Realtek Microphone/audio driver fails in Skype on 2015 DELL Inspiron 15 7000 series

Hi everyone,

I am having a problem with the Realtek microphone in Skype.

The symptoms are as follows:

Shortly after beginning of the conversation the other party cannot hear my voice. Video is fine, the voice of the other party is also fine.

When this happens the microphone green bar in Options/audio settings will not be seen when speaking into it.

However I can hear what's spoken into the microphone in the local speakers.

I uninstalled the microphone in manager, re-installed the driver, did not help.

Uninstalled the Realtek hi-def audio driver. This helped first but then after 4 minutes talking the problem returned again.

I can see that when this happens the speaker icon in 

Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\manage audio devices\recording\microphone\microphone properties\levels

is crossed out. If I uncross it and put boost and level above zero the other party can hear me again.

This happens spontaneously, by itself. Even without Skype running, so this is why I think it might be a driver problem.

Any ideas? (please no "reinstalled driver" advice - has done so multiple times)