diff --git a/src/claudedo/__main__.py b/src/claudedo/__main__.py
index 675f3ea..5603304 100644
--- a/src/claudedo/__main__.py
+++ b/src/claudedo/__main__.py
@@ -90,10 +90,12 @@ def cmd_test_audio(args: argparse.Namespace) -> int:
             if dev.get("max_input_channels", 0) > 0:
                 print(f"  [{idx}] {dev['name']} ({dev['max_input_channels']}ch)")
         device = audio_mod.resolve_device(config.stt_device)
-        print(f"\ncapturing {2}s from device={device if device is not None else 'default'} ...")
+        print("\npriming mic (RDPSource resumes from suspend) ...")
+        audio_mod.warm_up(config.samplerate, config.channels, device)
+        print(f"capturing 3s from device={device if device is not None else 'default'} — speak now ...")
         chunk = audio_mod.record_while(
             config.samplerate, config.channels, device,
-            held=_timed_hold(2.0), max_utterance=3.0, min_utterance=0.0,
+            held=_timed_hold(3.0), max_utterance=4.0, min_utterance=0.0,
         )
     except Exception as exc:
         print(f"\naudio capture FAILED: {exc}", file=sys.stderr)
diff --git a/src/claudedo/audio.py b/src/claudedo/audio.py
index 291ab26..7775575 100644
--- a/src/claudedo/audio.py
+++ b/src/claudedo/audio.py
@@ -58,6 +58,30 @@ def _rms(block: np.ndarray) -> float:
     return float(np.sqrt(np.mean(np.square(block, dtype=np.float64))))
 
 
+def warm_up(samplerate: int, channels: int, device: int | None,
+            timeout: float = 3.0) -> bool:
+    """open a short stream and read until the source produces audio.
+
+    WSLg's RDPSource suspends when idle and emits ~1-2s of silence while it resumes
+    on the next read. priming here means the first real capture isn't lost to that
+    warm-up gap. returns whether any non-silent block arrived before timeout (still
+    safe to proceed either way — a truly silent mic just returns False).
+    """
+    import sounddevice as sd
+
+    block_dur = 0.05
+    blocksize = int(samplerate * block_dur)
+    deadline = time.monotonic() + timeout
+    with sd.InputStream(samplerate=samplerate, channels=channels, device=device,
+                        dtype="float32", blocksize=blocksize) as stream:
+        while time.monotonic() < deadline:
+            block, _overflowed = stream.read(blocksize)
+            mono = block.reshape(-1) if channels == 1 else block.mean(axis=1)
+            if _rms(mono) > 0.0:
+                return True
+    return False
+
+
 def record_until_silence(samplerate: int, channels: int, device: int | None,
                          silence_threshold: float, silence_duration: float,
                          min_utterance: float, max_utterance: float,
diff --git a/src/claudedo/daemon.py b/src/claudedo/daemon.py
index eecccac..5b80b63 100644
--- a/src/claudedo/daemon.py
+++ b/src/claudedo/daemon.py
@@ -134,6 +134,10 @@ class Daemon:
             device=cfg.stt_compute if cfg.stt_compute in ("cpu", "cuda") else "auto",
             compute_type="auto",
         )
+        if audio.warm_up(cfg.samplerate, cfg.channels, self._device):
+            log.info("mic warmed up (source live)")
+        else:
+            log.warning("mic warm-up saw only silence — check mic permission / RDPSource")
 
     def _capture(self):
         cfg = self.config