Why Microphone not working?

Report · Sep 26, 2021

Hello,

My laptop's microphone stopped working. I have gone through a lot of trouble shooting without success. Before I conclude that this is a hardware problem, may I ask if there is anything else I should be doing.

my system:
ASUS S500CA Laptop
Windows 10 Home X64 Version 1909
VIA HD Audio - (for speaker and microphone)

what actually happened:
The microphone (on skype) was working perfectly.
next day it didn't work on skype call

Here's a short summary of what I've done:
The only thing that changed between these two Skype calls was some Windows updates.
I Tried Deleting All Recent Windows Updates - Didn't Fix It
An update (4577670) could not be uninstalled, so I reinstalled the system at an earlier date than the successful SKYPE - did not work
I ran Win Trouble Shooter - it didn't report any problems
I tried updating the sound/microphone driver - reported that was the best driver I had
Driver Version Checked (Provider - Microsoft, Date - 2019-03-18, Version, 10.0.18362.1)
Checked driver details (report - No driver files are required or loaded for this device)
Updated to latest Win 10 version (20H2) - didn't help
Speakers are working properly.
I tried all of the above with internal microphone as well as external microphone (I tested all microphone options in setup - headset, external other)

Is there anything else I should try before giving up?

Thanks

Report · Sep 26, 2021

This is quite a common issue, especially after updating Windows 10.

You could try some of the suggestions here:

https://www.drivereasy.com/knowledge/fix-windows-10-upgrade-issue-internal-microphone-not-working/

You do NOT need to install the DriverEasy software, though.

Another suggestion by Microsoft here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/fix-microphone-problems-5f230348-106d-bfa4-1db5-336f3557...

Report · Sep 27, 2021

Sorry my summary quite brief. In the interest of brevity, I didn't include everything I checked.

I checked the settings you mentioned and they were all correct.

As I was investigating further last night, the mic started working and I hadn't changed anything other than moving the laptop to another location. After that, it stopped working again.

I found that when I tapped the laptop case, the mic picked up the tapping but I didn't hear the sound when the laptop stopped. Further manipulation seems to suggest that there is something loose in the mic circuit. So, I'm pretty sure I have a hardware problem.

We tried to change the circuit and this circuit may have found the connection the mic was working properly so I needed to test the mic. For this we did online mic test through which mic is working simple. It took us a long time to understand this. But now the sound reaches the mic.

Report · Oct 27, 2021

Great response. Maybe you can help me. I have Adobe Audition Verson 1 on my PC. Operating system is Windows 10. It wont recognise my microphone on Audacity either. You seem well versed. If you can help, perhaps you can drop me a line. Many thanks

Steve

Report · Oct 27, 2021

If you've got System Restore enabled on your PC (which I believe is enabled by default), you can restore your PC's applications, their configuration, and the Windows registry to a date when everything was working as expected. See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/recovery-options-in-windows-31ce2444-7de3-818c-d626-e3b5... and expand the "Restore from a system restore point" accordion. The only downside to this is that it may not permanently fix the issue if your PC installs the update that caused the problem again.