Microphone or sound help

[canman]

Can anyone help me out. For some reason the microphone function on my computer has just stopped. I have checked all the sound levles and made sure the mic was not muted or anything like that. I disconnected the mic and tried it in both the front and back jacks. I also have a skype phone that now won't work, any ideas why. I'm using WinXP and haven't done anything other than add 512 dram but the microphone problem happened much earlier than that. Thanks in advance.

[American Oyaji]

How often do you plug the mic in and out? It could be that the mic socket is bad. Does your computer play sound? If not it is probably your sound driver is corrupted.

Is it a laptop or desktop? Have there been any thunderstorms recently?

[canman]

I never plug or unplug the mike. The sound in no problem, I listen to Itunes all the time with it. We haven't had a thunderstorm in over a year, so I don't think that has anything to do with it. It is a desktop pretty standard large tower type, nothing fancy.

[Taro Toporific]

For some reason the microphone function on my computer has just stopped. ... I also have a skype phone that now won't work, any ideas why....

The "stupid" solution is to just use a USB skype headset with mike.
Just borrow a USB mike and see if that solves your problem. If a USB mike cures your problem, you can justify the 1,200-5,000 yen expense of buying a USB mike/headset because the voice quality you will get will be MUCH better than the standard microphone port.

[canman]

good advice Taro, but then why won't my skype phone which is USB not work either.

[james]

i would also say that it might not hurt to check the mic itself. if it's one of those little white cheapass desktop style mics, they quite often go dead for no rhyme or reason. try plugging another mic into the mic jack or see if your mic works on another pc.

[American Oyaji]

I'd reinstall your drivers. Or update them.

[Taro Toporific]

good advice Taro, but then why won't my skype phone which is USB not work either.

Hey, that's good news. If the USB mike and the regular mike which function via different parts of your hardware both don't work, it most likely means you have a "simple" problem stemming from your operating system, system preferences or driver problem.
Go back to square one:

• Reinstall the sound-related drivers as American Oyaji sagely recommended.
• Systematically recheck all your control panels again that have to do with sound and making sure that all screensavers are turned off.
• Sacrifice a chicken and swing it bleeding over the computer.
• And, drink a big bottle of shochu as you do a reinstall of the operating system (because that's what the so-called computer repair person when they charge you to fix the damn thing).

[Skrelton]

When you mentioned that you verified the mic was not muted I'm not sure if you mean the physical mute switch on the mic (if it has one) or the mute checkbox control in the windows mixer panel.

Open up the "Master Volume" control for windows and under the "OPTIONS" menu item, make sure that slider controls are actually enabled for your microphone, otherwise the slider won't even be visible in the main master volume panel and you might have missed it. (sorry if you already know about this, but I've found a lot of people having the same problem you are do not have the mic slider enabled, and it is often hidden and muted). There may even be separate slider controls for analog and USB mic's but I'm not 100% sure of that.

Good luck

[FG Lurker]

I would suggest going into the Control Panel and opening the Sounds and Audio Devices applet. Click on the Audio tab. Check to see what the "Default Device" is for sound recording. You need to make sure that the default device and the device the mic is plugged into are the same.

If that doesn't work, I would next check directx. You can do this by running the dxdiag.exe utility. Just click on the Start button, choose run, and then enter dxdiag and press enter.

Let dxdiag check your system to make sure your drivers are properly signed. Check the DirectX version on the first tab that comes up, it should be ver 9 or later. If it is not, you should update it.

Since neither your USB nor your regular mic work it is almost certainly not a problem related to the drivers for the device. It is quite likely a Windows Audio configuration problem, a corrupted DLL somewhere, or something borked in your registry. If it is a configuration or DirectX problem you can probably fix it with one of the suggestions above. If it is a corrupted file or a borked registry setting then you may find yourself reinstalling Windows.

Hope this helps, and good luck with the fix!

[Kuang_Grade]

While the two issues are likely related, it is possible they are not (ie, two separate but similar problems...Skype went down around the world a few days ago due to some server issues). A Macgyver way to test the mic port is to get a set of headphones and plug them in the mic port...then put the headphones close to your mouth and speak loudly into them...it will sound like shit but it will tell you if it is getting signal to the PC from the mic port.