Help me fix my USB microphone?

December 29, 2005 11:08 PM

Why does my Blue Snowball mock me? I've been attempting to get my new USB Microphone working on my Windows XP SP2 box with little luck... help!

The microphone has been plugged in and recognized by my PC, with the appropriate "USB Composite Device" showing up in Control Panel -> System -> Devices. Windows Sound Recorder records the output of the microphone just fine, but attempting to use Skype, Google Talk or Audacity results in no recorded audio and the CPU pegged around 65% with Process Explorer showing the culprit as USBPORT.SYS with the following error: ntkrnlpa.exe!KiUnexpectedInterrupt+0xf0.

I have reinstalled my USB root drivers, the device is plugged directly into the system root hub (not off of another device) and updated my BIOS. NVIDIA NFORCE4 chipset drivers are at their latest as well. Google has failed me, and I'm pretty frustrated... so anyone with suggestions (outside of 'reinstall you wuss') would be greatly appreciated. It smells like an IRQ problem but I have no idea the root.

posted by fet to computers & internet (3 comments total)

I agree with the IRQ problem, especially with the UnexpectedInterrupt error.

I would use trial and error. Remove all non-essential periphs (PCI cards and other USB devices) plug in your mic and then see if it works.

If it does, then add periphs one by one, until you discover the culprit. If the culprit is a pci card, you can sometimes change the IRQ by moving a jumper on the board of the card.
posted by Dag Maggot at 2:45 AM on December 30, 2005

Hmm... so under Windows Sound Recorder the CPU usage is low? In addition to what Dag Maggot suggests, I'd also make sure your DirectX version is current.
posted by sbutler at 4:58 AM on December 30, 2005

Unfortunately, I have no installed PCI cards. The motherboard has numerous onboard features which i'm going to try disabling one at a time. The hunt continues!
posted by fet at 5:48 AM on December 30, 2005