Microsoft Surface Audio Bug
The support article is intended for Microsoft Surface / Surface Laptop users. We believe that Realtek audio drivers on Microsoft Surface Laptops have a bug that is impacting all OS level mute functionality. This issue seems to be impacting the entire line of Microsoft surface products and may be impacting other products as well that rely on the same Realtek audio driver or sound chip.
Issue:
The MuteMe-Client software interfaces with the operating system to control different microphones that are connected. The operating system classifies devices as either an input (microphone) or output (speaker), and then gives granular control to various applications to interface with those devices. On Surface products devices are classified with just one identifier and when a request is sent to the OS to mute the input device the output device is also muted.
Since we are a new company we know that might be a little harder to accept that the issue was caused by Realtek or Microsoft. We are exploring options to see if we can fix on our end but this is a complicated issue and Microsoft will not allow us to obviously overwrite their drivers.
Solution:
There is no real resolution for this issue at this time. We are exploring options to address this issue.
We have contacted Microsoft and Realtek to let them know of the issue and are trying to find a way to elevate this issue to the Surface dev team.
Feel free to contact them as well:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surface
Temporary Solution(s)
Option 1
If you use one of the conferencing applications for which we have level two or level three sync, you could disable our ability to control your microphone (OS mute) by unchecking the box next to "control this microphone with MuteMe" and then relying on the application layer to sync and use MuteMe with your favorite conferencing applications.
To disable OS mute for a microphone you would go to our application and click on "Microphone Settings" > then click on the little chevron icon to expand the controls next to the headset in question > then uncheck the box "Control this microphone with MuteMe".
Option 2
You could use a different microphone including any external microphone and have MuteMe control that microphone but not control the built in microphone. You would also want to change your input device in your conferencing application to that other microphone.
Last Updated: 5:00 PM - PST - March 17th, 2022
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