Mic issue

T

Tangerine

EGO Addict
Joined
Dec 10, 2007
Messages
1,284
Alright, this will make me seem really dumb, but w/e.

There was a mic on sale for $10 at the local future shop, so I figured why not, and bought it. It's only components are the stand and wire running from it. I have it plugged into the pink port, but it doesn't seem to work. Is there anything else, any install process I need to go through? I'm running Vista, if that matters.
 
Question #1 do you have a soundcard or onboard. If you have a sound card the chances are you actually have both, so make sure you pluged it into the card and not the onboard (unless you only have onboard)

Then, the next thing you need to do is click start > control pannel > sound

Then click the tab called 'recording' From here you will see many (possibly) devices which can be used to provide 'recording' capabilities. While here, look for the one that says mic, or Realtek audio mic, (the name may vary with brand and junk). You should see the little bars next to the correct one light up as you keep tapping on the mic itself. (it will help to do this). Then once you are sure you have the right one, right click on it, and select 'select as default device'.

Now you are done and ready to do the mic setup in steam (but at this point you could use the windows voice recorder to test).
 
P.S. ZOMG you have a future store? Can you like, buy like, mortal combat 58 and the land before time 13... or wait, they already have a 13 dont they?
 
Yep, here in Canada we can buy the future, and hamburgers eat people.

It's plugged into the onboard, tis all I have. I've gotten to the recording tab, and I have a mic listed there, with "working" written under it, and it's already set as default. But no sound I make registers. I am confused.
 
When you say that no sound you make registers, do you mean that you can yell / tap the end of the mic and while in the recording tab the mic bars do not light up green? If that is the case then going to steam wont help any because windows has to recognize your mic first and above all.

You may want to right click in the recording tab and check off 'show disconnected devices' as well as 'show disabled devices'. That way you can see every single thing which windows thinks could potentially be a recording device. Browse the list and see if there is more than one mic option.

Sometimes when your sound is plugged into the front mic port in your case (if you have one) it disables the back port. Not all do this however and i find it annoying that it is not consistant.

Just remember two things: 1) it has to work in windows first, then steam has to be set up, then it should work in game - always check in that order. 2) in windows vista, when a program opens, it is initialized to whatever the sound settings were when it was originally opened. If you make a chance to your sound setitngs you will have to restart the programs you are using.

For example, I have headphones and speakers. If i open winamp to start playing music on my speakers - and then (while the music is playing) i change my settings to output to my headphones the music is still playing over my speakers - untill i close winamp, and reopen it.

If you are using windows sound recorder (as you should be) to make sure that windows recognizes your microphone, and find that it is not - so you make a chance in your recording settings, you must also close and reopen the sound recorder to be cirtain that it updated its settings as well.

(if you still cant ge tit working you may want to take a screen shot of your sound options recording tab and then post it so that I may also view your options.
 
I mean tapping the mic wont have any effect on the bars. Using sound recorder produces a file with no sound. Here is a shot of the sound dialog, with both disabled and disconnected devices visible:

Sound.jpg


I have tried setting either mic to default, neither produces any result.
 
The curious thing is why you have two lin in and two mic settings if you onyl have one sound card. Is this a computer you built, or a brand name? I ask because I am curious how the front audio is connected. As I may have said - sometimes having the front audio connected means the front panel overrides the back pannel (sometimes it does not).

Yeah - trying windows sound recorder wont produce any results if the green bars arent lighting up in this screen. I wouldnt double check that you have the mic plugged into the Pink hole in the back (pink is mic) - I would also double check to see if the mic has an on off switch - for example, my microphone has one, and then I would see if using the front pannel mic hole works vs the back hole (again try both of the mic settings in your recording devices using both front and back holes - 4 combinations in all heh)

The other thing you can check is in the other section of the windows sound settings where it lets you select which hardware device is used for sound io. It could be that a setting is wrong. Have you tried another mic or the same mic on a different computer?
 
My computer is built, but by someone else. So basically the worst of both worlds.

Front (top) audio jacks are not actually connected to the motherboard, so I don't think it could be that. I've tried the mic with the switch in both positions; neither works.

What setting are you referring to about the hardware device for sound in?

Alright, I tested on a laptop running XP, and it worked. So I guess it's some weird Vista issue.

Edit: I switch the active mic to the top one, as upon checking properties, the first one was the rear jack, and the second one is the front jack. Which is really strange because I'm looking inside my case right now and there's no wires running from the front jack. In any case, changing it did not help Also, the two line in settings are both rear panel jacks, the active one is the blue jack, and the unavailable one is the black analog jack, if that information helps at all
 
Hooray! I (you) got it working! Don't quite understand how, but that's not the important part. Thanks for all your help my friend.
 
Ok, so when you click on the mic setting and lcick on proportied you get a new window with three tabs. In the first tab in the middle of the window it should say 'controller information' and specify which hardware it is connected to. In my case, it says high defenition audio device (which is my onboard) - if i click my other mic it says creative x-fi which is my card. Make sure it is 'use this device (enable)' and that i the othetr tabs it is not muted or any other thing.

The jack information should confirm where it is located and have a picture (mine has a pink hole).

Also, just because it is not connected doesnt mean that it doesnt have that output. The card itself (or motherboard in this case) has pins to connect your front audio up and those pins are what the motherboard sees. It has no idea if they are connected or not.

I would look at those pins and see if there is a jumper on them - short of being pluged into the wrong hole all I can think of now is that maybe the jumper setting is wrong and it thinks a mic is connected but the pins are just shorted making no sounds. If it was a built PC thats not bad, but you just have to look in the motherboard book to see where the front adio jumper are - they are usually to the left of th eprocessor or arround where your PCIx or agp slot is.

p.s. i really wish i could just come over to your house and take a shot at it, i really am much better in person than over the phone/internet.
 
I got it working. I had to disable the device for the front jack, and then reset the comp, and then do it again. You were right the second mic listed was the front jack, which must be a weird bug, cause I can clearly see from where I'm sitting that no wires run from the front jack. Oh well. Don't have any idea why it worked, but it did. Thanks for all your help, I'd never have gotten it working without you. :)
 
SEEEEEEEEE I told you - often times sound cards have front and back connectors (even if they are onboard) and when it thinks somehting is connected to the front it often disables the back. This si what was happening to you. I just believe that it thought something was connected becaue of a jumper which was not proporly set durring PC build. I am glad you got it working and glad to have been some help.

Like I said - it comes down to silly things and always things that I cant check over the internet and are hard to explain although easy to see in person.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top