I have a Dell Vostro Laptop running Windows XP. It was bought more than 5 years ago and there was no problem with the Mic so far. But in the past couple of months I saw that the Mic stops working suddenly, and all the Control Panel settings relating to it are correct. Restarting the machine seems to restore the Mic. But just today I found that even restarting doesn't help.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect the Mic stops working when I use Google Voice to make a call. I use Skype also, but it doesn't seem to harm my Mic. Other than these 2, I have a couple of audio recording software which I haven't used much. I don't use my Mic for any other purpose.

Now since this is an in-built Mic, there's no question of wrong connections. I think its not a hardware issue since restarting helps (or atleast used to!). Also I checked all suggested troubleshooting tips given on this forum and others like it. Everything seems to be alright as far as the settings are concerned. So I figure it must be a driver-related thing. Could be a virus (though I have AVG and I don't see any other virus-like symptoms).

I searched far and wide, but I didn't find any other post in any forum reporting this kind of problem. I'm in the dark here, and any help will be appreciated!

Thanks!