Soundcard / microphone issue?

[asch]

I recently thought that my microphone had gone out. But after purchasing a new headset and getting my 2nd machine setup it appears that it's my gaming rig.

Here's what I know so far...

On my gaming rig (machine #1) I have a X-Fi XtremeMusic. The mic was working great for the longest time. Then it went out. I purchased a new headset and that didn't solve the issue. Since then I've been able to get both mics working on my 2nd machine. This rig uses the onboard sound.

So I think to myself it's probably a driver issue. In my attempts to uninstall / reinstall mobo / sound drivers I really fubar'd my gaming rig. So over the course of last night I did a full reinstall.

After getting windows installed & updated I decided I was going to install teamspeak to test out the mic. I tried using the "test" feature of teamspeak to test the mic and got nothing. (Note this same setup worked on my 2nd machine). Yes, I've checked the audio properties to make sure the mic is the recording selection and have also toggled the mic mute checkbox.

So I'm stuck. I'm not sure what else to try. I guess it's possible that just the microphone port on my soundcard has gone bad, but that doesn't seem likely.

Any ideas?

[Wimpinator]

Does the machine also have on-board sound? Do you have it disabled in the BIOS if it does? Having both active can cause some real wonkieness.

[asch]

I have the Asus 590 SLI mobo. I believe it comes with it's one PCI card for sound but I never used it. I didn't change the bios or any jumper settings.

I did upgrade from the nvidia 7950GT to the 8800GTX and I can't remember if the mic worked after that. I'm pretty sure it did though.

[Lith1um]

On my extrememusic the mic jack can also be configured as a digital i/o jack.

Run creative mode switcher and select game mode. Before hitting ok select "launch console if console is installed.

When mode switcher closes, the game mode console will launch. At the bottom of the console select the settings button. Check the flexi jack mode and make sure it's set to mic/line in and not digital. Uncheck the settings under headphone jack detection.

Good Luck

[asch]

Already set to game mode and the headphone detection is already unchecked.

[Zoopy]

You should try disabling your onboard sound in BIOS. I know that helped me when I was having mic issues on Vista.

[asch]

Problem solved.

Ok, so I don't know how I ended up with this working before but I'm pretty sure now that when I disconnected everything to replace my video card, I lost my mic. I wish I could say this was a driver error or user error, but alas, this weeks worth of headaches and rebuilding my HD was for naught.

So what was the problem? Mislabeled ports on the back of my sound card. You know the blue, black, green & pink colors that are supposed to match up with your speakers / headset? The stupid blue and pink are mislabeled on the sound card. That's it. That's the whole deal. The sound card is mislabeled, the manual is mislabeled, and the installation CD guide is mislabeled.

And how did I figure all of this out? I was desperate. I was ready to rip the card out and return it tomorrow. In my desperation I started swapping my mic to different ports and bingo.... it now works.

My guess is in the years to come I will forget this whole thing... and of course, end up going through it all again. So if anyone happens to see me post another "soundcard / microphone issues" thread in the years to come, please point me back here.

Now I've got to go through and install the rest of my games & applications.