Microphone stopped working after Windows Update

izhafirulloh · 15 Mar 2021

Hello.

I'm currently having a trouble with my Microphone, which has been working fine before. I also noticed that after I update my Windows I see two audio drivers on drivers manager, which I assume is the cause of my microphone not working. I managed to get my microphone working yesterday, when I tried to reinstall my Realtek Driver using the driver installer, and it proceeds to uninstall the driver first before restarting, then after restart I noticed my mic is working and the driver install prompt appears and I cancelled it. But today I turned on my laptop again and my mic is not working again.

I speculated that Windows tried to install audio driver of its own while I already have Realtek driver installed, but I don't know how to fix this issue. Also is there any drawbacks of using older version of Windows? As I just updated from Windows from 1909 to 20H2 version and it's because Windows gave me a notice that they will stop supporting the old version.

dalchina · 15 Mar 2021

Hi, your laptop appears to be from 2016, so not old.

First see:
Microphone not working after Windows 10 Version 20H2 update

20H2 updates are causing certain issues, expecially the latest. There is some history of certain updates affecting microphones too. The latest MS build is not necessarily the greatest!

Turning to the driver: I suggest you download the appropriate driver for your device from Asus' site which may be something like this:
Product Support | Acer United States

(You will know or be able to find exactly the correct site)

Temporarily use this whilst setting up your driver:
Enable or Disable Driver Updates in Windows Update in Windows 10
to prevent WUpdate replacing it.

Uninstall any existing audio drivers and install that.

Stop any other driver being installed by using one of these tutorials:
Prevent Windows Update from Updating Specific Device Driver
Turn On or Off Device Driver Automatic Installation in Windows 10

Remember you can also roll back a driver
Roll Back Driver to Previous Version in Windows 10

One way or another you should now be able to install an appropriate driver and then keep it.

============================================
As to keeping older builds of Win 10 past end of service life, my personal view is
- most security problems arise because of the user's own behaviour
- a firewall and AV are basic defences
- a fallback is always to routinely use disk imaging as is so very very often recommended here- e.g. Macrium Reflect (free) + external storage for disk image files. If your PC is infected or fails in some irretrievable manner, you can restore a disk image.

Windows updates have two major functions:
a. help to plug security weaknesses in code
b. correct MS's bugs and issues

Of these (b) is the more noticeable.

izhafirulloh · 16 Mar 2021

Hi, thanks for the response.

I forgot to mention that I already have the driver from Acer site installed. As for the privacy settings it was already turned on as well. So to make things clear before the 20H2 update I only have one sound driver installed which is from the Acer site, then after the update there is suddenly this High Definition Audio Device installed. I have tried reinstalling the driver too and it doesn't seem to work.

dalchina · 16 Mar 2021

If you have a driver you don't want or need, you can uninstall it and block its reinstallation using the information above.

As above you can simply stop driver updates being included, and then scan manually should you so wish

More: if you wish to take complete control of Windows Updates, that has been described many times here - for years there have been various 3rd party tools to disable WU, allow manual scan and check box selection of updates.

E.g. that in Option 7 of tutorial to disable automatic updates.
.