Thinkpads Forum

Hello: What's the little "thingy" that looks like 2 small holes side-by-side near the -> arrow key, bottom right of the x60s? Is it a microphone?

thanks,
phil

That's right

Silly question now: does the x60s ship with recording software, or do I have to purchase and install that separately so that I can use the built in microphone?

thanks,

Thats where the death-ray comes out.

gandini wrote:Silly question now: does the x60s ship with recording software, or do I have to purchase and install that separately so that I can use the built in microphone?

I use Audacity, which can be downloaded for free from this site. If you want to export the recording as an MP3 file, you also need to download the file lame_enc.dll as instructed here.

BTW, I found this thread while searching for "X60s" and "microphone", to make sure that the X60s I had just purchased from Tselling has a built-in microphone.

gandini wrote:Hello: What's the little "thingy" that looks like 2 small holes side-by-side near the -> arrow key, bottom right of the x60s? Is it a microphone?

thanks,
phil

Actually, I think it is not a microphone, instead "they" want you to think it is a microphone. It's a mark that's meant to look like a microphone, so that when someone calls tech support and asks "where should I talk into" the support guy has something to describe, and so that the online help diagram has a place to point an arrow labelled "microphone". I have dismantled my X60s and the actual location of the microphone is close to there, but it is actually behind the bottom left part of the M of the "IBM ThinkPad" sticker.

The holes of the "thingy" don't go all the way through the plastic, so I'm pretty sure they are purely cosmetic.

Now, anyone have any theories about the purpose of the tiny hole in between the 1394 socket and the front USB socket?

Lev

lev wrote:Actually, I think it is not a microphone, instead "they" want you to think it is a microphone.

I think the main function of those holes is just to reduce the weight of the laptop by 0.0000003 lbs. Just kidding. Of course the holes themselves can't be the actual microphone -- holes don't do much besides passing air molecules and photons -- but they make it easier for the microphone inside to pick up sound.

lev wrote:Now, anyone have any theories about the purpose of the tiny hole in between the 1394 socket and the front USB socket?

That's probably also for directing sound waves to the microphone.

pianowizard wrote:

lev wrote:Actually, I think it is not a microphone, instead "they" want you to think it is a microphone.

I think the main function of those holes is just to reduce the weight of the laptop by 0.0000003 lbs. Just kidding. Of course the holes themselves can't be the actual microphone -- holes don't do much besides passing air molecules and photons -- but they make it easier for the microphone inside to pick up sound.

Sure, but in the case of that pair of indentations below the right-rrow key, they are not actually holes, they don't go all the way through. However, there is a hole in the case behind the M of the IBM ThinkPad sticker, and the actual microphone capsule is sitting directly behind that hole.

I made a couple of photos, to demonstrate:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lev.bishop/ ... X7rlA4aM-Y

lev wrote:Now, anyone have any theories about the purpose of the tiny hole in between the 1394 socket and the front USB socket?

That's probably also for directing sound waves to the microphone.

It's sort of far away for that, but maybe.

lev wrote:Sure, but in the case of that pair of indentations below the right-rrow key, they are not actually holes, they don't go all the way through.

Most interesting. The two holes on my T43 go all the way through.

They don't have to go all the way through to be the microphone appeture. Just to be sure, we are talking about the pair of holes right below the arrow key set on the X60s, right?

christopher_wolf wrote:They don't have to go all the way through to be the microphone appeture.

Just to be sure, we are talking about the pair of holes right below the arrow key set on the X60s, right?

On the x60s there is a cosmetic pair of indents below the arrow key set, behind which is the shell of the rear USB socket.

The microphone capsule is directly behind the IBM thinkpad logo sticker, and there is a small hole underneath that sticker, for the sound to go through.

Look at the photos, to see what I mean. I have the two halves of the machine side by side so you can see what lines up with what, and on some of the photos I labelled the different parts. I also have a couple photos where I put a light behind the hole in question, so you can see the light shining through the sticker.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lev.bishop/ ... X7rlA4aM-Y

You can also test it easily, by switching the microphone on and listening through headphones. If you tap or rub your finger over the two indents by the arrow keys, you can hear it a little, but when you tap/rub over the IBM sticker, the sound is much louder.

lev,

Great job! I was wondering where the microphpone was, i guess when we use it we must sound like someone that has his mouth covered with tape.

Hi everybody,


When i turn off the sound, the microphone is not disabled... so when i am on msn or skype, they listen to me

so what's the tips to stop the sound and the microphone together ?

sorry i am french so my english it's not very good

thank you very much

____________________________

thinkpad X60S 1703 CTO

pody wrote:so what's the tips to stop the sound and the microphone together ?

I'm not sure this will work but it's worth a try:

Open "Volume Control" (e.g. by double-clicking on the speaker icon in the system tray) --> "Options" --> "Properties" --> "Recording" --> uncheck "Microphone"

Actually, the box under Microphone on the Windows Volume Control is to Mute (silence) the Microphone. So this box should be checked.

GomJabbar wrote:Actually, the box under Microphone on the Windows Volume Control is to Mute (silence) the Microphone. So this box should be checked.

For Playback, the check boxes say "Mute", but for Recording, they say "Select" instead, so I assumed that means "use" or "activate". To be safe, perhaps one should simply drag the slider all the way to the bottom.

pianowizard wrote:For Playback, the check boxes say "Mute", but for Recording, they say "Select" instead, so I assumed that means "use" or "activate". To be safe, perhaps one should simply drag the slider all the way to the bottom.

Sorry, I missed that.

How does the quality compares to the built-in microphone in X31 ? It is located under the panel (with two small holes) next to the Power button there. Its quality and sensitivity is surprisingly good for voice communication.