RingLeadr

Hey all,

All right, I've been using Ubuntu for roughly six weeks now. I've adjusted pretty well to it and have had no major issues beyond occasionally some spotty recognition of hardware. However, this particular problem I have been working on for several weeks now with no real progress.

First off, I'm using a Dell XPS mM1530, purchased just over a year ago. It has dual-core 2.4ghz processors, 4GB RAM, 250GB 720rpm HD, and was running Vista Home Premium SP 1.

Now, the issue I'm having is a common one I have found on hours of Google searches, but none of the solutions/fixes I have found have worked, though it could just be that I did something wrong.

My issue is that Ubuntu does not recognize either a built-in microphone or an external microphone, period. I've configured alsamixer over and over, made sure I had the record function, I've toggled all the Capture and Record settings to on and put the sliders at max, I've gone into terminals and ran commands to try and make headway, but no go.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to use Skype in order to talk to my fiancee - at the moment I'm studying abroad. I can hear her just fine, but I can't talk. I've gone into the Skype Audio settings and done every possible configuration to see if one will work, but none of them do anything - though I do note that some of them make matters worse, and I can't hear her! However, this tells me it is not a problem with Skype.

What I would like to do, at the moment, is re-install the drivers for my sound card, but I am not completely sure how to do that on Ubuntu. Nevertheless, the goal of anything I attempt is to get the microphones working - either the built-in or the external, at this point, I really don't care which one.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on a fix? And is anyone willing to walk me through how to re-install the drivers? I had a friend of a friend suggest doing that to me.

Thank you in advance.

Robert