Problem: SpeechMike USB Audio

Symptom

Customers using USB audio devices such as SpeechMike and new laptops (mainly DELL) are experiencing some audio issues such as dropouts in the audio from the microphone or 2-5 second latency when turning the microphone record button. It is random when it happens, but it happens quite fast when they try to record a file.

Resolution

Please follow the fixes below one at a time and try the next one if the problem is not solved:

Option 1: Switch to 44kHz

During our investigation we found that this laptop might have a sampling rate dependent problem and setting the sampling rate of the SpeechMike to 44.1 kHz solves the problem.

Check the sample rate of the connected Philips device:

You can change the sample rate of the SpeechMike from 22.05 kHz to 44.1 kHz using the attached Sampling Rate Tool, which includes a readme.txt on how to use it.

Option 2: Update audio driver

The problem may be caused by an old USB audio driver, which we see mainly on Dell machines with Realtek(R) audio.

Update the driver version for "Realtek(R) Audio" under "Sound, video and game controllers" in Device Manager to the latest version. It can be downloaded from the Dell website or your corresponding hardware manufacturer

Option 3: Disable Audio Enhancement

The problem may be due to the "Audio Enhancements" being enabled in Windows

Please follow the steps in this article

Option 4: Disable the internal microphone

The issue may occur on Windows when both internal and external microphones are enabled.