Travelmate P645 - can't unmute mic

MarkChutney

Hi

 

I can't unmute the mic on my TravelMate P645-S-74YH. Bios version is 1.11 (latest available). All of the latest drivers are installed. Playback of audio sound works fine.

 

In Windows, under "Recording Devices", it states "No Audio Devices are installed".

 

On my keyboard, in the top right-hand corner the blue Mute Mic button is illuminated. Nothing happens when I press it - the light stays on. No amount of pressing the button/reboots makes any difference. The Airplane, P and Power buttons all work fine. Same behaviour when on battery and charging.

 

O/S is Windows 7 x64 (rebuilt fresh OEM install, fully updated)

 

Thanks

 

 

MarkChutney

So this is a driver issue. I re-ran the Realtek driver "setup.exe" provided in the download package from the Acer website. It automatically uninstalled the driver, rebooted the laptop and then re-installed the driver. After a 2nd reboot, I now have a new problem.

The Mic Mute button in the top right-hand corner responds when pressed - the light goes out, press it again, the light comes on, only, it's not muting the microphone. I can tell because the sound level meter in Control Panel -> Sound -> Recording devices is registering when I make a sound, irrespective of what state the Mic Mute button is in.

 

The only way to disable the mic is to right-click on the Microphone device in the same Recording tab and select "Disable". However if you do this, you have no way of re-enabling the mic unless you right-click again and select "Show Disabled Devices".

 

So basically, using the provided Windows 7 x64 driver, the Mic Mute button is useless.

 

Edit: tried installing the latest available driver from Realtek's own website. A few more features in the control panel applet, but the same behaviour with the Mic Mute button - you can press it till the cows come home, makes no difference to the state of the mic.