> Now to reboot and see if the microphone returns to life.
Nope. No speakers either. Looks like the laptop's built-in audio card has failed, though what occurred prior to the reboot suggests that it MIGHT work sporadically.
I'm not sure what to do about this. Have any of you ever heard of an external sound card for a laptop?
I'm probably going to have to buy a new one. Rats... There are some things I don't understand about my computer - such as where it stores Minecraft files. Moving them to a new box may be beyond me, forcing me to start over. @#$! I really hate that. Microsoft is probably doing this to me on purpose to force me to use its #$@!'ing ONEDRIVE.