# Can't detect Microphone, no sound card?



## Lillydoll (Jul 29, 2012)

So a bit of back story. My laptop had some kind of weird issue a couple months ago, that after massive hunting and trying to pinpoint the problem was never really resolved but became usable...(as in, it works now, but every time it goes into sleep or hibernate mode it requires a forced hard shut down to get it to turn on again) Since it started working and we never really found the cause to begin with, (no viruses, malware, etc, was instructed to use some pretty complicated/scary? software at certain times, etc) I just left it alone. I didn't know what else to do. 

Cut to now.....Apparently during all of this my sound card stopped working, can't be detected, I don't know. It's not even the sound card completely. Sorry that I'm terrible at explaining. My sound -works- however, it cannot detect a microphone. Every time I plug in a microphone via a headset it says it cannot detect my sound card. If I plug a usb headset in, it won't detect it at all, if I plug in a (uhh.....the two plug thing...one mic plug one headset plug....) Only the headset portion will work, but the mic portion will not. It continues to say it cannot detect a sound card. 

My computer is Dell Inspiron 1545 with Win 7 home 64bit. Service pack 1. 

I checked my device manager before posting here and didn't see any issues. 









I also went into the bios to take a look and it didn't even have a sound card listed...

So now I need to figure out what's wrong, and how to fix it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you


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## Dell_Tapan_s (Jul 21, 2012)

Hi Lillydoll ,

The soundcard and the audio drivers of your system are fine as the audio is played through sound card and that is working fine on your system. You would need to configure Microphone and you can configure it by using the following steps. Please right click on the speaker icon in right hand side bottom corner and click on recording devices, please highlight your microphone and click on configure in the left hand side bottom corner of the window and a new page would pop up and click on set up microphone and choose headset and click on next and finish. You can check this you tube video for the same.


How to Configure Your Microphone in Windows 7 - YouTube


Let me know of the findings. Glad to be of assistance.

Thanks & Regards


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## Lillydoll (Jul 29, 2012)

This unfortunately doesn't work, I forgot to mention when I go to the sound/recording box it locks up and does something similar to the whole "not responding" thing. It doesn't actually say it's not responding, but nothing is clickable, sometimes it goes blank, etc and requires a "ctrl alt del" sequence to bring up the task manager to get rid of it.


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## JimE (Apr 16, 2009)

The audio chipset not being listed in Device Manager is typically a sign of a hardware failure. If the audio chipset was working, it would be detected by Windows (regardless of drivers or software) and shown in Device Manager. As it's not listed at all, that means Windows doesn't see the hardware...which means the hardware isn't working or isn't working properly.


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## Lillydoll (Jul 29, 2012)

Dogg said:


> The audio chipset not being listed in Device Manager is typically a sign of a hardware failure. If the audio chipset was working, it would be detected by Windows (regardless of drivers or software) and shown in Device Manager. As it's not listed at all, that means Windows doesn't see the hardware...which means the hardware isn't working or isn't working properly.


So there is a separate chipset for sound and one for microphones? Because my sound works fine. The Microphone (and a usb headset) are the only things that don't work. I mean something is obviously wrong, and a hardware failure would make sense (not sure how to fix this on a laptop) I just want to make sure that's actually what's wrong since you keep talking about the audio chipset not being found, but I have sound, regular headphones (that plug into the headphone jack) work, it's specifically mic related.


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## JimE (Apr 16, 2009)

A few things to note (and it will likely turn out that we don't have enough information).

An audio chipset typically supports audio output and input (line and/or mic). When the software is configured properly and the hardware is connected to said chipset.

After reviewing the screenshot, I'd say the "IDT High Definition Audio CODEC" is the audio chispet in this case. My appologies for the false alarm, but chipsets typically aren't labeled as "codecs". So the mic should work IF the IDT chipset is selected in the audio configuration as the default input chipset.

Having said that, you also mention a USB headset. USB audio devices typically install themselves as a separate "audio chipset". And as they are typically installed after the onboard chipset, they set themselves as the default audio output chipset and often input chipset as well.

So verify the audio configuration. Ensure the correct audio chipset is selected as the default audio output chipset, and on the input side for the mic.


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## Dell_Tapan_s (Jul 21, 2012)

Hi ,

Thank you for your reply. Well in case its freezing while you are opening the recording devices it again would be a software issue and I would suggest you to please remove current version of drivers and reinstall fresh version of drivers. You can remove drivers from going to Start => Control panel => Programs and Features and please locate Audio drivers generally named IDT Audio and please right click on them and click on it and click on uninstall. Follow onscreen instructions to remove it. You can download the drivers from the following page

Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]

In case the issue persists please back up your data (pictures, software, documents, emails and all other info which you have installed since you have received the system) and restore the system to day 1 factory settings. 


Let me know in case there are any other concerns. Glad to be of assistance.

Thanks & Regards


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