Hello i have been using Skype for years now. Speaking anywhere from 20 minutes to 10 hours a day on Skype with my friends.
Recently after 5 min - 1 hour of speaking in Skype my microphone stops working my friend can't hear me. ( Im sure its not just Skype because it also then stops working in Ventrilo and other softwares alike.
I've taken my sound card off my computer and re-plugged it in. I've reinstalled my soundcard-driver. I've tryed to re-plugg the microphone in the computer but that doesnt help. But when i restart my computer then the mic works again for 5min-1hour in skype before it stops working again.
Since it a real pain to restart my computer every 15 minutes for this i would like to know whats causing this problem.

I have a Labtec desk mic 534 http://www.dictez.com/images/labtec_desk_mic_534.jpg

And a motherboard (ASUS maximus extreme ) with integrated soundcard. ( soundmax something )

What is CPU usage at time of fail, check in tasc manager

Okay i just restarted my pc so my mic works again (proable temporarily) and i have task manager open so i will see the CPU usage att the time of the fail

OK
and you could download speedfan (its free) to monitor CPU temp

I dont have any CPU problems and why should it even affect my mic?

How do you know? Have you checked CPU usage yet?

No i havent since my mic is still working after 28 minutes of speaking. But i just don't se how my mic failing is related to my CPU. But i will get back to you when it fails again.

My mic failed at 1hour 11 minutes of skype speaking and my CPU usage spiked up from 3-5% to 50-54% and now after 2-3 minutes my CPU usage went back down to 2-3% all this time i were just browsing the webb and speaking with a friend so i didnt "stress" my cpu ur anything

I still suspect CPU temp.
Please download SpeedFan.
For certain software doesn't 'degrade' after 1 hour (or so). So some part of the hardware is failing, OR another program is kicking in, but I doubt that.
Check speedfan temp and report back

Okay i downloaded speedFan i will report back with the SpeedFan "stats" at the time of my next microphone crash.

Here are the "stats" when my mic and everything else works as intended. http://img220.imageshack.us/my.php?image=s...annormaldb0.png

Well you can see your CPU is reaching a temp that is too hot. 55 degrees is borderline.
and the symbol shows that.
Is it a note book, if so suspect the air vents, and gently clean them out, if desktop . open and clean fans ect

I had speedfan open when my mic failed again it showed same as taskmanager that my CPU usage spiked again from 1-5% to 50%+ but all the temperatures remained still the same. I will opwn my desktop and vacuum the fans eventough they are not really "dusty" or enything but i will see if it helps.

Well SKYPE can REALLY stress CPUs, and especially long calls.
AND the data you posted did show your CPU excessively hot (ot a normal tick beside it)

Do somev Google search on CPU temps?? See if my comment at 55 Degrees is getting too hot.

I did some googling and found out that my cpu:s ( Intel core 2 duo e8400 ) maximum temperature is 72.4° C.

So this is what i think first i tought it was a skype problem but then i realised that my microphone stopped working in all applications untill i restart my computer. Ive noticed when the microphone stops working my CPU usage spikes to 50% for 5 minutes before it goes back down to 3% or what ever it was before the mic crash. Ive tryed to vacuum my fans and clean my computer inside but it doesent help. When the crash occurs my temperatures are all as they used to be. So please GLADIATOR help me out. Or if you dont know what could cause this could you suggest me where i should look for the help for this as this is not directly ( atleast i think its not ) a skype related problem

first why not try heating the CPU (gently) up from a started call, see if that forces the mike to fail at 55 Degrees.
do NOT force the CPU above 60 degrees.
Or try the opposite to cool the CPU with a hairdryer when mike stops, does that start it working again.

There after I would try a call with NO other applications running even I.E. and antivirus I would shut down.
see what other program is effecting the mike/CPU

How would you heat up the CPU? Only way i can think of is by overclocking

NO! Do NOT do that.
Just use a hairdryer to gently heat it it up, watching with speedfan the temp.
You can ALSO cool using a hairdryer

I've been having this problem for months, and it's driving me nuts. Skype is basically unusable.

Talking for even a few minutes disables the microphone. All the sound settings are OK, but the mic is dead. Only reinstalling the sound drivers makes it work again - for a few minutes.

I don't have many readings in SpeedFan - it's an older computer, P4 class. I get Temp1 -47C Temp2 28C HD0 18C.

Do you have any advice? This is really, really, really driving me nuts...

Thanks,
Sasha

A bit more detail:

Actually, this is what it is doing right now.

As soon as I hit call, it mutes the Mic. (DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEA WHY THE HELL IT DOES THAT?)

I unmute the mike.

As soon as it connects, it mutes the mic again, but without the checkbox - the mic is just dead.

As soon as I disconnect the call, the mic comes back online.

What the hell?

OK, last update. Downloaded Skype 4 and it FINALLY seems to be working. Hooray. I will post here if it breaks

Thanks for reading, sorry about long posts!

try below:
Exit Skype
Start
Run
Type: %appdata%
delete folder "Skype".
Re-run Skype and log in with your data.

Note:
You will need your password to re-log on, and re-set any options from default

adam

GLADIATOR I am wondering how you ever got this job, because you are the most awful tech person ive ever met. Once Skype downloaded it made my mic flip out in ever app. (and its mic, as in micropone. Not mike you fucking retard) go back to school and learn some shit before trying to make up excuses. CPU temp has nothing to do with the mic working, and heating it up with a hairdryer is the most retarded thing that i have ever heard of. You are a dumbass. thank you for listening retard.

