Windows 10: Rats, I can't hear you. It might be a mic problem. (says Cortana)

Hello all,

I am new here and not a techie so please bear with me on this.

I have a Windows 10 laptop purchased early last year and a Windows 10 Tablet/PC purchased early this. Never activated/used Cortana on the laptop as there was no real need to, however it does come in quite handy/useful on the tablet.

Recurring problems with Cortana have been frustrating to say the very least. Since day 1 on the Tablet/PC, Cortana has worked very inconsistantly using the "Hey Cortana" voice command, though basically consistant when tapping the mic icon on the previous version (the version that was installed at the factory) of Windows 10.

Back during the previous version of Windows 10, after installing some updates, Cortana suddenly no longer could hear me. Even worse, upon investigation, I noticed that in the Recordings tab in the Sounds settings that there was no input devices found (no mic(s), as if the built-in one had vanished.

After searching the Net for articles, and posts in various forums, in hope of resolving (fixing) the problem, and after trying several suggested quick fixes, including troubleshooters and repair, the ONLY one that did the trick was to open Windows PowerShell (Admin) and paste the following text in the window that had opened:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers Microsoft.Windows.Cortana | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Even though this had worked, on occasion, when I would power up my Tablet/PC and try to use Cortana, I would get that dreaded Rats, I can't hear you.......

By chance, I had figured out that now when this happened I simply needed to restart the Tablet/PC to get Cortana to work properly. The other day, on the Update screen, it said that the version of Windows 10 that I was using was an older one and support for that version would be ending soon, so I reluctantly took the current update version 1903/OS build 18362.267, and once again, I was back to hearing the dreaded "Rats, I can't hear you message when tapping the [now changed to a] circle icon. Obviously the voice command "Hey Cortana" would not work as well.

I figured that this was just a brief setback, as I would only have to open the PowerShell window again and paste the text which would make Cortana operational/functional again.BUT instead, I got this error message in red:

Add-AppxPackage : Deployment failed with HRESULT: 0x80073D02, The package could not be installed because resources it modifies are currently in use. error 0x80073D02: Unable to install because the following apps need to be closed Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_1.12.3.18362_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy.
NOTE: For additional information, look for [ActivityId] d72cbe64-4443-0000-cbce-2cd74344d501 in the Event Log or use
the command line Get-AppPackageLog -ActivityID d72cbe64-4443-0000-cbce-2cd74344d501
At line:1 char:64
+ ... | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.I ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (C:\Windows\Syst...ppXManifest.xml:String) [Add-AppxPackage], Exception
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : DeploymentError,Microsoft.Windows.Appx.PackageManager.Commands.AddAppxPackageCommand


NOTE: Currently, on the Start screen, Cortana is not among the listed apps. I am perplexed on this whole matter so any help that can shed some light on it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

:)

 

problem with cortana and mic

Hai

In my pc(Lenovo g50-80) the connection with my inbuilt mic Conexant smartAudio Hd and Cortana doesn't seems to well. Cortana says my mic is not compatible but after a few days I opened the I started to hear disturbing noise when I muted my speaker
it stopped but after I unmuted it the mic started to make this sound. I tried disabling mic but the problem remained after enabling it after sometime I realized that Cortana was responsible for this so I disabled it. After that my mic went crazy it started
to repeat for every sound and started to create low frequency sounds. How to fix it and make Cortana work with the mic

 

Cortana can't hear me

Hi Isidora,



Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

I regret the inconvenience caused to you. Let me help you.

• 
  Do you see any error code or error message on the screen?
  

I suggest you to go through the below methods and check if it helps.

Step 1:

I suggest you enable settings in the Playback Devices and check if it helps.

Follow the below steps:

• Right click on the speaker icon on your taskbar.
• Select Playback Devices.
• Click on the Playback Devices and right click on the
  Speakers/Headphones.
• Check mark on the Show Disabled Devices and
  Show Disconnected Devices.

If the issue persists the follow the below step.

Step 2:

I suggest you to refer to the following Microsoft article on Cortana can't hear me and check if it helps.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/Windows-10/cortana-cant-hear-me

Reference: Refer to the following Microsoft article on
Cortana & search.

Check if it helps.



I hope the issue will be resolved. If not, please feel free to contact us again. We will be happy to assist you accordingly.



Thank you.

 

Must Click Mic Icon or Type Win + C for Cortana to Hear Me. Why?

I'm running the latest version of Windows 10 Pro with its latest updates on a desktop computer. Why can't Cortana hear me when I say, "Hey Cortana?"

Cortana hears me well when I click on the mic icon in the Search field or type Win + C. I've tried different mics, did the Cortana setup procedure, and ran the mic setup procedure, but she still can't hear me when I say, "Hey Cortana!"