Hello all- I am seeking help trying to figure out why my internal microphone isn’t being detected. I have followed a lot of troubleshooting audio guides such as this one and none of it has worked.
I’m on Pop_OS, with wayland, on an Asus laptop,
Here is more info if anyone could by chance help me
arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC294 Analog [ALC294 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
systemctl --user status pipewire
● pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Thu 2025-07-03 15:19:48 EDT; 24h ago
TriggeredBy: ● pipewire.socket
Main PID: 2192 (pipewire)
Tasks: 3 (limit: 18486)
Memory: 16.4M
CPU: 15.088s
CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pipewire.service
└─2192 /usr/bin/pipewire
Jul 03 15:19:48 pop-os systemd[2182]: Started PipeWire Multimedia Service.
Jul 03 15:19:48 pop-os pipewire[2192]: mod.jackdbus-detect: Failed to receive jackdbus reply:>
lines 1-13/13 (END)
some more info: https://pastebin.com/embed_js/6vR5ZEXw
I am new to linux so please don’t make fun of me too much if what i’m sharing doesn’t make any sense!!
What do the inputs and configuration drop down menus say?
There’s no option. they are greyed out.
Do any of
alsactl clean 0 alsactl clean 1 alsactl clean 2
do anything for you? (The numbers are for sound card 0, 1, and 2. It looks like, if anything, only 0 would be relevant for you, but you can try the others just in case.)
This command cleans the controls created by applications.
https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/questing/man1/alsactl.1.html
I tried and it didn’t do anything :( I am curious if i did something wrong with setting up wireplumber vs pipewire or pulseaudio or something?
It was a bit of a long shot experiment to begin with. The commands I posted can be useful when an audio device suddenly stops working after it has been working initially during a session, but since your problem is most likely about your device not being recognized at any time, it’s not too surprising that they don’t do much. Just worth the try.
thats good to know. thank you so much!
It is probably due to this change in the Linux kernel. That broke analogue microphone inputs on lots of systems. After that change, there were quite a few additional patches fixing those problems on individual systems (e.g. this one), but there are still lots of broken setups around. I have no idea what the original change was about exactly. It appears to have broken more things than it has fixed, but what do I know.
even with an internal microphone?
Yes. Apparently the issue happens with both internal mics and mic connectors where you attach your own mic. The seconds link I provided points to a fix for a specific laptop that fixes a non-working internal mic.
What’s the exact model number of this Asus laptop?
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. ASUSLaptop_Q530VJ
I’m trying to see if maybe i’ve done something where I have pipewire, pulseaudio, wireplumber all set up at the same time? I also don’t really understand the difference between them
Okay, so this is one of Asus’s consumer models that fits in the “Window stop” category, meaning a lot of the hardware is going to be windows-only for various reasons.
It’s got an ALC272 which IS supported, but that doesn’t mean the microphone will be, especially if it’s on the USB bus for whatever reason.
Couple questions:
- Do other microphones work, just not internal?
- Does your volume control work as expected
- Does the webcam work, and does the internal microphone work only when the webcam is engaged?
- What do apps like Discord or Zoom detect as available for your inputs?
As a test, install
pavucontrol
andqasmixer
. Open pavucontrol, and check ALL the input settings (there are many combos). If nothing there shows activity, launch qasmixer, select the ‘hw’ view on the right, then try selecting different mixers and see if one finally clicks.If any of these are successful, your mic is detected, and your mixer settings are messed up so it’s not being enabled as an input sink.
If none of these work, you’re going to have to dig restart, then run
sudo dmesg
and grep through looking for information regarding audio devices, or similar errors to see if it can’t detect it.From the product specs, it looks like it might have Harmon Kardon speakers, which may also tie into the microphone, and that’s going to be problematic if it’s a USB device for a number of reasons I won’t dive into. Overall, this model just seems to be problematic from digging around. Example: https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUS/comments/160d3wj/asus_creator_laptop_q530v_constant_problems/