strange behaviour of UMIK-1 (USB-C bought in Feb. 2021)

[respice finem]

Strange defect of the mic. I did two measurements with it today, one in my "setup 1" room after shifting the speakers a bit, no problems, all good. Then, with the same laptop and mic, a second measurement in the "setup 2" room - very high gain and a "hunch" frequency response. After extensive troubleshooting, the mic remained as the culprit, which could finally be confirmed with measuring using another mic (Blue Yeti). Not nice, but happens. After 4,5 years I need not ask for warranty service, but - does anyone know, if the UMIK-1 (USB-C version) has some "reset" procedure? Maybe it is just "hung" firmware? I didn't drop it or so...

 

[respice finem]

Now that's interesting... After mailing with SoundImports and testing with another computer, the mic seems OK (or it is an on/off fault).
Windows Update? The "suspect" is Windows 11 Home, the "good" one Pro. I'll update and re-test as soon as the "SSD kill" issue is patched, and report back.

BTW, reset or firmware reflash by user is not possible.

 

[AnalogSteph]

I'd suspect a bad solder joint somewhere in the preamp circuitry more than anything else. Intermittent faults like this can be extremely hard to track down.

BTW, the "SSD killing" issue actually seems to be one with buggy (and preproduction) firmware on PCIe 5.0 drives using the Phison E26 controller. So even if you happen to have one of those, the part to worry about would be a firmware update.

 

[respice finem]

Phison denied, MS has been investigating in Japan, where the most cases occurred, and there is allegedly a patch. But who knows what they all will say 3 days later, and I am not eager to brick my dualboot laptop with two SSDs. I'm in no hurry, it's a hobby for me, not work, so I'll update windows when it's reasonably safe.

Edit: Now it's allegedly old beta SSD firmware, who knows what will be alleged tomorrow

 

[respice finem]

So, after not hearing any further "horrors" about the "SSD kill" bug, and doing the update, the problem seems solved (if it's not an on/off fault).
After the latest Windows 11 updates and with the latest Java, the mic works normally with my laptop.