The day I received my new computer my sister and I (via telephone) worked all evening trying to get the internal mic to work for our nightly voice chats.  Who knew?  I never dreamed I would need to ask if a laptop computer had an internal mic!  And why would it not be advertised that it does not include one?  I have never known a laptop not to have one.  My sister’s Dell has an internal mic, and it sounds beautiful.  I wanted that and the convenience.  Dell, I am disappointed… is a rather expensive set-up here and not entirely what I was looking forward to.  My excitement dropped drastically rather quickly.

I have spoken with Dell Support/Representatives a few times and none have answered my question.  They tell me, like this is no big loss, that there is a jack for an external mic or headset and then proceed to tell me that they carry these.  Ok, well, since I was upgrading from my old Dimension I had a boom mic and a couple of headsets.  I was really looking forward to moving away from these as I have found with boom mics, not all of what I am trying to relate to my sister and mother is heard clearly if at all on their end, not a very reliable means of communication.  And as for the headset, mic works a bit better that way, but then when I have the volume adjusted so that I may hear my family comfortably I am very nearly deafened by the noises made by whatever game we may be playing or from other alerts, say my im or email.  Let me tell you, there is nothing like those sudden loud noises being directed directly into your eardrums!  Besides, where’s the mobility I am supposed to enjoy with a laptop when I am all wired up (sorry, adding the mic problem in with the fact the lithium battery that came with this might last 1 ½ hours, another subject).  I have since bought a GE headset where the mic is removable and makes into a sort of small boom mic.  When used with the laptop the mic alone makes a terrible, loud submarine-like noise on my sister’s end, no matter where I position it.  You know…BING, BING, BIng, BIng, Bing, bing….  I have played around in the audio settings a bit, to no avail.  When I use the headset, same old problem with the eardrums, ouch!

Please, since my wildest expectations of Dell telling me that they have an internal mic I could get that could be put into this machine is not likely to happen, no matter how much I wish it, if anyone can tell me of a mic or headset option that WILL work or if my or my families’ systems may somehow be jacked up and how to fix the situation I would greatly appreciate it.  BTW, we all have Dell systems, myself, my mother, and my sister.

My thanks to anyone, including Dell representatives, who is willing to read all of this and especially if you can give me any answers.

To Dell:  I am sorry if any of this may sound derogatory, but my sister has heard enough of the submarine noises and I have had my eardrums blasted out one time too many…