Preparing for a web seminar using the zoom client (the SBo zoom-linux package works great!) I noticed that the internal mic on my Lenovo laptop is useless, not picking up my voice but creating a lot of white noise when raising capture level.
Thankfully I found an old headset, which works, but any suggestions as to how to get the internal mic to work properly is appreciated. Googling shows that this is a common issue, but the solutions suggested out there haven't helped or have become obsolete or don't apply to a slackware system.
Thanks in advance.

Have you tried specifying 'model=ideapad' to the snd-hda-intel kernel module? https://docs.slackware.com/howtos:ha..._snd-hda-intel

Thanks,
tried a number of snd-hda-intel.conf alternatives: model=ideapad, model=auto, model=1, even model=asus (solved the issue for some Lenovo users), but no difference.

I know from experience that some hardware issues are more or less impossible to solve due to the plethora of sound cards and drivers out there, and for a web meeting a headset (which works for me) is after all a much better option than relying on internal speaker/microphone.

But part of the (time-consuming) charm with Linux is struggling with things that ought to work because they're intended to work.

My complete alsa-info can be found here, should anyone find the time to dig further:
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=11...41ee193819036a

@kgha
Have a look here:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ml#post5939644

It's about the output and not the source, like in your case, but you could try commenting load-module module-suspend-on-idle in /etc/pulse/default.pa
At the end of the post you get some links about some specific snd-hda-intel options, based on laptop type and also how to play with probe_mask
This could also be useful:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...hone_recording

Another possibility is that your hardware has the inverted microphone issue. e.g. https://askubuntu.com/questions/1085...0-ubuntu-18-04

Thanks for input/suggestions. The archlinux pulse wiki looks particularly interesting - tried out a few suggestions for eliminating static noise, but no success (yet). The wiki also mentions the inverted microphone issue, but muting one of the channels doesn't make any difference.
Will look further into it later on. For now I'm happy with the fact that I at least can use my headset. And of course, with a laptop almost six years old, one has to accept that hardware issues might be impossible to solve.
Maybe ditching pulse and going for pure alsa would make a difference, but then I'll lose bluetooth audio, so not really an interesting option for me.