Microphone issues with my Inspiron 1521 (Solved by Jimco)

Assuming you mean your built-in mic and that you are running Vista, try to enable the mic. This page about Digital Array Microphones contains some instructions and also a trouble shooter.

Here are some variations on the instructions as posted by various forum members:

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"Open the Dell Webcam Center, and look for Audio Source in the bottom right corner.  Click on Microphone/Line In and then go to More, and select Microphone Array (SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC).  Once the Audio Source says Microphone Array (SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC) then the microphone should be active." -- posted by Rollie, a Dell moderator

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"I'm using Windows XP on the same computer, but had the same problem. What I found was that you need to turn on and adjust the "digital microphone" properties. If you right-click on the volume control in the system tray and select open volume control, then options > properties > select recording radio button and make sure the digital mic is ticked. Click Ok and make sure the select box is ticked for digital mic once again. Increase the volume level as appropriate. Use the sound recorder in accessories to test the two mics located to the left and right of the built-in camera." -- from forum member cssguy

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"Open control panel and double click sound>click the recording tab at top>Microphone should be shown in next window and should have a green check on it.Double click on the micrphone and click the device usage tab at bottom,if it is disabled select enable and click apply." -- dgkpcon

To turn off speakers from mic array: "Control panel>Sound>right click on speakers,or speakers / headphones> properties tab>levels tab>turn off/on from here." -- dgkpcon

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"I checked my wife's 1720 with SP1 and it was working. I went in under Webcam Center, then selected TOOLS and then audio settings (I think it was).  the microphone selections were bluetooth or Microphone array....do you see a microphone array option.  If so, select that that is what ours is set at.  If not, then I don't know what else to say." -- eskymi

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How to access in Vista (from Teamspeak forum):

For mic control:
Start>Control Panel>Sounds>Recording>Right click>show disabled devices>double click or right click properties on the microphone>Level controls the volume that other people can hear you>Custom is for mic boost, used if level control can not get your voice high enough for others to hear you.

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Here is a link to the 1521 downloads page if you need to download the Webcam Manager. It is under the Applications category. Also, if you have never updated  your Sigmatel audio driver do so now because the driver that shipped with the 1521 when it was first released did not let the mic array work properly. However that has been fixed long ago.

Another thing you might try is to just test the mic by opening a sound recording program like Windows Sound Recorder and see if you can record a little bit of your voice. If so then the problem is not with the above but probably some kind of configuration issue with your voip software. Finally, you could run the internal mic test in the audio section of Dell Diagnostics to make sure that the hardware has not malfunctioned.