My girlfriend's laptop, which was purchased at the end of August, has a rather odd but intermittent problem. Happening randomly the onboard microphone becomes afflicted by massive amounts of static which sound like when you're trying to hear someone talking on a cell phone in the wind. Sometimes it goes away but sometimes the mic dies all together and no sound is picked up. Since it's intermittent and a lot of times disappears when she moves the lid (the mic is mounted above the screen), my suspicion is that there's an intermittent short in the cable somewhere. Perhaps you people could help confirm my suspicion or offer other possible causes. Thanks in advance all.

Does sound like interference with the lid connections. One way to test it is to plug an external mike into the jack plug. There should be one alongside the speaker and line-in socket. If the noise disappears then you have isolated the problem. Stuart

"...disappears when she moves the lid..." After a laptop has been used a lot, it is common for the wiring that goes through the hinge from the base to the top to exhibit symptoms indicating it's damaged. At the very least the wire insulation gets frayed - sometimes some wires will break within their insulation, and when the wire ends still touch the connection will be poor sometimes, and that often varies depending on the position of the lid. That can affect anything in the lid - it often affects the display, rather than a mic. That's a commonly replaced item. You can replace that wiring bundle, either by having someone do it for you, or if you're handy you could do it yourself, if a Maintenance manual is available online. If hers is a HP (or Compaq) there is often a Maintenance manual for HP and Compaq models in the downloads for the model. The HP or Compaq part number you need is probably in the manual, and it may be also in the list of parts available for it, if you go here and search using the model number - you may need to use a specific model number found on a label on the outside of the case, often on the bottom on a laptop: http://partsurfer.hp.com/cgi-bin/sp... A local place that is authorized to repair HP and Compaq models may even have it in stock; if not they could order it for you.

@ StuartS I've tested it with an external mic and the problem goes away so it's definitely isolated to the onboard mic itself. @ Tubesandwires Her laptop hasn't been used that much. It's only a couple of months old and is only open and closed a couple of times a day. It's also been having this issue since the beginning. Was really bad for a week or two then it disappeared for a couple of months and now mysteriously it's returned.

"was purchased at the end of August" Oops - missed that. It sounds like it qualifies to be repaired on warranty. A local place authorized to repair HP and Compaq models should be able to fix it, if that's the brand she has. She shouldn't be hearing noise from the mic at any random time in any case. The mic is supposed to be muted most of the time, and un-muted automatically only when you use a program that uses that mic. If she RIGHT clicks on the speaker icon in her task bar and chooses Open Volume Control, the mic should be muted when she is not using a program that uses it. If it doesn't show up there, she should choose Options - Properties in that window and click to insert a checkmark beside Mic so the mic volume control shows up.