My microphone stopped working several years ago, and I have not been able to get any input from it since. I replaced the original motherboard with a Gigabyte B450M K, performed a clean Windows 11 installation, reinstalled and updated the audio drivers, checked microphone privacy permissions, and reset the Windows Audio services. I have also tested several 3.5mm microphones and Bluetooth headphones with microphones through a USB dongle. Each microphone works normally on other devices, and Bluetooth audio playback works on this PC, but none of the microphones record anything. Windows, games, and other applications detect the devices, yet the input level never moves. What else could be causing this?
2 Answers
Can you confirm whether the microphones fail everywhere, or only in a particular game or application? If Windows and every app detect them but none record audio, that helps narrow it down to a system-level input problem rather than an app setting.
Check the classic Sound control panel and open the microphone's Properties. Confirm that it is the default recording device, then review the Levels, Enhancements, Advanced, and Listen tabs. If Windows shows the green check mark but changing those settings has no effect, the issue is probably not simple device selection or permissions.
The microphone does have the green check mark, and I already tried changing those properties, but nothing made the input level move.
They fail in Windows, games, and other applications. The devices are detected, but they never capture any sound.