Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

Could anybody tell me where is microphone located in T500 and is there option to remove/replace ?
There is no info in Hardware Maintenance Manual for mic.

Admin edit: Added PIC warning

The microphone is at the bottom of the LCD assembly, just to the left of where the ribbon cable goes up into it. The microphone itself is attached to the LCD cable.

Are you certain it's a hardware fault and not a software or driver problem?

Is Mic small, grey rectangle, right ?

If I would like to replace it need I replace entire wire-tape from LCD ?

Can I cut off tape with mic by scissors with no damage and no influence on rest work of laptop ? (I do not want unnecessary parts)

That is the mic, however the chances the mic hardware itself has failed are very slim unless it was purposefully and intentionally mutilated. The chances the cable are bad are also slim because if the LCD cable was damaged, you'd also likely see the problem in the display. Sound card hardware faults are possible but again, not likely.

Since the chances the hardware itself has gone bad are as slim as they are, I have to ask what troubleshooting you've already done that has led you to the conclusion that you need to replace the microphone. Driver issues or software settings are almost universally the cause in every case of "no microphone output", and there are so many permutations of the fixes that eventually cure the issue.

By all means - if you are intent to replace the hardware component, do so and succeed in your endeavor, then so much the better. I am, again, curious to know what troubleshooting steps you've already done.

Linux distros (fedora, ubuntu, debian) - mic did not work. As far we know ALL linux distros work well on T500 with embedded drivers.
BIOS option for microphone "enabled".

There IS hardware problem.

I'm curious if I cut off wire-tape with mic rest laptop will work ok?