I'm supposed to do a podcast on skype tonight but I can't figure out how to get my laptops microphone working.

It's an Acer 5600. I tried searching for drivers for the actual model and can't find anything that looks legit. I get dozens of pages for weird things that may or may not be what I'm looking for - more likely screwing up stuff that already works.

Is there any general driver I can download that should work? I don't have any of the original CDs or anything for it. I gave this computer a fresh install of Windows 7. So all original drivers are lost.

I would guess microphone functionality would be included with the audio driver. Try using Windows Update? Worse case scenario, you could purchase something like a Windows 7 USB microphone / headset.

Make sure it's not disabled in the BIOS under onboard devices.

What is actually wrong? Is the microphone not showing up at all in recording devices of windows? Or is skype not working with it? Does it just not hear you?

Oh, turning it on might help.

Yea, it was disabled or something. I messed around in the Sound settings for a bit and it works now.


Thanks for pointing out the obvious to my stupid arse.

Maybe you should take 4 years to study sound recording technology.

That way you can counter any microphone-related problem.