Hi William Jones Jr,
Just checking whether you've had a chance to review and try the suggestions from the Independent Advisor yet. If so, could you let me know which steps you've already completed and whether the behavior changed at all? This will help avoid repeating troubleshooting you've already tried.
Also, could you share your current Windows version and OS build? To check this, press Windows + R, type winver and press Enter. A window will appear showing your Windows version and build number. Please share that information or a screenshot if possible.
Since the microphone works in other applications, the issue may be specific to how Audacity is interacting with the audio device. One thing you can try is changing the audio host in Audacity. Open Audacity, click Audio Setup, select Host and test each available option. After changing the host, close and reopen Audacity before testing a recording.
It may also help to temporarily disable any Dell or third-party audio enhancement software. Open Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc and look for applications such as Dell Optimizer, Waves MaxxAudio or other audio management utilities. Close them temporarily and then test recording again in Audacity.
Another useful test is to check whether the issue is related to your Windows user profile. You can create a new local user account from Settings > Accounts > Other users > Add account, sign into that account and then test Audacity there. If recording works in the new profile, that would suggest the problem is related to a profile-specific setting rather than the microphone or driver.
Please keep me updated on how it goes and I'll be glad to assist further.
If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.