There’s an ongoing issue with Lenovo Laptops E14, especially with low microphone volume. You’ll find that the machine’s microphone sounds like its gain is at ~5-10% but it’s cranked to 100%. No amount of driver reinstalling, removing, reimaging, or other steps seem to help, and that’s because in this case it’s being caused by a driver coming down post base-image deployment from Microsoft.
Driver: Elevoc Tech Co LTD Extension (version 2.0.0.87)
Workaround:
1. Open CMD as admin
2. Type: dism /Online /get-drivers /format:table > C:\drivers.txt
3. Open the C:\drivers.txt
4. Hit Ctrl-F on your keyboard to search the text file
5. Look for intcdmicext_e.inf
a. It should show version 2.0.0.87
6. On the far left, it has the OEMXX.inf number
a. This OEM number is NOT universal and will be different on a per-laptop basis
7. Copy that INF
8. Open CMD as admin
9. Type: pnputil /delete-driver oemxx.inf /uninstall /force
a. Replace oemxx.inf with the inf you recorded in step 7
10. Pause Windows updates or block this driver to be safe until this issue is resolved.
Here’s a BAT file that automates the process I’m pushing from RMM. It features a ‘Dry Run’ setting, and you can easily adapt it for other drivers.