windows 10 update caused headset mic to disappear, realtek manager won't open

[dave413]

My headset is brand new and works, but my laptop won't recognize its microphone and uses the inbuilt microphone instead.

I just bought my headset yesterday, a hyperx model with only a 3.5mm jack connection. I know it works, because it works perfectly with my phone. I also know headset mics have worked previously with my laptop when plugged into the jack, as I used the earphones with mic that came with my phone in the same laptop without problem.

I've reinstalled and reinstalled the Realtek drivers more than ten times now, looked everywhere online for a solution to no avail, and troubleshooting does nothing. I can't even open the realtek hd audio manager application now. If you can help me with that that'd be great too.

My playback devices look like this

and my recording devices look like this

as you can see the microphone is missing (there is only the inbuilt one), and any headphones option is missing too. The headphones are using the "speakers" (no sound leaks out of the actual speakers when headset is plugged in.)

my laptop is an Aspire VX15 acer, but i doubt that matters because I really think this is the fault of the new windows update.

Yes I have allowed my mic to be accessed by applications in my privacy settings. Yes the output in my headset works, just not its microphone.

If you have any idea at all please help! I don't want to buy a usb adapter because I saved up to spend a lot of money on these headsets and I'm only a poor university student 🙁
thank you so much for reading

 

[dave413]

Okay, it has finally worked after another reinstallation! I'll just post this in case anyone else is having the same problem at all.
Instead of manually uninstalling the audio driver in device manager, i simply retried downloading the audio driver from my laptop's product support and let it uninstall the driver itself to reinstall. For my laptop, the download was from here https://www.acer.com/ac/en/AU/content/support-product/7094?b=1
It restarted the laptop once to uninstall, then asked for another restart to complete installation. My headset was plugged in the whole time.
Then, I unplugged the headset, all my audio drivers back to working order, and plugged them in again. I finally got the pop up from realtek, asking what type of device i had just plugged in. I checked headset, and now it is working!
I feel pretty silly, I guess the audio driver had just not installed/refreshed itself properly, so that the pop up was hidden or was told not to pop up again from previous sessions. I still can't find the realtek hd audio manager though, and the headset is still "speakers" and "microphone" in playback and recording devices. But it works!