Background hiss on Skype

[norrahe]

Has anyone else experienced this and managed to get rid of it. Have tried adjusting the audio settings on the laptop to no avail.

I'm using the inbuilt mike on the laptop.

Have googled but no decent answers.

[RichardCranium]

I don't know what I'm talking about, but if I give you an answer, someone who does will come along and correct me.

The hiss is arriving at your ears; it may be between Skype and your head.

A non-flat-screen monitor (what do we call them big fat electron-beam phosphor screen displays now?) can cause hiss in an audio lead if too close (within a foot or so). (I could always tell when someone was leaning forward when talking to me on the phone; you can hear the monitor interference.)

A power lead near the audio lead can cause a buzz or hiss. This includes the lead from a plug-in transformer to speakers and other such devices.

My mobile phone causes buzzes and hisses when within a foot of any audio equipment.

So, while listening to the hiss, try moving the relevant leads about and seeing if the hiss changes. If not, all the above was irrelevant. But it will keep you busy while someone else composes a sensible answer.

Have you got headphones in the sound card speaker socket or speakers in the headphone socket; I had a sound card where if I did that the quality was crap.

Do you have a crap on-board sound chip? How would you know? Are such things still crap like they used to be? If you play a music CD, is the same hiss there during the quiet bits? Do I know what I'm talking about? No.

When you call the Skype test number, is the hiss present? Is it only present when connected or all the time and does it go away when Skype is not running?

Have you got any other headphones / ear pieces / speakers you can plug in?

Is it you that can hear the hiss, or the person at the other end? If it is at the other end, try recording something using the microphone (not using Skype) and play it back and see if it hisses. If so, buy an external microphone.

[DaveB]

It's the Lizard overlords listening to your conversations.

[Cliphead]

No hiss on any of the machines here when using Skype, it's actually better than my landline. Could it fan noise?

[norrahe]

No hiss on any of the machines here when using Skype, it's actually better than my landline. Could it fan noise?

Could be, though one of us is using the in built mic and the other is using a logitec headset.

Both are sony vaio laptops. The sounds seems to be the same from both, the suggestion of fan does sound the most probable.

[ee61re]

Does the hiss go away if you mute the mic?

[norrahe]

Does the hiss go away if you mute the mic?

Will try that tomorrow and see if it works

[SueEllen]

Use an external headset with a mic.

You can ones that work well enough from Staples for about £6.

The problems with using just an external mic is that you have to play around with it being the right distance from your mouth. With a headset it's just a case of lowering or upping the mic volume.

[norrahe]

Use an external headset with a mic.

You can ones that work well enough from Staples for about £6.

The problems with using just an external mic is that you have to play around with it being the right distance from your mouth. With a headset it's just a case of lowering or upping the mic volume.

The headset is just as bad as the external mic which is odd

[RichardCranium]

The headset is just as bad as the external mic which is odd

Did any of my random suggestions help? Is it interference?