Did you look in control panel under sound and devices and see what microphone you have selected?  Make sure it is plug into the right jack.  Try uninstalling the driver in device manager and see if it will start to work.. If you have done all that then it is probably a hardware issue. If you have doen all that get on Dell case until they resolve the issue.  Be verrrrry nice to the tech people and they will help!  To be honest, Dell replace my 1520 because of the issues I was having.  They will work with you.

I did check the control panel so that is ok.  I haven't uninstalled the driver.  When I do that do I need to reinstall another one?

Did you get your system working?  Yes you do need to reinstall the drivers which you can do from the dell website under driver downloads.

Not working yet.  I haven't had time to play with the drivers.  Someone else suggested running the microphone diagnostic.  What do you think?  Thanks.

You can run the diagnostics.  Drivers are easy to reinstall or repair through the device properties.  The diagnostics is easy to run also.  Good Luck!

I am having a similar problem. My E1505 came with XP and the microphone worked just fine while I used it with SKYPE. However, since upgrading to Vista it no longer works. Many drivers needed to be upgraded on the system and I have done so, but this one just doesn't work. I have gone through the tech site, downloaded drivers, uninstalled and reinstalled, you name it. Just still won't work.

 

Any other suggestions out there on how to get my microphone to work with Vista?