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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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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
    2011-12-04T02:51:57+00:00

    Right click in the blank area?  This is the answer to my problem, but how obtuse!

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-04-17T23:04:31+00:00

    I disabled so I can't even see it anymore, I have the same problem as this person ^ Please please help..

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-04-11T01:20:56+00:00

    I am in the same situation, as I was having playback issues with the built-in mic. However as soon as I disabled the built in mic, the computer will not register any other microphone. There are no devices listed in the 'Recording' tab, and there seems to be nothing I can do to re-enable the mic.

    Help, please?

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-11-08T04:42:08+00:00

    I had the same problem.  Thanks for the info on how to recover the mic.  But why cause users so much grief in the first place?  If something is disabled, just show it grayed out, not make it disappear altogether.

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