Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

whenever I use the X1's built in microphone to make phonecalls over skype, people have a hard time hearing me. This was not the case with any of my previous notebooks, where the built in mike worked well.

Is the X1 microphone just complete rubbish, or do I have to change the settings somehow? Could the mike be broken? Does anyone else have mike problems with the X1?

Any pointers and hints are very much appreciated!

I purchased an X1 on Aug 10th from Lenovo.com. Nicely configured (i7 second gen, 8GB RAM, etc) for US$2,700. Nothing but problems right out of box. The problem using skype is the same as I have. Makes skype unusable. I have turn on/turn off skype mic/speaker controls, on/off thinkpad controls, all with no luck

That may be the least of my problems. System froze with no lights nothing after 2 days out of box. Also right out of box the "slice battery" was not charging and showing replace battery. I have had 2 different batteries same problem. Machine shuts down without notice even when showing 35%+ battery life. I have had mobo replaced. Machine now back at Lenovo (actually IBM does their repair). They keep sending it back as repaired but same problems right out of box.

Sorry I spent so much on what I expected to be a top-of-line machine. I could have spent $600 on a Dell that worked better. Wondered if you had any of these other probs. I have not tried an external mic to see if that solves problem, but really not that interested in carrying an external.

Hi,

I'm really sorry to hear about the troubles you have with your X1. Other than the microphone problem I described above, I did not encounter any major difficulties. I'm quite happy with my X1 (8GB RAM, i5-processor, 160 GB SSD) other than the microphone. What I find most annoying is that they describe the microphone as some special improvement over regular built in mics, which is supposed to be better at blocking out background noise. However, all it does is block out the speaker's voice.

I also dislike the built in battery, and the fact that there is no docking station for the X1.

Anyways, good luck with yours and I hope it will be fixed soon. If you figure out how the mike works, please let me know!

I had the same problem with my Lenovo X1 Mic being unusable with Skype due to unclear sound. I resorted to using a USB headset with built in mic. One solution might be to change the mic settings (FN + F6) from Private mode to Conference chat?

I have an update to all the problems I was having with the slice battery on X1. After sending back to Lenovo twice and getting sent multiple slice batteries with the same problems, I decided to walk into Lenovo US HQ since I live in Raleigh NC near them. I walked into the lobby and receptionist asked if I had tried calling 800... Ugh. I told her I had and was not leaving until someone in Customer Service came out to speak with me.

Much to my amazement, I was introduced to Shawn who made things happen. Turns out my problem is not an isolated issue. Surprise! There is a NEW BIOS FLASH that was released 10/6 "Lenovo Battery Firmware Update Utility for Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), Vista (32-bit, 64-bit), XP (32-bit) - ThinkPad" So far things seem great. Anyone with battery issues may want to install this update.

Thanks to Shawn for finally providing so real Customer Service. The 800 Customer Service for Thinkpad in Atlanta is terribly broken.

Thanks for the updates.

Regarding the microphone, I have set it to "conference", and now everything works well.

I also used Fn-F6 to change the "Optimize my microphone for:" option to "Multiple voices" and that solved the problem. Thanks!!