Microphone detected via 'audio devices', but Cortana or other apps cannot hear or detect

[Dwprog]

Please help. I have spent about 6 hours on trying to find a solution to this.
My microphone does not work when trying to use Cortana (can't hear anything). It does not work with audio recorder,  Google Hangouts, Facebook Video calls, Zoom, etc. I have tried using the microphone troubleshooting and it can't fix the problem. I have downloaded the correct HP sound drivers; does not help. I have went into device manager and updated the drivers through there with no luck. I tried setting up the mic and speech recognition following Cortana's suggestions and nothing!

I went into sound settings and app permissions and made sure that all apps and desktop have access to microphone... does nothing. I went into Ease of Access and tried to setup speech recognition and no detection.

If I go into Control Panel>Manage Audio Devices I click on the recording tab and I can see that it DOES DETECT AUDIO as the bar moves to the loudness of my voice. There are no disabled devices that I can switch to, this is the default device.

I downloaded HP Support Assistant and ran troubleshooting. Does not detect a problem.

I am sure there are other methods I have tried that I haven't listed, but I have tried EVERYTHING.

Oh, I even removed windows and installed a clean copy from the "restore" option is settings. Tried all of these steps again and still does not work.

I forgot to mention that I have 2 HP laptops, both purchased within the year (HP 15" Spectre 360 and a cheaper HP Pavilion 15-cs1065cl). Both basically brand new computers and none of the microphones work. My wife has my old Samsung computer and she does not have any of these problems. Is this just an HP problem? because it seems to me like it is.

I am stuck here and I am pretty computer savvy so I would think I would have figured this out by now, but I just cant. There are so many microphone issues online for HP specifically and I have tried every. single. one of them multiple times.

I never had the need to use my microphone until we became quarantined so this is why I just discovered the problems.

I highly regret going with HP computers now.

Please help. My Spectre computer was VERY expensive and I can't even use the built in microphone?!?! 

Any additional help would be very much appreciated. Thank you!!

[KrazyToad]

@Dwprog

Welcome to HP Community

I have gone through your Post and I understand your concerns

I appreciate all your efforts and expertise in troubleshooting this issue

Did you perform a Reset or System Recovery

I suggest you run a Diagnostic on the Webcam first to ensure the Hardware Functionality

- Hold the power button for at least five seconds to turn off the Notebook.
- Turn on the computer and immediately press Esc repeatedly, about once every second. 
- When the menu appears, press the F2 key.
- On the main menu, click Component Tests and Webcam
 

If all the Tests pass perform a System Recovery if you have not done so already

Link: https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/c04758961

Thank you

If the information I've provided was helpful, give us some reinforcement by clicking the "Solution Accepted" on this Post and it will also help other community members with similar issue.

[Dwprog]

Hi,

Thanks for the response, I appreciate it.

Bad news is that this did not fix anything. The diagnostic test passed.

I did perform a system recovery as well before I posted to this forum and tried every option that I had mentioned again as well and I still am having no luck.

I am at a loss here. This doesn't make sense to me why the microphone isn't working. Maybe the actual microphone is defective? But I know the computer is detecting the sound because when go to the 'Recording" tab in the device it is definitely detecting when I speak. I am at a total loss and am extremely frustrated. 

Thanks again.

Nick