Windows 10: Laptop won't detect speaker and mic

I run W10 on a Dell Inspiron laptop. Today, my laptop stopped recognizing my speaker and mic. I had just installed update KB5016616, and now my laptop won't detect my speaker and mic. I uninstalled what I think to be the device inquest and rebooted; the driver came back, but the devices still aren't detected. FWIW, my headphones work, but not my speaker. I've also run dism to fix any problems with system files, but that didn't help. The devices aren't listed in "Settings," and elsewhere my AMD audio is not connected. How do I fix this?

:)

 

Laptop won't detect built-in mic on headsets/earbuds

I'm running Windows 10 home on a Lenovo Ideapad laptop, and it doesn't detect the mic on any of my headsets/earbuds. I can hear playback fine on my headsets/earbuds, but it can't speak through them, since it insists on using the laptop's internal mic. This results in my typing/mouse clicks all being captured on audio.

• In sound properties recording tab, I just see "microphone (Realtek high def audio)" and "stereo mix (Realtek high def audio)"
  
• In sound properties playback tab, I just see "speakers (Realtek high def audio)", yet I hear audio fine on my headsets/earbuds?
  
• In device manager, it doesn't detect a headset either, displays the same list as the recording tab

So do all 3 of my headsets/earbuds have some kind of "plug and play but stays invisible to the OS" feature? One of them is the default Apple earbuds, I'm 100% sure there's a mic on there and these are brand new, so they aren't broken. Are these not supposed to appear as a "headset" device with the headset icon in sound properties?

 

Laptop won't detect built-in mic on headsets/earbuds

Hi,

You may mute Mic: right-click on taskbar speaker/Sounds/Recording tab-->Mic properties/Levels-->mute.

Your laptop should have two mini-jacks, usually in front. One for mic (line-input) and the other for earphones (line-output) or external speakers.
You have to use a splitter cable which splits your 1 mini-jack headset cable into 2 mini-jack cables.
One for mic and the other for earphones:

 

Mic not detected with combo headphone mic jack on laptop.

There are LOTS of these threads that are locked with no answer. It's very frustrating that there ins't a way to toggle windows to use the combo speaker or headset mic combo jack as a mic only when it's not detected automatically and only a mic is plugged
in!

Windows developers need to recognize that laptop manufactures are now and have been for YEARS only putting in a single audio jack and give us the ability to choose how windows uses the jack.

3 options need to be easily accessible from the system tray sound icon.

1. Combo Speakers/Mic. (default)

2. Mic only.

I'm only trying to hook up an external mic to the audio jack. I'll probably end up buying a USB mic adapter.