Acer Aspire 5541G a notebook with a webcam and
without an internal mic?
Yesteday some relatives of a friend dropped by and wanted to help
them with setting up a just purchased Acer Aspire 5541G
notebook.
The notebook came wiht a already installed
Windows 7 so I
didn't really bothered much with the OS. I've installed some most
essential software that every normal user nowdays use like:
1. Mtorrent
2. Skype
3. Vlc
4. Kmplayer
5. Winamp
etc. ...
Everything with installations went fine etc. However when I
proceeded up with configuring the Skype Microphone and Video, I've
realized that Skype is not able to actually detect any microphone
on the
Aspire 5541G
That puzzled me off completely, how come that there is a notebook
with embedded Web Camera but wihtout any Internal Microphone, it
looked to me like a complete bull shit.
I've checked up in
Windows 7 Control Panel all setting
referring a Microphone, also the volume controls as well as checked
if there is some kind of internal mic or any mic device to show up
in
Control Panel -> System -> Devices but well I found
nothing related mic there.
Well next step I checked in the manual bundled with the PC, but
there was once again nothing mentioned about internal
microphone.
I've checked in google about the concrete computer specifications
because I wanted to assure myself that there is no internal
microphone embedded within the webcam.
Here are the Complete
ACER Aspire 5541G notebook
specifications:
* Two built-in stereo speakers
* High-definition audio support
* MS-Sound compatible
* Communication Integrated Acer Crystal Eye webcam
* WLAN:
* InviLink 802.11b/g/Draft-N
* Acer InviLink 802.11g
* I/O interface Multi-in-1 card reader (SD�, MMC, MS, MS PRO,
xD)
* USB 2.0 ports
* External display (VGA) port
* Headphones/speaker/line-out jack
* Microphone-in jack
* Ethernet (RJ-45) port
* DC-in jack for AC adapter
As you can see from above specification the Aspire 5541G doesn't
include internal micophone.
That's a complete riddle since I don't see the point of having a
camera without a microphone? Do you ? What are this Acer guys
thinking ? I eamn well would you buy a notebook without any
internal microphone just to have pictures and video with the
camera? :)! I wouldn't!
Anyways it appears that the only option for owners of this machine
is to buy an external mic and plug it in or maybe even better a
headphones with embedded mic.
If we don't count this small I would call it a design error, the
machine is well balanced in terms of price, quality and computer
specs and is a probably a good investment.