# microphone troubleshooting



## Angelika_M (Oct 9, 2006)

my daughter has windows xp media center, Realtek AC97 sound card... the problem is her microphone, it will not work. It is plugged in properly, you can hear yourself through the speakers but on MSN no one can hear her talking. We have updated the sound card drivers and it didn't help... I did notice that you cannot "select" the microphone in recording control... you cannot record in sound record.. and yes the microphone does work cause we've tried it in another computer... in fact you cannot "select" anything in the recording control... personally I think its XP thats the problem but I have no idea how to fix this... (I have some knowledge of computers, but I am not a whiz by any means) .. I would sure appreciate some advice, input, fix, for this weird weird problem. Oh, she has two outlets to plug in her microphone and it doesn't work on either of them... help... please


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Hi, and welcome,

Does your daughter have an AIM or other IM account by any chance? Does it work on that?

Try going into the sound recorder in XP (Start > Programs > Entertainment > Sound Recorder). Record yourself talking normally, and play it back. Can you hear yourself?

If you can't, check that the mic volume is all the way up ( the recording volume control) and that the mic boost is on (in Sound Effect Manager in the control pannel).


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## Angelika_M (Oct 9, 2006)

she only uses MSN... we've tried the recorder, she can't record cause it doesn't pic up anything she says in the mic... yes the microphone boost is on and the volume it turned all the way up... what is odd is the fact that you cannot "select" the microphone in record control... you can't "select" any of the options... she can click on the boxes but no check mark appears... its like windows xp does not allow the option to "select" the microphone... which is why I believe it could be a windows xp problem, but the microsoft site doesn't have any answers for us either.. updating the sound card drivers didn't do anything... i hate to have resort to reinstalling windows .... its such a pain... we've check every possible option in control panel but are at a loss to figure this one out... anyone have any other ideas ???


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## Angelika_M (Oct 9, 2006)

Thanks Matt for the suggestions


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

I'll check out the recording options, I have the same card. I seem to remember there was something that needed to be done to enable recording.

If you go into the sound effect manager in the control pannel, is detect connections a tab there? If you have it, go into it, and try detecting the microphone there.


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## Angelika_M (Oct 9, 2006)

Hi Matt... no she doesn't have the detect connections tab in sound effects manager...


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Check out the settings in this pic, make sure they are similar. 

To get to the recording control, right click on the volume icon in the taskbar and click open volume control. Then go to *Options* > *Properties* And select the *Recording* circle. Make sure that Realtek AC'97 is selected for default recording device. Then put a check in microphone and line in, and click OK.

Now make sure the mic boost is on, the noise suppression is off, and the mic volume is up.


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