Skype Randomly Mutes Microphone

[Virt]

I don't think it's Skype's fault any more. It happens when I'm not even in a Skype call or doing anything.

[psychospacecow]

Maybe its a driver issue.

[PatientZero]

Does you laptop have Realtek HD audio by any chance? Their drivers and control panel have a lot of "advanced" features which are almost always broken, check to see if you have a specific control panel entry for it and disable basically as much of it as you don't need, especially any port detection.

The majority of audio problems I've come across are genuinely from using Realtek onboard audio, it's basically just cheap hardware every motherboard manufacturer throws in so you can make blips and bloops without spending much, despite it being billed as some kind of advanced system, what with it being "HD" and all, it's pretty much the lowest end audio hardware you'll come across.

[Virt]

I don't see anything for Realtek HD audio, so I'd say that's not it.

How likely is it that it's malware? What else could be causing it?

[Petie]

Malware is often the cause from what I've seen. Like I said earlier, run a full scan with Malwarebytes (https://www.malwarebytes.org) and, if you're still having problems after that, ComboFix (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/combofix/, though I'd be careful with this one - it's very powerful but also potentially dangerous if you're not sure what you're doing).

[PatientZero]

It's probably also worth reinstalling and/or updating your audio drivers, start with as clean a slate as you can.

If you've got the option it could also be useful to test either an external audio card or USB microphone/headset, since those don't rely on the internal hardware or drivers, that should tell you pretty easily if the problem is specific to your audio device or if it's more widespread.

[Petie]

If you've got the option it could also be useful to test either an external audio card or USB microphone/headset, since those don't rely on the internal hardware or drivers, that should tell you pretty easily if the problem is specific to your audio device or if it's more widespread.

It happens with both my computer's internal mic and a separate USB mic.

He's actually already tested that aspect which is why, combined with a bit of research (and the post he deleted), I suggested checking a bit more thoroughly for malware.

[PatientZero]

Ah, my bad, must have missed that bit.

That certainly does narrow it down to either malware or user error, and I can't imagine how you could set something like that up intentionally, to say nothing of doing it by mistake.

[Virt]

I updated my drivers and now my mic doesn't work with Skype at all. My USB Mic cuts out like it used to, as well.

[Virt]

I did a Malwarebytes scan and now everything's working again. Thanks, guys.

[Petie]

Glad to hear you got it working!

[Maxpphire]

Glad to hear you got it fixed, I wanna chime in though and said this did happen to a friend of mine and it was caused by a virus/malware/something his computer obviously shouldn't have.

It would have been my first guess and would have said that I'm 99% certain that was why.