Microphone not working with new hardware

Hello Brett,

Thank you for posting your question in Microsoft Community. We are glad to assist you.

To help you suggest steps to resolve the issue, I would appreciate if you could answer the following questions:

1. What is the make and model of your microphone?
2. Are you able to use this microphone on any other computer?
3. Do you receive any error while trying to play sound from the microphone?

You may try following the methods given below and check if this helps you to fix the issue.

Method 1:

• Press the ‘Windows + C’ to activate the charms menu or move the mouse pointer to bottom right corner of the screen and you will get the charms menu.
• Click on ‘search’ and select ‘settings’ and type ‘Troubleshooting’ and select ‘troubleshooting’.
• Click on ‘Hardware and Sound’ and select ‘Hardware and Devices’ and click on next to run the troubleshooter.

Method 2:

If the issue still persists you may try the following steps and check if the issue persists.

Check if the microphone is enabled.

• Press Windows and X key and select ‘Control Panel’.
• Click on ‘Hardware and Sound’.
• Click on ‘Sound’. Open the ‘Recording’ tab. Right-click on free space and select the following options.
  
  • Show Disabled Devices.
  • Show Disconnected Devices.
  
  
• Now check if your microphone is enabled. (You may have to right-click on it and select Enable to enable it)

Please make sure the Microphone properties are set properly and check if that fixes the issue.

Method 3:

I would also suggest you to run the Microsoft fixit tool and check if it helps:

Hardware devices are not working or are not detected in Windows

http://support.microsoft.com/mats/hardware_device_problems/en-us

Hope this information is helpful. Please do let us know if you need further assistance with Windows, we’ll be glad to assist you.

Thank you. 

Thanks for the support answers.  Problem is not resolved using above ideas.  Will answer them below.

1.  The headphones are Creative Fatality, and Roccat Kulo.  There doesn't appear to be drivers for the Creative branded headset.  See below for the Roccat brand

2.  Both headsets work with the microphone on another laptop and another PC.

3.  There is no errors when plugging in the microphone, or trying to use it.

Method 1:

The trouble shooting for Audio and sound results in the message that there is no issue to resolve.

Method 2:

The disabled and disconnected devices were already showing.  When I plug in the microphone the correct device becomes enabled and highlighted as the default device.

Method 3:

Have run the fixit tool, and no issues were found.

Further investigation and changes I have made with no result or fix:

1.  I have made sure that the NVidia control panel had the HDMI/Audio stuff disabled.  Which it already was.

2.  Made sure that the realtek audio panel had 2 channel selected, since the motherboard supports 7.1, but was not used.  (Probably shouldn't matter for the mic anyway since the mic plug can't be used for anything else is my understanding, but made sure).

3.  The Rocca brand has a USB adaptor, but when I plugged the usb portion in and tried to install the drivers, it just kept saying please insert the Roccat USB adaptor.  Regardless of which USB port I used for the dongle.

So still no result.  The problem existed before the hardware upgrade as well. 

Changes I made:

Motherboard

CPU

Memory

New install of Windows 8 (No settings or files taken from old version)

Same HW as before when problem still existed:

Case/PSU

Video Card

HDD

Hoping there is more i can look at.  I work in IT, and have built several PC's with no issues like this, so I have expert knowledge on what I am doing, and how things work.  But this has really got me frustrated :)

Hello,

Thank you for keeping us updated about the issue and sorry for delayed response.

If issue is still persisting I would suggest you to try the below methods and see if it works.

Method 1

You may manually check if the microphone is enabled & set as default device.

To enable the microphone, follow these steps.

1. Right click on sound icon in the system tray.
2. Click Recording device.
3. Right click on it and select “Show Disabled Devices”.
4. Right click on the microphone and click enable.

To set the microphone as default device, follow these steps.

1. Right click on sound icon in the system tray.
2. Click Recording device.
3. Click Recording tab > right click on microphone and select the option ‘Set as default device’.
4. Click Apply, Ok.

Method 2

If it doesn’t help, download and install the latest sound card drivers from the manufacturer’s website.

1. Type devmgmt.msc in start search box and hit Enter.
2. In device manager, expand the sound drivers listed in the device list.
3. Right click on the sound driver > click Uninstall.
4. Install the sound card driver software form the link provided below.

Download and install drivers

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/all-drivers

Hope this would help. If issue still persists post back with current status of your computer and result of proposed suggestion, we will be happy to assist you.

Hi again, and thanks for another reply.

Method 1: I had already done.  But made sure, in the settings.  Microphone was enabled and is the default recording device.

Method 2:  Again I have done this.  But did it again anyway. 

I initially had the MS drivers installed.  I then installed the RealTek drivers, which still did not work.  Uninstalled those drivers, and did method 2 above.  However this did not resolve the problem.  I have gone back to the RealTek drivers that came with the motherboard CD.  And still no resolution.

If it was a new problem, I might think I had a faulty motherboard.  But as it was happening with the previous motherboard, i think it's not likely.

However, I have now installed a SSD and installed a new copy of windows 8 onto the CD.  The issue is not fixed.

I removed the video card (Since this, other than the case is the only piece of hardware left the same) and uninstalled the drivers for the video card and ran off the onboard video, with no resolution.

My son at the moment has his headphones plugged into my laptop beside him to use Skype/Microphone while he uses his PC.  obviously i want my laptop back at some stage, haha.

Any more thoughts on what i can try?

My next step is likely to take it into a PC repair place to see if they can work it out.

Thanks