Studio 16 Webcam/Skype Mic Echo

When I try to make a phone call via skype or video chat through g-mail, the person on the other end of the line hears a loud echo of themselves, caused by their voice being fed from my speakers into my microphone and back to them. I have spoken to a number of dell support tecs about this problem, all of whom have failed to fix the problem. I have tried muting the microphone in the speaker playback settings, tried adjusting the microphone volume up and down, tried selecting and unselecting the echo cancellation button in the audio control window.

Has anyone else had this problem? Has anyone found a fix? The obvious solution is to use headphones when making a voice call. I bought this laptop, though, planning to use it extensively for skype calling and g-chat, so its a bit ridiculous that the only apparent solution is to use headphones.

Anyone have any ideas?

Also, like other people, I have had a few freezes with my Studio 16 when bringing the computer back from hibernation. But thats another problem for another day.