Finally all seems to be working as intended! Dell support advised I should uninstall and delete the RealTek drivers, and sent following guidelines: To uninstall the RealTek drivers, 1. Right click on the start menu and select device manager 2. Expand the option that says 'Audio inputs and outputs' 3. You will find realtek related drivers there, right click uninstall and 'delete' driver. [there was a checkbox to delete the driver, when uninstalling.] 4. Next expand ' Sound, video and Game controllers' uninstall and delete anything related to Realtek there as well.  5. Restart the computer. Wait for a few minutes for the drivers to install back from Windows and then test it out.  Good volume range restored on internal speakers.  Internal mic test goes almost full range.  Windows recognizes headphone for audio out and mic. Hope this helps.  
*apologies if this is a repeat post. Got a system error message trying to put this up the first time. Oh, the irony....   Hey all. Looking for some help. This has got me pulling out what little hair I have. Even when walking from only 2-3 feet away, people can barely hear me though the built-in mic. As I'm taking an online class full-time over the summer, this is a problem. My troubleshooting so far -   confirmed mic turned all the way up in app (Zoom and Google Meets) tested mic in app, confirmed quiet recording confirmed mic turned all the way up in the system tested mic in system, confirmed quite recording turned off all fancy background sound-canceling features. Tested again, same results. tested mic level with both Microphone Array and Same As System selected. No difference. uninstalled the device and reinstalled via check for hardware changes downloaded latest drivers from Dell and did a manual install   I am out of ideas and turning to you good folks for help.   A quick rant: I'm actually on my second brand new Vostro 7590 - first was replaced under warranty the day I got it because the fan wouldn't stop running on high. My laptop before this was a $260 Best Buy refurb Asus with an i3. It lasted five+ years with ZERO problems. All I did to it was upgrade to an SSD and add another 4gig stick of ram. This Dell has been nothing but problems. It boots up slower than the i3 (yes, all but a few essential startup items are disabled) and is much slower to come back to life from sleep. Then there was the heating issue resulting in a replacement machine. Then I spent an entire day trying to figure out why I was only getting 1.87mbps - turned out SmartByte was the culprit so that got deleted. This replacement unit STILL runs super hot and thermo throttles playing a f'''ing YouTube video. And now this microphone BS. I'm really hoping this is just user error, or else this garbage is probably going to be returned.  
New Vostro 7590 - extremely low mic volume