Microphone Problem on Samsung S3

My daughter's S3 phone is having a microphone problem. I can not hear her when we have a phone conversation. She needs to shout at her phone in order to hear what she is saying. But still, her voice is still very faint to understand.

What went wrong?

1. Microphone is faulty 

Obviously, this might be the case. But there are other conditions that can "mute" a working microphone. So before deciding to send the unit to Samsung for repair, do the following to diagnose if it is faulty.  

How to diagnose?

• Use voice recorder(under samsung folder)

Enable voice recorder and try recording your voice. If this works, then the microphone is working well, otherwise, it is not working.

• S voice (under samsung folder or double click the home button)(1) or  browser's voice search(2)(tap any browser and clear the address bar area to show microphone icon)

Enable S voice or any browser and say a word to search. If both of them can "hear" you, a respond will be shown on the screen. This means the microphone is working.

The fix.

If the microphone fails with the two tests, then the microphone may need replacing, send your unit for repairs. For the meantime, you can use a wired handsfree kit to make calls or a wireless bluetooth headset.

2. Software fault?

If you have other applications installed that can make calls, like viber, localphone, skype and etc., then most probably one of these apps is on and might be using the microphone that in effect is not available to use using the phone's dialer. 

How to diagnose?

• Sign in to skype on the S3 with mic problem and ask anyone from your contact to sign in as well or if you have two skype accounts then you can sign in to one of your account to a different device.

If they can hear you from the other end then this means the the microphone is working. And there might be a software that is causing the problem.

The fix.

Disable all communication apps that use the mic. Then try to call using the mobile network. If this does not work then resetting the phone to factory setting is the last resort.

**This is what happened with my daughter's phone. Although I can not pinpoint which application is the culprit, after forcing these apps to stop, I was able to hear and understand what she is saying over the phone.