Is Cortana Having Trouble Hearing You? Try This.

[Camden Krupala]

After getting my Surface Pro 3 all set up with build 9926, the first thing I did was enable "Hey Cortana". I immediately tried it. Nothing happened. A little bit louder. Still nothing. Frustrated I screamed at my computer and what do you know, success! This obviously won't do so if you are having a similar issue try this!

1. Right click on the speaker icon in the taskbar and select "Recording Devices".

2. Find you Microphone and select "Properties".


3. Go to the "Levels" Tab and increase the Mic Volume and Boost to where she can easily hear and understand you.


Hope this helps anybody who is having any issues!

 

[Nogitsune Micah]

Thanks. Will give this a go.

 

[Asskickulater]

hmm, she seems to completely ignore my webcam, it doesnt have a boosat option like that, and even if I yell into it she hears nothing.. odd set as default and everything

 

[ausidog]

Yes, I discovered this tweak myself. I didn't have to use the boost, but turning the default volume up to 100% definitely helped.

 

[cgavula]

I can get Cortana to pop up with "Hey Cortana" but then the mic shuts off. If I click the mic icon in the Cortana field it immediately shuts back down. It doesn't matter whether I use the SP3 built in mic or a USB headset. Same problem. Anyone else seeing this?

 

[Camden Krupala]

I think you can (and kinda have to) say what you want to do in one go. With Denim on WP you say Hey Cortana and wait for her to pop up. On Windows 10 you say it all at once. For example, "Hey Cortana (no pause), what is the weather tomorrow"? If you wait for the window to pop up it is probably too late, she starts processing as soon as you say the keyword. Hope this helps.

 

[RuneRunK]

I have the same problem! For me cortana listens one time to "hey cortana" (then i have to unclick and reclick the "Let cortana respond when you say" button for it to work again) and then immediately say "Sorry, speech failed to start. Try again later". She say the same thing when i click the mic button. I have tried diferent microphones and inputs, i have my region and laguage set to US and tried higher inpuvolume... but nothing!

 

[cgavula]

Unfortunately, it doesn't. It doesn't seem to hear anything past the "hey cortana". I tried the mic volume increase and all that and none of it helps. There is something still bugged in Cortana - at least on the SP3. Not sure what it is yet. Manually pushing the mic in the Cortana field should work either way and doesn't. The thing I find interesting in all this is that the SP3 is having as many "issues" (I've encountered numbers graphic anomalies and apps not working) as other devices. You'd expect a little better from MSs own devices, but it's simply not the case.

 

[Nicholas Lovan]

If Speech fails to start, head into Task Manager and end Search, then click on Cortana to restart the Search process.

 

[Lagarta]

I tried ending Search but still have the "Sorry, speech failed to start. Try again later" problem.
Any advice?
Thanks!

 

[cgavula]

Stopping the search in Task Manager doesn't fix my problem either. I'm not getting an error, just the sound for "listening" starts and stops again right away - it doesn't listen even though I've tested and checked the mic and even changed audio devices - something in Cortana doesn't listen past the "Hey Cortana". With "hey Cortana" on I can trigger Cortana to pop up but then the listening process shuts right down after that - it never listens to what I say and no errors. I even tried turning off the "Hey Cortana" but same results - clicking the mic and it bings to start listening and immediately bings again for the end of listening.