Accidently removed microphone

SilverTear · 29 Jun 2015

I accidently removed my microphone (driver?). I went to my audio settings then clicked on the record tab (I am not sure if it is actually called that way since I don't have an English version of Windows). I right clicked on the only device that was in that list. Then went to driver settings and clicked on the remove button, which was on the bottom of the list.

I was testing some microphone settings and thought it would be easy to recover but it is not. Now my microphone doesn't work at all. When I remove audio drivers, Windows simply reinstalls them automatically, but still no recording options. All audio works just fine, except for the recording part.

While I was searching for answers it seemed like it should just work when you have your audio drivers correctly installed and that there is no such thing as a microphone driver (except for USB ones), but then, what did I remove?

I have a Dell XPS 420 with Windows 7 on it. I tried downloading the original drivers, but they won't install, since they are for Vista, which was originally installed on this PC.

fireberd · 29 Jun 2015

Go to the Sound Panel, Recording Section. RIGHT click in a blank space in that panel and the Click to Show "Disabled" and "Disconnected" Devices. Possibly that will get the Microphone back.

SilverTear · 29 Jun 2015

fireberd said:

Go to the Sound Panel, Recording Section. RIGHT click in a blank space in that panel and the Click to Show "Disabled" and "Disconnected" Devices. Possibly that will get the Microphone back.

That didn't work unfortunately.

GokAy · 29 Jun 2015

Check your Device Manager in case you spot something.
Try restarting PC.
Try re-installing audio drivers/software.

SilverTear · 29 Jun 2015

GokAy said:

Check your Device Manager in case you spot something.
Try restarting PC.
Try re-installing audio drivers/software.

When in device manager, the audio drivers seem to be working just fine, the recorder should be part of that right? I'll just post the installed drivers, if it might help:
1: amd high definition audio device
2: high definition audio device

I restarted several times. I tried removing these drivers several times, and after a short while, Windows will just automatically install them back, but the recording is not restored.

GokAy · 29 Jun 2015

You got a System Restore point? System Restore

Also would you be able to show what you did? Do you remember?

SilverTear · 29 Jun 2015

GokAy said:

You got a System Restore point? System Restore

Also would you be able to show what you did? Do you remember?

Oh, that's a good idea. I'm going to look into that right now.

Yes, I also explained it already in the opening post but I'll repeat it so maybe it becomes more clear. However, I'm not using an English version of Windows so I have to translate everything so I hope I get the translations right. So at the bottom right corner of the taskbar I right clicked on the audio icon and clicked on recording devices (I'm not sure it is called this way in the english language version). This opened the audio settings window with the recording tab opened. There was one device listed so I right clicked on it and clicked on properties. Then in the next window, I clicked on the properties button where it says "information about driver" (again, not sure if I translated this correctly). then in the next window that pops up I clicked on the "driver" tab, and clicked on the button on the bottom, which says remove. And that's what happened.

Edit: Okay, the system restore did the trick. I am still not completely sure what was going on. but it appears that once I removed that driver (or it's called codec here), Windows started auto installing a new driver that was different from the previous one, which did work fine with audio playback, but had no recording options I don't know if this can happen?

GokAy · 29 Jun 2015

No idea :) Glad it worked though!

I just had an odd issue with audio myself. Both WinAmp and WMP would stop responding when I attempt to start playing a MP3/flac. Had to restore my daily image. All good for the moment!

I will try to follow your steps in a Virtual Machine tomorrow, if I can remember and have time.

SilverTear · 29 Jun 2015

GokAy said:

No idea :) Glad it worked though!

I just had an odd issue with audio myself. Both WinAmp and WMP would stop responding when I attempt to start playing a MP3/flac. Had to restore my daily image. All good for the moment!

I will try to follow your steps in a Virtual Machine tomorrow, if I can remember and have time.

Yes, thanks for the help! I never had to use system restore before so I kinda forgot about it.
I would spare you the trouble of recreating it though. It is probably related to my specific hardware/drivers. This system is from 2008 as well so it is also pretty old.