Skype solution

[Claude Jones]

On Fri December 29 2006 7:27 pm, Matthew Saltzman wrote:
> I remember a relatively recent thread in which folks
> complained about having trouble getting their microphones to
> work in Skype with FC6, but I don't recall a definitive
> solution being posted.  It took me quite a bit of fiddling,
> but I finally got it.
>
> For the use of anyone who cares, here are the relevant mixer
> settings from my GNOME volume control.  I did this on a
> Thinkpad T41, with Intel 82801DB-ICH4 using the ALSA drivers.
>  I'm using skype-1.3.0.53-fc5.
>
> On the Playback tab, line in and mic are muted.  Master and
> PCM are unmuted--Master is up full and PCM is at about 75%.
>
> On the Capture tab, both the speaker icon and the mic icon are
> unmuted. They are linked, and they are set at about 40% gain.
>  (Much higher and you'll start to hear feedback.)
>
> On the Switches tab, I have Mic Boost (+20dB) checked, and
> (inexplicably, but it works--I don't know yet if other
> settings also work) Microphone Capture and Line-in Capture are
> unchecked.
>
> On the Options tab, Mic Select is Mic1.
>
> When the Skype test call connects, if you have the Capture tab
> displayed, you will see the gain boosted to about 70%.  The
> test call works fine and the playback is perfectly audible.
>
> So the key seems to be to put Mic Boost on and adjust the gain
> for a reasonable level with no feedback.
>
> Hope that info helps somebody.

Matthew: At least one of those recent discussions had to do with 
Skype arbitrarily turning off settings after a call or two - I 
can't make out the pattern, though I'm sure there is one, but 
after using Skype, once, sometimes more than once but never more 
than a few times, I find the capture level turned back down to 
0. Sometimes re-setting the level fixes it, sometimes not - when 
it doesn't work, I have to shut down Skype and restart it. It's 
become a pain. Today, I reinstalled vmplayer and fired up XP on 
this machine, and was surprised to find that Skype worked 
perfectly - that's an unfortunate state of affairs. 

If you continue to experience consistent behavior, and Skype 
continues to work each and every time with the approach you've 
taken above, please post back and let us know. 

To reprise - two problems, which have been discussed here and on 
the Skype forums: 
1-Skype on Linux seems to have an issue with the soundcard 
settings, and they are occasionally reset to 0, especially the 
capture setting - turning the capture volume back up will 
sometimes solve the mic not working issue
2-Skype will work for a call or a few calls, and then the mic 
will stop working - sometimes it's just the level setting as 
described in 1, though sometimes, even though the level has been 
set back to 0 and then re-set to a correct record level, Skype 
will still not respond to mic input, and has to be restarted.
-- 
Claude Jones
Brunswick, Md, USA