Microphone input not working anymore

C3ed · 07 Jul 2015

Hello there,

I have a headset with microphone and I use 3.5 mm cables in the rear jacks of my PC. Audio OUT is working fine, but audio IN is not working anymore (the pink slot). I tried the microphone in my cellphone and the sound works. When I plug in my microphone cable, the PC detects it, but no sound is recorded. I tried uninstalling all the sound drivers and rebooting to no avail. It was working before.

I have jacks on the front of the PC too, but they never worked. I think I broke it installing it. When I put cables in it, they show something was inserted, but just pick up white noise.

tl;dr :

Microphone and cable are working
Cable is detected when put into mic input
No sound is detected
Drivers uninstalled and reinstalled
It was working a few days ago

Any help would be really appreciated, thanks!

fireberd · 08 Jul 2015

There was an exact same problem posted on the Windows 8 forum. The resolution there was to "refresh" the sound driver. I thought it had been left hanging and unresolved but after looking at the thread again, it was fixed with the "refresh".

Go to the Device Manager, RIGHT click on the entry for your sound and then LEFT click "Uninstall". DO NOT uninstall the drivers. Restart the PC and when Windows starts it will reinstall the sound.

If the front panel jacks do not work, best to disconnect them from the motherboard sound connector to prevent any possible conflicts with the rear jacks. Unplug the audio connector for the front panel audio jacks. The Connector will either be labeled HD Audio or AC97. The audio connection on many motherboards is on the lower left.

C3ed · 08 Jul 2015

Thank you for your answer, it's greatly appreciated.

I tried uninstalling everything under the sound section of my device manager and rebooting, after everything reinstalled the problem persists. Is there any way I can determine if it's hardware-related or software-related? I'm beginning to fear my audio input jack stopped working, even if it detects when something is put in it.

Edit: I don't know if it changes anything, but I have five things under the Sound section and I uninstalled them all with no success. But is this supposed to look like this?

Thank you.

fireberd · 09 Jul 2015

The NVIDIA is for HDMI audio and is OK.

The High Definition Audio Device is the generic basic function Windows installed sound driver. First step is to install the correct sound driver for your sound hardware. The motherboard vendor should have the driver for sound. examples are Realtek, Conexant, etc.

C3ed · 09 Jul 2015

Thank you again.

So I checked what was my motherboard and sound, and it's this.

So I installed the driver accordingly. But, same problem. When I put the mic cable in, it says :

But even if I shout at the mic, no sound is picked up

But the green bars peak for a moment when at the moment I put the cable in, like cable noise.

What can I try now?

Thanks.

fireberd · 10 Jul 2015

Making progress, now that you have the correct sound driver installed.

One other thing to do, enable the Stereo Mix and make it the default recording device. It may not fix the problem but something else that should be done. With Stereo Mix set, any input device that is connected should be heard. If you ever want to record audio from the Internet you will also need Stereo Mix.

Did you disconnect the front panel audio connection from the motherboard? If not do that, to avoid any interference from the front panel.

C3ed · 10 Jul 2015

Thank you again, it's very appreciated.

So, I disconnected the front panel audio, the "HD Audio" cable from the "AAFP" port on the motherboard.

And I enabled and put Stereo Mix as the default device.

Alas, the problem persists. Can I know for sure this is a hardware problem?

Thank you.

fireberd · 11 Jul 2015

One more software thing to try, now that the front panel audio has been disconnected.

Go to the Device Manager, RIGHT click on the entry for the Realtek sound to highlight it and then LEFT click "Uninstall". DO NOT uninstall the drivers. Then restart the PC and when Windows starts it will detect and reinstall the sound. If there were any Windows/Sound corruptions this will fix it.

Unfortunately the only way to validate if its a hardware problem with the sound would be to install a separate sound card (or USB connected sound card).

C3ed · 11 Jul 2015

I tried this solution and it did not help, so I bought an external sound card on Amazon and will try this in a few days. I will update on this problem.

Thanks for your help.

fireberd · 12 Jul 2015

To avoid potential conflicts, disable the on board audio in the BIOS before installing the new sound device.