My microphone isn't recording anything.

andrewanimation

New Member
Hello,

My microphone isn't recording anything. To be very specific:

- The microphone works on another computer, so it isn't the microphone.
- My computer has two microphone jacks, but neither do it, so it isn't the jack.
- I checked all my advanced audio volume settings, including those related to the microphone recording and playback, and all of them are high, so it isn't the volume settings.
- I tried recording my voice in two different programs, and neither work, so it isn't the programs.
- My low-quality USB microphone works, so once again it seems the problem has to do with the microphone jacks, or something to do with whatever the jacks are connected to, because only my high-quality microphone jack microphone (not USB), the one I want to use, doesn't work on this computer.

So why isn't my microphone working in the microphone jacks on this computer?

Thank you,
Andrew
 
Great information provided. I'm guessing the sound card driver either needs updating or the microphone jack on the soundcard is damaged. The reason I say this is because the USB microphone you have doesn't connect the same way. To deduce whether or not I am wrong, I would recommend if you have another Microphone-Jack mic, try working it on that computer. My old old old school microphone wouldn't work on any machine WinXP+ so I had to upgrade. Unfortunately, I feel like jack-mic's are becoming more and more obsolete as the world of USB Plug-And-Play takes over the externals of computing.

So, update your sound card driver, test it, if it doesn't work invest in a higher quality USB mic.

Good luck.
 
is it a 3.5mm pink jack or usb?

if it is usb, go to control panel and device manager. look to see if the microphone is there and if it is but with a yellow ! there is a driver fault. Uninstall and reinstall the device drivers (right click the device in device manager and click uninstall).

If you are running Vista, go to start>control panel>sound

click the recording tab at the top and talk into the microphone. One of the levels should rise, if only by a bit. Whichever one does, right click it and click set as default deivce. If you still can't hear anything or if it already is the default device, right click the microphone and click properties. Click the levels tab and turn them all up, hit ok, and then talk normally into the microphone, just say anything. that will alter the levels accordingly and now it should work.
 
Did you have your recording programs set to record from the mic? I know this sounds pointless, but it happened to me once. The software was set to record the line in.

If you have like the Realtek HD Audio Manager that i have or can find a similar application it can tell you if the sound card is detecting the mic.

If it is the mic jack thats causing the problem the line in jack might work.
 
I found what the answer was!! It seemed silly, but what I didn't realize is that my machine has a second set of audio holes (audio, headphone, and mike) at the very BOTTOM of the back of the machine, so I never saw them. I always assumed the first set of holes, plainly seen by the USB ports and so forth, were my audio holes, but apparently they don't actually connect to anything because they don't work. So in case anyone has this same problem with their audio or microphone, it may seem silly, but check to see if there's another set of audio holes in some very hard-to-see area that you should actually be using.

Thanks for your help!
 
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