Windows 8 laptop will not recognize external microphone

I've had the same problem with a Sony Vaio running 8.1. The microphone is already enabled. Only the internal microphone was available to select from; no external mic was available to 'enable' (and yes, show disabled devices and show disconnected devices were selected). The external mic was connected to the 1/8" microphone jack and turned on. There was absolutely no sound heard by either the monitor for the system or my recording software. The device managers insist everything is functioning properly.

From what I've been reading, this is not a new problem nor is it one that's limited to one brand. This is not the first problem I've been having with Windows 8 and it's certainly not the first problem with the OS that's clearly being ignored by Microsoft. I've said it before, and I will say it again: this is the last Microsoft hardware item I will EVER purchase. You all clearly don't care about customer satisfaction or end user problems. Especially given the fact so-called support engineers keep spouting the same canned responses as if they'll magically start working if they say it enough times.

I had a similar problem (Asus Notebook, Win7) with an external mic not being recognized. After much searching around, I found that under Control Panel > Hardware and Sound there is a Realtek HD Audio Manager. I went to that and found a link to Device advanced settings. In the dialog that pops I selected "Separate all input jacks ... " and found that that did the trick -- external mic is now seen by the system.

I don't understand all this bother, but there it is.

Hi

I know you ”solved” your problem :)

I recently purchased an MSI GS70 2PE (Stealth Pro) and had the same problem, even with the external microphone in the jack the PC kept using the internal microphone (the horror). MSI also uses Realtek HD Audio, and I had no luck with that software, is does not really have any advanced features. So here is how I eventually solved the problem:

Short version:

Install the latest Realtek HD drivers from MSI homepage, BUT NOT from the (Realtek HD Audio) Setup.exe, use Device manager and point to the folder where you have downloaded the newest drivers instead. In this way the drivers are installed but not the software, for whatever reason, this works.

Long version:

• Go to Device Manager
• Find and Uninstall Realtek HD Audio (also delete the drivers)
• Restart your PC (which only takes like 10 seconds with 2 SSDs in RAID :D )
• Now you should have no sound and a little red X over the speaker
• Go back to Device manager and find the Realtek Audio -> DoubleClick
• Click update drivers and navigate to the folder where you have downloaded and extracted the latest drivers from the MSI homepage.

This did the trick for me, now the PC uses the external mic when connected and the internal, when no mic is connected.

Hope this solves this very annoying problem for others as well.

-J

Hi,

Here are a few more methods which you can follow:

Method 1:

Set microphone as default device and check.

a) Right click on the volume icon in the system tray and then click "Recording devices"

b) Right click on the blank space in the popped up window and then select "Show Disabled Devices" and "Show Disconnected Devices".

c) Right click on Microphone and then click "Enable".

d) Highlight the microphone and then choose "Set as Default Device".

e) Click Apply and OK.

Method 2:

Uninstall and reinstall the drivers and check:

a. Press Windows key + X, select Device Manager

b. Locate your audio device, right click and selectproperties

c. Under driver tab, click on uninstall driver and restart the computer to check if it works with the default Windows drivers.

Thanks.

Hope this brings it to the active discussion. I have very similar situation, two laptops running windows 8 Asus AO756-2626 and HP dm4-3099se. Internal mic works on both. I have two computer mics and one professional type that needs an adapter for the jack. When I insert either mics, nothing happens on either laptops.  The external mic in the sound settings is greyed out and says currently unavailable.