Has anyone else been unable to talk to Cortana since 16.299.15?

[TrainerJoeG]

I have a Surface Book w/ performance base. Since the 16299.15 update, Cortana can't hear me or talk. She seems to be unable to use the mic even though other apps, including Windows has no trouble seeing or using it. It looks like it may be related with the display language as well (I've gotten related to not having speech for the English-US display language).

I've since reset to factory settings, and also reverted back to a previous version of Win10, but the same problem was present on both. I don't have another Win10 PC to test, but is anyone else having this issue with Cortana?

 

[wstanton]

I've got that problem with both my Surface Pro 4 and my Acer laptop. (Same audio driver in both, I think.)

And when trying to test or teach Cortana my voice, it freezes the Cortana panel over the top of the start screen panel, locking me out of the Start Screen AND the power on/off icon.

 

[wstanton]

... and it doesn't get better with the update to 16299.19.

 

[LepTheImpaler]

You guys might want to try this:

If Cortana is blocking the start menu, or Cortana Speech is not working: Please follow these steps to fix the Cortana issue.
Open Settings and navigate to Time & Language
Click on Region and Language
Click on the Windows display language and then click Options
Under Language Options, wait for the available packages to load, and then click to install the missing packages (Speech)
After these are installed, restart your computer and the issue will be resolved.