USB Microphone crackling and buzzing

[Craigus]

Hi all, I have a fairly cheap usb microphone that I use on my PC. It's been fine for a number of months but now I am told on zoom, discord and microsoft teams that I sound like a robot or that it sounds like there is a massive bee in the room.

I tried different ports on the tower, that didn't work. I tried switching microphones with my wifes different model usb mic and that didn't work. My original one works on her laptop without problem so it is clearly a problem with my tower.

I can't think of anything that I have changed or added that would cause this. Any ideas?

 

[ancient_mariner]

It sounds like a driver issue - might be worth reinstalling any usb drivers, and also those for the sound card if you route the audio output through that.

 

[Mr Bump]

i think the words fairly cheep might be the issue

 

[JohnStewart]

How good is your internet connection from your tower computer? We have someone in an overseas office (shared internet) who often sounds very robotic on calls, but his internet speed and latency/ping time can be very poor at certain times of the day, When he has a good connection, his voice sounds perfectly normal.

 

[Craigus]

Just to update this, I figured out that the mic was directly above my tower which is under the desk. I use a USB wifi adapter which was in a port directly underneath the mic, I moved the mic to the other side of the desk and it went away. I've now bought a USB extension cable and wired the wifi adapter away on the wall away from the mic and for better signal. All sorted now.

Seems obvious now, but couldn't for the life of me figure it out until I got on my knees and looked at the tower and it suddenly struck me.