F4 Key Microphone toggle Malfunction after Windows reinstall on Acer Aspire 5 515-55

pcas

I have an Acer Aspire 5 515-55, I recently had windows re-installed and now I’m experiencing an issue with the F4 key (microphone toggle).

There is a small light on the f4 key, and before I reinstalled windows the light would turn on once I pressed the key (without fn), and the icon of a strikedthrough microphone at the top of the screen would indicate that the microphone was off. Pressing the key again would make the key light turn off, and the icon of a normal microphone (no strikethrough) would appear at the center of the screen.

Now, the light on the key is permanently on, when I press the f4 key I get two strikedthrough microphone icon on top of each other (see image below). The microphone does not work and nothing in the control panel or device manager says that it's deactivated.

Having noticed the issue of the two overlapping microphone icons, I tried pressing the caps lock key and noticed that in this case too, two overlapping icons of a locked lock with a upper case 'A' appear at the top of the screen. However, the caps lock works fine (pressing the key again will turn off caps lock)

I tried disabling and re-enabling the microphone from the device manager but it didn't work. It seems that when windows was re-installed, perhaps the wrong microphone driver was installed and this created some kind of incompatibility. However, when I try to update the driver from the drive manager, it says that "Windows has determined that the best driver for this device is already installed".

Thank you for the guidance!

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/716692/acer-aspire-5-mic-permanently-muted-and-f4-key-not-working

Hi, there is no driver for the internal microphone that is managed by Windows. Disable Acer Care Center and AcerSense in Windows Services (accSvs, acsSvc, accAgentSvc) or uninstall these apps in Windows "Add or remove programs", If you don't have Acer Quick Access installed download that from Acer Support for your model and install. Make sure you have Windows11 23H2 as your 2020 laptop and BIOS version 1.13 is for Windows10 /W11 23H2.

Axxo

Hi PCAS, try this troubleshooting methods.

Enable the Microphone on Windows 10/11

There is possibility that you accidentally blocked the apps from using your microphone. all you need to do is to enable the microphone on Windows 10/11.

Click Win + X and choose Settings. Click Privacy and then choose Microphone

Turn on the option Let apps use my microphone if it is off. Check Your Microphone Driver

One possible reason is having an outdated driver. If your system has been upgraded without updating microphone driver, this may cause some issue

Right-click Start and choose Device Manager. Click Audio inputs and outputs to expand that section.

Right-click Microphone (Realtek High Definition Audio) and choose properties. In General tab, if it shows “This device is not working properly”, go to the Driver tab and select Update Driver.

Restart your computer when it is done. Then check if your microphone works. Run the Troubleshooter.

If solutions above can’t help you fix microphone not working on Windows 10, you can run Troubleshooter which is designed to deal with various system related problems.

click Settings > Update & Security > Troubleshoot.

click Recording Audio > Run the troubleshooter.

Step 3: Follow the pup-up instructions and restart your computer. Hope this helps!

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