Our office has 20 work stations with individual skype accounts with unlimited country subscription to US and Canada. We notice that about halfway through our work shift, calls would become chappy, simultaneous dropped calls on several stations, called party would have hard time hearing us and sometimes message with "your mic is really quiet" would pop-up. But if we switch to a different IP, then everything works fine again(Our internet service provider has assigned us 16 IP addresses). Then the cycle continues and we have to keep on switching our IP address when we would notice a decline on the call quality. We thought it was the internet problem but our other SIP accounts seem to work fine.

Does Skype server block IP's with heavy traffic to their network? Doesn't it determine how many accounts are logged on to that network?

Hope you can help. I can give the individual accounts that are running on our network. Would appreciate any reply from Tech Dept.

Thanks.

First of all, thanks for posting and thanks to anyone who posts for the purpose of helping others.

That said, let me say that I have had the exact same problem for almost 2 years now.

I personally designed this high spec system so that things like this would never happen ( specs below ) but this is absolutely driving me nuts. I use Skype for business calls all the time and to have my mic cut out on me in the middle of the call?! Unbelievable !

Similarities:

• Asus motherboard using Soundmax onboard sound
• Latest drivers
• No temp or dust problems
• CPU never exceeds 50%

Noticeable Symptoms:

• This ALWAYS happens in Skype after at least 15 minutes of discussion.
• Once the mic is disabled in Skype, no other applications can utilize the mic and restarting the system is the only solution.
• The mic works flawlessly in Windows Live Messenger for hours and has never cut out.

So, I think the key to this is to find out if:
(1) this is a Asus/Soundmax hardware issue and, if so,
(2) why is Skype the only culprit and not Windows Live Messenger?
or
(3) is this purely a Skype issue?

Are any Skype technicians monitoring these forums? Just curious as this topic was originally posted in January and it is now September.

Daren
System:
Asus MSN-SLI Deluxe motherboard with Soundmax onboard sound.
Latest BIOS and drivers
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+
2GB RAM
Primary HDD: Western Digital Raptor, 10,000rpm
Typical Page File Usage: 900MB out of 4GB

Reading through all posts here I think of two things.

- Soundcards that are badly supported by the skype application or have bad drivers. This would most likely be a bad support from Skype's side. Drivers would probably be fine.

- CPU overheating would not affect a microphone in the way suggested here. You would first get bluescreens yelling over overheating before an application crashes this consistently. 55 degrees is perfectly normal for older CPU's, and the average die temp is aroudn 70-80 degree.

- What i remember from last time i used Skype activly is that it is extremly extremly poor at handling memory, and has memory leakage. To check for memory leakage, check if the Skype application for long usage keeps assigning memory to itself. Just press CTRL+ALT+DEL and open the TASK MANAGER-> Process window. here you should be able to see how much MB an application uses. Keep watch over the skype one. Memory leakage is not normally supposed to happen on window systems IF the software is decently programmed. But alas we all know there are pretty damn bad programmers out there.

- A change of soundcard might be something to try aswell. If there is a minor hardware fault in the soundcard, it might affect the whole experience, but only show itself in strange ways. If your soundcard is on the Motherboard check with a friend or a computershop if they could LEND you a card for a couple of days for testing. Usually they might have an old one you could buy for a cheap buck. Test if the sound and mic works ok with an extra soundcard.

- It could be the technology in the headset thats at fault, although rare, try to check with another headset.

- If you are using an USB headset with mic/speakers integrated, then try check the machine using a normal phono-connected 3.5" jack headset instead of the USB. Could be crappy programmed USB drivers for your USB headset.
USB headsets often have their own "soundcard" built in, and needs drivers installed to work properly.

USB headsets often takes precidence over normal soundcards, so you might want to un-install their driver software before testing with the normal soundcard.

Toffy

Hi.
My guess is that your ISP has setup so you have 16 IP addresses, but I doubt these are 16 IP addresses that are EXTERNAL..that is totally open to the internet.

To find out if they are, go to www.whatismyip.com and then go to your
START-menu and select RUN. Then type in CMD press ENTER.
In the black window type IPCONFIG and check if any of the IP-addresses you get up match the one on www.whatismyip.com

If you are several Skype users calling from the same location, and your network is protected by a gateway, then usually it would be the IP-address of your GATEWAY that might be visible at www.whatismyip.com

Problem here is, if your NAT (network address translation) is not setup well, or skype is not fond of NAT (I dunno this though), then for any users outside your network, the NAT service in the network would not be able to route the signals to the correct recipients. Resulting in dropped calls, and often this would affect several users at the same time.

It's not good, security wise, but one solution could be to check with the ISP if they can make sure that those 16 IP addresses are "real" addresses valid on the internet. This would make it so each of the connections to the internet would be separate and even pingable from the outside.

But as I said, this would open for 16 possible IP addresses and connection points that could be hacked into from the outside, especially if they are not protected with a firewall.

It should be possible to exclude these 16 addresses to be "open" to the outside, but then you would need 16 static addresses setup in the gateway/firewall. Setting a firewall to specifically monitor 16 connection points is no strain on it whatsovever.

My guess here is that for the outside world, your IP addresses for skype is the same for 16 users, causing miss-routed signals.

Toffy

Thanks for the response. We have a dedicated IP so I don't think that is the problem but I do appreciate the comments.

That comment about IP-addresses was not for you Dasfar.

Please see this, check all items, if they apply. Since these issues can/could be caused by multiple factors:

http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=&sh...t&p=1989091