Windows 10: Microphone not working properly, distorted audio and weird glitches

So i'm trying to join a call and my mic isnt picking up anything i say. I go check how it sounds and it just sounds like static and glitch. I go into VoiceMod so i can hear myself and it just turns into an aggressively loud glitchy noise. After some digging i went to my control panel and checked events and apparently my mic "didn't start". Not sure what that means but i dont know what the problem is. It had been working yesterday so i'm worried it might have been physically broken while i wasnt at home.. can anyone please help? Thank you as for software, im on Windows 11 Pro, not activated

:)

 

Microphone not working properly after upgrade to 1803

After upgrade to 1803 my microphone is not working properly. I googeld and found many times this answer:

1. Hit Windows key and search for "microphone privacy settings"
2. Hit "Allow access to the microphone on this device"
3. Switch "Allow apps to access your microphone" to ON

Among the apps that are showing is Edge. There the mike is working, but on chrome and my games microphone is not working

 

Microphone treated as line-in is heavily distorted

I want to mix the audio output of a console with the audio on Windows so that I can play games and watch videos/talk via VOIP programs while also hearing the game audio. To do this, I have bought a HDMI-repeater that extracts audio to RCA and an additional soundcard. The RCA output is converted to a regular 3.5mm audio jack that's plugged into the soundcard's microphone input. In Windows, I've set it to listen to this device.

This setup works, but the audio from the device is heavily distorted, even with microphone boost disabled. Feeding the RCA into a pair of headphones directly yields the expected audio, so there is no problem with the repeater.

Does Windows treat microphone input in some specific way that result in these distortions, and can they be disabled? The audio card I use is an ASUS Xonar DGX, and aside from changing the input volume (distorted on all volume levels) and toggling microphone boost, I can't seem to improve the audio.

Cheers.

 

Microphone not working properly after upgrade to 1803

This is what I see when I open the microphone page.





And this is what I see when I scroll to the bottom.





Ben