Can't get microphone to work in Windows 10 Guest

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TomInGB
Posts: 17
Joined: 3. Feb 2020, 18:23

Can't get microphone to work in Windows 10 Guest

Post by TomInGB »

Description of problem. Audio input works great on the host, but does not come through on the Guest machine.

Host: Ubuntu 16.04, up to date on patches with VirtualBox 6.0.16 r135674 (Qt5.6.1)
Guest: Windows 10 Home verion 1809, latest version of guest additions.

- VRDP is not turned on.
- Enable audio checked
- Host Audio Driver: Pulse audio (Also tried ALSA with same results)
- Audio Controller: Intel HD Audio

Both the headphones and mic are plugged in to the front ports on the PC, and both work fully on the host.

Any other info I can provide that might help?
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Can't get microphone to work in Windows 10 Guest

Post by mpack »

Please post a VM log file. With the VM fully shut down, right click and "Show Log" in the GUI, save "VBox.log" (no other file) to a zip, and attach the zip here.
TomInGB
Posts: 17
Joined: 3. Feb 2020, 18:23

Re: Can't get microphone to work in Windows 10 Guest

Post by TomInGB »

Attached.
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Windows machine-2020-02-03-10-40-39.log.zip
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mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Can't get microphone to work in Windows 10 Guest

Post by mpack »

Well, as far as I can tell the VM seems to be doing all of the right things, except perhaps for one thing :
00:00:51.536633 Mixer: Setting recording source of sink '[Recording] Line In' to 'Line In'
Is your microphone connected to "Line In" or "Mic In"? In fact ISTR it has to be "Line In".
TomInGB
Posts: 17
Joined: 3. Feb 2020, 18:23

Re: Can't get microphone to work in Windows 10 Guest

Post by TomInGB »

Is your microphone connected to "Line In" or "Mic In"? In fact ISTR it has to be "Line In".
Darn! I thought maybe we had it there! I was plugged in to "Mic in" but when I moved to "Line in" I still had the same results. On the host, I could see audio input (now on Line In) but when i started the guest, still no input.
TomInGB
Posts: 17
Joined: 3. Feb 2020, 18:23

Re: Can't get microphone to work in Windows 10 Guest

Post by TomInGB »

Let me ask a different question.

Does anyone have a working mic on a windows 10 guest with a Linux host, preferable Ubuntu? I have found lots of people trying to get one to work in my searches, and nobody who has said they have.
TomInGB
Posts: 17
Joined: 3. Feb 2020, 18:23

Re: Can't get microphone to work in Windows 10 Guest

Post by TomInGB »

Does anyone have a working mic with any input at all on a windows 10 guest with a Linux host, preferably Ubuntu? I have found lots of people trying to get one to work in my searches, and nobody who has said they have.
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xanatos_gambit
Posts: 1
Joined: 2. May 2020, 03:54

Re: Can't get microphone to work in Windows 10 Guest

Post by xanatos_gambit »

I am having a similar problem... I am attempting to install video conferencing software on my Windows guest (Mac OS Catalina 10.15.4 host), and the audio is working fine. However the microphone is not working at all, and I have attempted to change this from both the settings inside the virtual windows and from the settings of the VirtualBox audio (however the latter does not give me the option to change it). Is there anyway I can get the microphone working?
keppy
Posts: 1
Joined: 1. May 2021, 23:37

Re: Can't get microphone to work in Windows 10 Guest

Post by keppy »

Hi,
of the low chance that it might work for you as well under ubuntu: I had a similar issue and fixed it with this post.
forums linuxmint com viewtopic php t=314760

In short:
Get default device name:
pactl list sources short | cut -f2 -d$'\t'
Insert in /etc/pulse/default.pa the right default device:
set-default-source alsa_input.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo

The problem is that pulseaudio always selects "Monitor of Built-in Audio Analog Stereo" as my default source which is actually not a source but a monitor of the output for some reason.

Additionally, I had to use pavucontrol (apt-get install pavucontrol) and change in the tab Recording for the application virtualbox the device to "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo" and not the monitor. I had to do this only once, then it seems like the new default got accepted :) For some reason the sound manager of KDE doesn't give me that option to switch the sources. So in my case this was a host issue and not related to virtualbox itself.

Best regards
roaditsolutions
Posts: 2
Joined: 6. Jan 2023, 01:18

Re: Can't get microphone to work in Windows 10 Guest

Post by roaditsolutions »

I had the same problem in a Windows 10 Pro Host with a Windows 10 ENT 2021 Guest.
I had sound and camera easily but no microphone.
I read some forum posts and answers with the same problem and different hosts and guests.
At the end it's all trial and error. For me, the solution was the following:
On settings of your VM go to Audio and enable it, then you will have three options:

Host Audio Driver: I changed from default to Windows Audio Session. For Linux hosts there might be another option.

Audio Controller: My host audio controller is Intel, so I left it as it was by default.

Extended features: Enable audio Output and Enable Audio Input. For me audio input was not enabled by default, so I enabled it.

And just like that, my laptop built in microphone started working on the VM.

RP
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