# Mic not picking up voice, picking out sound output



## MasterZoran (Jan 11, 2008)

I recently reinstalled my sound drivers to fix a crackling/popping noise i was experiencing with my sound card. The problem was solved but now I am having an even stranger issue...

My microphone no longer picks up my voice at all, it instead is picking up whatever my computer is outputting to my headset's headphones... which is a huge problem

The headset has 2 plugs, one for sound and one for the mic, they are both plugged into the correct ports on the back of the computer, I have onboard sound

another oddity, the microphone will pick up the sound output regardless if the actual mic plug is plugged in or not, so this leads me to believe it is not a problem with my actual microphone, but that I have something set wrong or something is wrong with my drivers

I have tried rolling back drivers but it did not solve the issue, and my mic isn't set to mute either

anyone have any ideas or ever heard of anything like this? any help would be greatly appreciated

EDIT: i figured out a better way of explaining the problem, my mic "line in" is somehow software rerouted to the sound output, the sound still plays through my headphones though, and the mic wont accept any input. Not sure if thats very clear but its the best way I can think to describe it.


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## MasterZoran (Jan 11, 2008)

I have discovered that the mic problems only occur when i do not have the SoundMax sound management program installed // installing that however brings back my sound popping and distorting problem that I had before... I have tried it a couple of times both ways and windows refuses to let my mic function without that program that causes sound distortion


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## Tcent247 (Aug 23, 2009)

You are not alone, I have the same problem except for the distorting portion. I don't know how to fix it. I have Realtek AC97 or something, and I've tried fiddling with all of those settings but still no voice output, only audio. Like you, I know it's not the microphone itself. It has been working properly all year until randomly now, it wont output my voice, only my background audio. It's really frustrating because I need to talk on the microphone, it's a crucial part of my gaming. Are you saying that by downloading/installing SoundMax this can be fixed? If so, how do I uninstall my current audo sound driver? (Realtek AC97)


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## The Blue Peanut (Aug 24, 2009)

If you're using Realtek onboard sound it has a habit of screwing around with this sort of thing in my experience- if you have an external soundcard personally I'd suggest using that.

With the onboard sound have a look through the windows (I'm assuming that's what you're using) sound settings to make sure the input/output settings match up to the sound driver settings as a clash here can cause this sort of problem. Other than that I can only suggest maybe rolling back the drivers unless it's a hardware problem- does your headset use a single cable? If so it could well be that there is a lot of crossover being generated by some simple damage to the cable, which would also explain the crackle. The fact that it got worse could be the computer picking up a fault by means of the wrong level signal or similar and then routing the output to the input instead...although I don't know why it would do that.


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## Tcent247 (Aug 23, 2009)

I have windows vista, a 2 line pink and green connector for the mic, and both onboard realtek soundboard and a hardware one so I can use either one. Now if I rollback the realtek onboard one, it uses the hardware one automatically and no more screw ups? Or do I have to rollback both of them? Or do I have to uninstall it completely? Although it could be this: When I go to sound settings in control panel, it shows Line-In as 'Currently unavailable.' This could as well be another problem or maybe the basic one.

Reply would be awesome thanks


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## The Blue Peanut (Aug 24, 2009)

It could well be a conflict with the onboard sound that is causing the line-in to be shown as unavailable. I'd say that the Realtek drivers are more likely to be causing the issue if it is drivers at all but rolling both back can't hurt- it's not difficult to just roll them forward again. I'm still not sure this is a driver issue though, being a sound guy rather than a PC tech, I would suggest trying both the headset in a friend's computer and another headset in yours, or just try plugging any input device into the line-in such as any MP3 player. That should at least tell you if all the hardware works.


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