Internal Microphone Suddenly Not Working After Windows Update

[WoolInMyMic]

Hello,

I own a laptop (Presario CQ56) and have been using Skype constantly for about a year with its internal microphone without an issue. After obtaining an automatic Windows 7 update a couple of days ago, my internal microphone stopped working. The microphone is still detected, enabled, but isn't picking up any input whatsoever. However, there is low static, but it's very constant, and isn't changed by input whatsoever. Here are the things I've tried:

-Restarting
-System Restore to before the update, then disabling automatic updates so I no longer have it
-Running the computer's find and fix audio recording software which claimed that there was no issue
-Uninstalling and reinstalling drivers without restart (with driver updates automatically through the computer's find and fix audio recording problems)
-Uninstalling and reinstalling drivers with restart (with driver updates automatically through the computer's find and fix audio recording problems)
-Uninstalling and reinstalling drivers with restart (through the official site's driver updates)

I do not own an external microphone, and I am hoping that I don't have to get one. That being said, that also means that I can't be entirely sure whether it's software or hardware based.

I hope that one of you can help me. I've done a lot of internet scouring and Google-ing and have run out of things to try; I've been at it for about 5 hours so far.

Thank you in advance.

 

[matts6887]

I would do a system restore to before it did the updates and see if it resolves the issue. Click start, programs, accessories, system tools, then system restore. Choose the date before the problem started happening and let it restore. See if the mic works after that. If it asks to do updates again and by chance you know what one caused the problem; then just dont download it. And to solve that from happening i would change the windows update settings to only download but let me choose when to install. EDIT: nevermind the system restore I just saw you already did that. In the end though i would just completely uninstall the device itself; remove it from device manager completely; and let windows hopefully re-detect it correctly.

 

[WoolInMyMic]

It's alright; at least you caught that I already did the system restore . Anyway, I tried that what you said and restarted. After the restart, it re-detected the microphone and it still has the same problem :/.

I'm thinking at this point it's either:
A) The update itself wasn't the problem, but it might have changed some random setting/thing that I'm still not finding to cause this (Just from the lack of input detection at all is making me lean towards this).

B) Something hit my laptop really really hard when I was sleeping, or the internals just randomly exploded and I don't have enough knowledge to check it. (This feels unlikely just because the timing of the update and the mess up, and from the fact that literally nothing else has been affected, and just because of what I said earlier about the lack of detection at all.)

If all else fails, I should be able to get an external mic by the end of April to continue to keep in contact with my friends on Skype; I just wanted to see if I could work something else before then.

Thank you for your time in trying, though; it means a lot to me .

 

[matts6887]

Well; one other thing i can think of at the moment that you can do is to open up the chassis for your laptop and make sure there are not any cables that are disconnected or anything else that looks out of place. You should be able to "pop" the chassis open carefully somehow. Unfortunately; the only other possibility i can think of right now is that the mic itself runs off of a chip on the system board and since you said you sorta knocked your laptop; it might have done something to the chip that it runs off of. I doubt that is case; but it always is a remote possibility; which if it is the case; then the only way to fix that is get a new board put in. The only other thing i can think of as well is that depending on the age of the system; its possible the mic finally just gave out for whatever reason due to age etc.

 

[WoolInMyMic]

Sorry I didn't respond quickly, I was busy the past couple of days.

Well, thanks for your time . Ill try a few more things, but here's hoping it's just a hardware problem and not a software issue so I can use an external later. I might try looking under the hood, but Im not familiar with that kind of thing, so I'm a bit afraid. But, again, it was really nice of you to try and help .