My pal's computer doesn't like his voice.

[Loose rivets]

I Skyped him this morning and could hear his washing machine and other ambient noise...until he spoke. Always, the first syllable was heard, and then a total sound cut. A second or so, then the same all over again.

I told him to try to speak softly, just encase there was some sort of AVC clipping the audio.

He's tried a different mike and says that he's adjusted the volume on the sound menu, but I haven't seen it yet. Any ideas?

[bnt]

If he looks in the Recording settings, he may find some kind of Boost or ADC checkbox that's set. The Volume Control normally shows Playback settings, so he needs to select Recording settings from the menu before he'll see those settings. Or there may be another dialog specific to the sound card in that computer, visible through Control Panel.