Dell Vostro 3550 microphone input problem/muted?

Hello,

I used this forum a while back for a virus and this was by far the most helpful forum I could find so I'm back with another question

I've owned my Dell Vostro 3550 for more than half a year now and I have never been able to get the microphone to work properly. I've fiddled around with settings several times but still no luck. It appears that the laptop actually reads in my input but can't play back or transmit it. I even bought a new microphone and plugged it in but the same problem remains. Can someone help me with this?

Below are the specs of my laptop when I purchased it- I haven't made any changes to it.

Thanks in advance!


Vostro 3550 Laptop Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
Vostro 3550 Laptop
1GB AMD Radeon HD 6630M
90W AC Adapter
8X DVD +/- RW Drive
6 Cell Primary Battery
Service Software
Service Software
Processor Label
Processor: Intel Core i5-2410M processor (2.30 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.90 GHz)
Service Software
15.6 inch Full HD WLED Display
Dell Support Center 64 Bit 2.0
250 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Operating System DVD
Win7 Starter Software
Software
Palmrest with Finger Print Reader
Shipping Material
Wave Systems Software
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Operating System DVD
Previously Ordered New
Information
Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1030
Aberdeen Silver WIFI enabled
Software
125V Power Cord
Documentation
4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (1 DIMMs)
Service Software
Shipping Material
Information
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
Label
Label
Trend Micro WFBS, 15 Months
Dell WebCam Central
Information
Dell Data Back-up and Recovery Manager for Win 7
Keyboard with Gesture Touchpad

 

Hi Arie,

Sorry for the late response.
I wrote in my first post that I actually bought a microphone (it was a usb one) and tried that but it didn't work either. I'm not totally sure if it actually reads in input, but when I have music running on my laptop, it seems to recognize the frequencies of the music.

 

Dell Vostro 3550 Microphone problem

Just in regards to this, my friend has the same problem and still no luck in finding an answer. Does anyone know how to activate the microphone on the Dell Vostro 3550? When we try to talk on Skype, I can not hear them talk and they can not get the microphone to work.

 

I fixed this by going into control panel and setting the multi-definition mic as the default. Then make that the default in Skype etc too.