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Audio distortion issue in my laptop after I treid to fix the microphone

dania tariq 0 Reputation points
2026-03-05T09:44:14.8533333+00:00

I changed some microphone settings on my laptop but now the audio is very disorted how do I fix this

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Devices and drivers
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  1. Lucus-V 6,335 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-03-18T20:37:57.17+00:00

    Hi dania tariq,
    Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum. I'm happy to help.

    Audio distortion can be caused by many reasons, common one is frequency.

    Please change it by following steps:

    1. Right‑click the speaker icon in the system tray
    2. Select Sounds
    3. Go to the Playback tab
    4. Select your audio device (Speakers / Headphones)
    5. Click Properties
    6. Open the Advanced tab
    7. Under Default Format, choose the desired frequency. You may try selecting lower frequency than current one.
    8. Click Apply > OK

    If you have any updates, please feel free to let me know.


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  2. Gunasekar N 64,050 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-03-05T10:38:16.57+00:00

    Hello, thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

    1

    Click Windows + R key, type mmsys.cpl, and click ok.

    In the recordings tab, right-click your default microphone driver and select properties.

    In the listen tab, make sure the 'Listen to this device' check box is unticked.

    In the Advanced tab, uncheck 'Enable audio enhancements' and click Apply and Ok. Then,

    2

    In the Playback tab, right-click your default audio output device and select Properties.

    In the Advanced tab, uncheck 'Enable audio enhancements' and click Apply, then OK.

    3

    If you are still having issues,

    Open Device Manager.

    Select the arrow next to sound video and game controllers.

    Right-click your generic audio driver (e.g. Realtek (R)), select Uninstall device, select the Attempt to remove the driver for this device check box, and then select Uninstall.

    Once uninstalled, restart your PC and test the audio output on your device.


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  3. Q&A Assist
    2026-03-05T09:44:28.9233333+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more

    Try reversing the microphone changes and checking the core Windows sound settings.

    1. Check microphone privacy and app access
      1. Select Start > Settings > Privacy.
      2. Select Microphone.
      3. Make sure Allow access to the microphone on this device is On.
      4. If the problem happens only in certain apps, scroll to Choose which Microsoft Store apps can access your microphone and turn those apps On.
    2. Reset input device and levels
      1. Select Start > Settings > System > Sound.
      2. Under Input, ensure the correct microphone is selected under Choose your input device.
      3. Select Device Properties.
      4. On the Levels tab, set Microphone to around 50 and Microphone Boost to a moderate value (or 0 if unsure), then adjust while testing.
      5. Speak into the mic and check Test your microphone; the bar should move smoothly without hitting the maximum constantly.
    3. Turn off audio enhancements
      1. In Sound settings, under both Input and Output, open the device properties.
      2. Turn off any Audio enhancements or special processing that might be causing distortion.
    4. Reinstall or update audio drivers (if distortion persists)
      1. Right-click Start and select Device Manager.
      2. Expand Sound, video and game controllers.
      3. For each audio device, right-click and select Uninstall device.
      4. Check Delete/Attempt to remove the driver for this device if available, then select Uninstall.
      5. Restart the PC so Windows reinstalls the audio devices automatically.
      6. If needed, in Device Manager, right-click the audio device again and select Update driver.

    If the distortion started after a recent driver or Windows Update and the steps above do not help, use Device Manager to Roll Back Driver for the audio device, or restore from a system restore point created before the issue.


    References:

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