted & cleaned up) and at the last minute I decided to blow the microphone hole out with compressed air and all of a sudden it worked great. After a few days its went back to low again...I blow it out again and it goes bad again a day or so later.
Anyone else having this problem? Probably just some lint stuck between the microphone hole and the actual microphone itself but I can't see anything.
Sent from my LG-VS980 using Tapatalk
similar problem, if the microphone isnt pointed towards me, I cant hear much. have you found a fix?
Taking the battery cover off makes it very easy to clean, and the speaker. Also the noise mic at the top.

Microphone does not work only in speakerphone mode

Hi all,
I just got a Nexus 4 recently and I've been racking my brain with what on earth is happening with the microphone.
The problem is that the microphone WORKS PERFECTLY when doing a google search, voice call in normal mode, or voice recording. It does not work at all if I enable the speakerphone during a voice call. This seems to be exactly the opposite problem that others are having with the Nexus 4. I can still hear the person in the call but when I talk, they can't hear me. Not even white noise, just total and utter silence.
I have tried 2 flex cables (trying replaced the initial one whose microphone didn't work at all, at the time I had CM11) and tried flashing everything (baseband, recovery, system) to stock 4.2.2, tested it with no luck. I then flashed everything with the latest version 4.4 off google's developer section and tested with the same issues. I've tried factory resets, unplugging the headphones, and also soundabout and nothing resolves the issue.
When I look at the flex cable and the phone housing, it seems to me that there is only one microphone on the bottom. On the top, there is the noise canceling mic, but I don't think this has anything to do with the speakerphone. Am I wrong? Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? I don't know whether this is a hardware problem or some low level software issue.
UPDATE:
I noticed something super strange. If I plug a headphones w/ a mic into the headphone jack, I can actually hear very loudly and in great detail the friction from my fingers moving up and down anywhere the case of the phone, and if I tap on the body of the phone (anywhere, even near the USB port on the bottom) it's like stuffing paper into your ear canals. I can still hear the person on the other end fine, and they can also hear just as clear and loud when I touch the phone body. This phone is a science experiment now. The closer I move my fingers to the bottom of the phone near the mic, the louder it gets.
've tried everything. You also changed the Kernel, I do not know ... Maybe it's a problem RADIO, but I doubt it.
Eventually contact Google support
Typical factory problem....when i bought my Nexus 4 (S/N shows production date is October 2013 so its the newer batch with little nipples and camera lens offset fix) the microphone was dead and i could've only talk through headphones and speakerphone....took it to the repair shop and everything works now. Don't know what they replaced, maybe it wasnt the microphone.

Do I have a faulty front microphone?

I noticed that when I was playing with Snapchat and was trying to record music from my earbuds that the best place to hold my earbud was next to the hole on the back of the phone and that when I held the earbud next to the speaker on the front (specifically the bottom one) the audio from the headphones was almost inaudible. This seemed pretty weird to me since when I talk to people it's usually into the bottom part of my screen and not the back of the phone... Regardless, when I switched to the mic on the back it was equivalent to hearing the music directly from the earbuds. Any reason for this?
My microphone wasn't working that well..everybody I talked to on the phone said I sounded muffled . I got a replacement today. You have to notify project Fi
It's a common problem, RMA won't fix it as it is a software issue.
It happens because of noise-cancellation being set to too aggressive. You can't change it without root, so we'll just have to wait for Google to fix it via patch.

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