Microphone doesn't work after upgrade to 5.1

[NajiB]

@vultan @flubba86

You guys are both on a Linux host, using PulseAudio as the audio driver, right?

True in my case: Ubuntu 16.04 host, Win 7 guest.

[flubba86]

@vultan @ flubba86

You guys are both on a Linux host, using PulseAudio as the audio driver, right?

Yes, Ubuntu 16.04 host. 3 different VMs, Windows 7, Windows 10 and Windows 10 Anniversary Update, each have the problem.
Yes, using the PulseAudio driver.

[flubba86]

And chiming in again, updated to just-released 5.1.16, problem still exits.

[michaln]

In case it's not obvious to everyone: If you have a VM with Windows installed which does not see a microphone, upgrading VirtualBox will make no difference. Windows needs to be forced to re-detect the hardware (uninstalling the guest's HD Audio drivers does that).

[flubba86]

In case it's not obvious to everyone: If you have a VM with Windows installed which does not see a microphone, upgrading VirtualBox will make no difference. Windows needs to be forced to re-detect the hardware (uninstalling the guest's HD Audio drivers does that).

Actually yes I had tried that after upgrading from 5.1.2 to 5.1.4, and again after updating from 5.1.4 to 5.1.6, then again after upgrading from 5.1.6 to 5.1.8. It is obvious to me that is the first thing I should try and I tried it more than once.

However I had not been doing the force-re-detect hardware procedure since upgrading to 5.1.10 because I guess I assumed it wouldn't work.

Today after upgrading from 5.1.16 to 5.1.18 and seeing this comment, I decided to give it another go. And it worked! I don't know which version introduced the change that fixed my specific problem, but it must've been some time between 5.1.10 and 5.1.18.
Thanks.

[michaln]

Today after upgrading from 5.1.16 to 5.1.18 and seeing this comment, I decided to give it another go. And it worked! I don't know which version introduced the change that fixed my specific problem, but it must've been some time between 5.1.10 and 5.1.18.

Thanks for the report! It is unfortunate that Windows caches this information (I don't think any other OS does that) but it does, and we unfortunately can't force Windows to re-detect the HDA topology without triggering unwanted side effects.

That's actually how the problem slipped in in the first place, because existing VMs continued to work and only newly installed ones didn't.