microphone failed

[Eternal Visitor]

ok, it's more than that.

I discovered just now that absolutely none of my laptop's audio inputs (internal mic, mic jack) function at all, levels are totally dead on both. the internal mic worked fine earlier today..

what could have gone wrong and how do I fix it? I use voice chat, and that's a little hard to do with no mic.

 

[fireberd]

First suggestion, since it worked earlier today is to use the System Restore and restore the PC back to a date when it did work. System Restore can be accessed from Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools.

System Restore will not delete any user data or e-mails.

 

[Lemur]

Type "sound" at the Start Button. Click the Recording tab. Right click on the microphone and make sure it's enabled.

 

[Eternal Visitor]

the microphone is enabled, and I've tried an external mic, same result....odd thing though, whenever I plug in an external mic or switch to the recording tab in the sounds panel, I get a harsh beep not in the sound set I'm using.

[EDIT] ok, I'm getting that odd sound a lot more than that, as long as it involves the mic, the system dings at me

 

[Lemur]

Take a look at Device Manager and see if you have any yellow errors.
Did you do a system restore as fireberd suggested?

 

[Eternal Visitor]

no hardware errors shown in device manager, and I've tried system restore, but it keeps comming back saying that it had issues accessing files and couldn't complete.

 

[Lemur]

This could point to a larger problem. Does it say your anti-virus program stopped it? Is there a specific error phrase and/or code?

**EDIT**

Also, you could try to restore from safe mode

 

[Eternal Visitor]

it did say an anti-virus program might be stopping it, but it's a moot point, I tried system restore under safe mode, and while it did complete, it did NOT solve the problem, the microphone is still completely non-responsive.

---

ok, this is getting crazy, I've tried uninstalling the audio driver, and installing the file (same driver) from HPs website, and still nothing. I don't know what could be going wrong to make both inputs fail simultaneously...

 

[Eternal Visitor]

ok, this is still bugging me. I've tried everything I can think of, and nothing's working. any additional help would be great.