Realtek HD microphone disappeared

[TARww]

Hello,
Chasing a feedback problem, in desperation, I disabled the onboard microphone in my Dell 1564 laptop running Windows 7. The result was that the icon for the microphone disappeared and does not reappear on subsequent reboots. How can I set the Realtek controller back to default setting which would presumably bring the microphone back to life?

 

[RealBeast]

Enable the mic where you disabled it, the bios or device manager. It should be reinstalled by Windows, but you may need to reinstall the Realtek hd controller again, which you can download from Dell.

 

[TARww]

Thanks for the above response; but the real answer exposes a truly dumb interface issue. When the mic is disabled, it's icon first greys out. However, on a return to the device manager, it's completely gone. In it's place is the text "no audio devices installed". Still sounds like my respondent has it right, doesn't it? Well, not exactly. If you place your pointer over the otherwise undistinguished text (no border, same font as everthing else) and right click (who would do this besides the desperate?), the greyed icons now reappear and the hidden devices can be reinstalled or re-enabled ....there are two classes of devices.

Has anyone else ever considered going postal in Redmond?

 

[Lilyvee]

Thanks for the above response; but the real answer exposes a truly dumb interface issue. When the mic is disabled, it's icon first greys out. However, on a return to the device manager, it's completely gone. In it's place is the text "no audio devices installed". Still sounds like my respondent has it right, doesn't it? Well, not exactly. If you place your pointer over the otherwise undistinguished text (no border, same font as everthing else) and right click (who would do this besides the desperate?), the greyed icons now reappear and the hidden devices can be reinstalled or re-enabled ....there are two classes of devices.

Has anyone else ever considered going postal in Redmond?

I'm REALLY sorry for bringing up an old thread but I just wanted to thank you and also thank the very existence of this thread *cries of joy*

Actually, this happened to me too! I disabled my mic and suddenly, it disappeared D: I tried plugging my desk microphone (I wanted to record a song) but it kept saying "no audio input device installed". I wanted to burn myself (not... literally) TT^TT My mind was all like, WHAAAAAAY?!

For hours (few minutes), I kept searching for ways to return it back to normal then I found this thread and happily ever after!! Really, thank you SO MUCH!