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April 7th, 2020 07:00

WD19, headset microphone not detected

Hi there,

Again not sure where to post this, there appears to be no section dedicated to docking stations to what I could find, which is slightly strange.

Anyway, I'm having an issue with my Dell WD19 Dock (just standard usb-c version).

No matter what I try, I can't get my headset's microphone to be detected by the front audio jack on the dock.

I've tried driver reinstalls, removing drivers entirely and running with it, restarts of both the laptop and dock itself, plugging it back in to the laptop, different types of headphones/headsets etc.

Nothing will work! The Realtek USB Audio driver shows as "not plugged in" under audio control panel.

I've tried it with three computers at this point. Note: none of these computers are Dell computers, as I don't have any

No computers I've tried have had any luck at all. It outputs fine with the jack, so I can have headphone out, just not microphone in. The line output works on the back as well.

I'm stumped as to why it's not being detected. Not sure if the whole not having a Dell PC isn't helping.

Wondering if anyone can help.

Thanks,

Ollie.

April 7th, 2020 09:00

Glad to hear that might be my issue.

What is the mic input on the dock itself? How can I find out?

Also is there any way to tell what standard my headset is using?

Thanks.

9 Legend

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14K Posts

April 7th, 2020 09:00

@ohtrobinson  If audio output works and mic in is the only issue, I suspect you're running into the issue that there are actually two different wiring standards for headsets.  One is called OMTP and the other is called CTIA.  A 3.5mm headset connector has 4 "poles", one each for left channel, right channel, microphone, and electrical ground.  OMTP and CTIA both assign the two audio output channels to the same poles on a 3.5mm connector, but they have opposite assignments for mic in and electrical ground.  So if you plug a CTIA headset into an OMTP jack or vice versa, your audio output will work but your mic won't.  And depending on your headset and jack, you might hear screeching from having an electrical ground connected to your mic.  There are inexpensive OMTP/CTIA adapter dongles though.  They're not "directional" since they just flip the mic and electrical ground pins within the dongle, so if you have a CTIA headset it will become OMTP on the other end of the adapter and vice versa.  You might try picking up one of those to see if it resolves your issue.

9 Legend

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14K Posts

April 7th, 2020 12:00

@ohtrobinson  I don't know offhand, but I know for example that Apple products use CTIA, so if you plug an Apple headset into the WD19 jack and it works, then the WD19 uses CTIA.  You could also use a third-party headset designed for Apple products.  For example, Bose headphones specifically have separate Android and Apple variations of the same Bose headphones model specifically to deal with this issue.

9 Legend

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14K Posts

April 7th, 2020 13:00

@ohtrobinson  ok, I guess it's possible that you've just got an issue with the dock.  Rereading your original post, you've already checked and done everything I'd have checked and done.  I thought that maybe you might have simply not had the Realtek USB Audio device selected as your Recording device even if it was selected as the Playback device, but if it's showing as Not Connected, then that isn't it.  I don't think using a non-Dell system is the problem here since the audio interface is completely self-contained within the dock, with no dependency on anything specific to Dell systems to work properly.  You just need the right drivers, but you've already delved into that as well.  I'll post back if I think of anything else, but I think you may have a hardware issue on your hands here.

April 7th, 2020 13:00

I'm not sure this is the issue. I've tried three headsets now (including an apple one) and none of them have worked. I get audio through all of them then.

I highly doubt they're using an incompatible standard, since I've tried two out of the three headsets (not the apple one) on other computers and they have all been able to use the microphone correctly.

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