I disabled my default microphone, how do I enable it again.

Anonymous
2010-05-09T13:44:01+00:00

Hi,

I recently got a laptop with windows 7. I bought a Microsoft web-cam and when I was playing with Audacity, I realized that the mic in the web-cam was better than the built-in mic my laptop had. So I went to control panel/sound and I disabled the built-in microphone and left only the web-cam microphone enabled. When I went back to Audacity it showed a message that said "Error while opening sound device. Please check the input device settings and the project sample rate". Did i do something wrong? How do I make my built-in mic go back to normal?

Thank you,

Laura

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Music, photos, and video

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Anonymous
2010-05-10T12:51:43+00:00

Hi Laura,

As you have disabled the built-in Microphone, first lets try to set the Microphone as a Default Device and enable the same.

Perform the task mentioned below to set Microphone as default device and then enable it.

  1. Go to Start and click on control Panel.
  2. Click in Sound, then a new window will open up.
  3. In the new windows click on the tab "Recording” and right click in the window and click on Show Disabled devices.
  4. Now check if the microphone is listed there and highlight the microphone and click on "Set as Default" device.
  5. Now right click on it and choose enable.

Doing this will enable the built-in Microphone.

Check if the issue persists  now.

Refer this link for additional information:

Tips for fixing common sound problems

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Tips-for-fixing-common-sound-problems

Regards,

Divya R – Microsoft Support.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-10-18T06:04:33+00:00

    Hello, I have the same problem I got the disappeared devices back but when I try to set ' Microphone ' as default device .. it doesn't work ..because it's inactive, help me please.

    God is my refuge and strength!

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-02-18T21:05:53+00:00

    Windows 8.1 does not have the "show disabled devices" there, so where do I go?

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-11-13T01:58:45+00:00

    ARE YOU **** SERIOUS???  Why don't they SHOW the "disabled" items?

    Thanks for all the trouble.

    Really, I do appreciate it. 

    But spent most of the night looking for this answer and now set back on my project...oh well...I won't exhale.

    Cheers!

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-08-08T00:36:51+00:00

    Thank you very much Divya_R. I am running the premier issue of Windows 10 Pro and your instructions worked exactly as you believe they should. This caused several problems such as with Cortana, Speech Recognition, Skype, recordings, etc.

    Thank you!

    Sincerely,

    BearlyAlive

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