# Microphone Not Recognized



## cwforums (Oct 4, 2007)

I have a Mac G4 (400MHz Power PC G4) running OS X 10.3.9 given to me by a friend. It does not recognize the Altec Lansing AHS 515 headset/microphone combo I use for podcasting.

I can hear fine through the headset but the Mac doesn't recognize the microphone. The headset/mic is plugged into the correct jacks on the back of the G4 (it has a PCI graphics card) but no dice.

I looked in the Sound Settings and I am given 2 options. External Microphone/Line In and Sound Input. I tried choosing each, at a time, and neither pick up my voice.

I use Audacity (no I don't have GarageBand) and had no trouble with this on my old, now dead, Dell. Please help.


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

well, of those 2 choices, you will want the external mic/line in. under it should be a slide bar, and you can try sliding it all the way to the right. as you talk into the mic, the level indicator should light up showing what level it is reading. also, is there any kind of settings on the mic itself that you can adjust? it could also be that the port on the mac is bad. you could try plugging in another mic to see if it works. i don't use audacity, so i don't know if it has a preference that you have to set independent of the os setting, which some apps do. i'd check in the app to see if you have to tell it where to find the incoming sound.


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## cwforums (Oct 4, 2007)

Thanks for your help. I don't have another mic to test but I did wonder if the port is bad. Since the mac was given to me I don't have much recourse on that end. I know on XP Audacity didn't have any problems...depending on the computer (on my old Dell no problems, on my parents new Dell it doesn't pick up much sound). I plugged in the mic and I could select it in Audacity.

When I slide the level indicator it does light up to show a change in volume. It does that, also, when I plug in the microphone into the microphone port. But, when I speak into the mic it doesn't show a change in volume. I've tried tapping on the mic and etc to get some alteration but nothing happens. The mic has worked for me before, I've recorded a lot of podcasts with it, but for some reason my new mac doesn't like it. I've been trying to resolve this since early Summer and no luck.

Any other thoughts?


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

not really. without having another mic to test on the mac, its hard to say. if the mic is a known good one, and it only does work on this mac, then i'd say the port on the mac is bad. just to rule out the mic, is there another computer that you could test it on, like at work, school, or a friends?

-edit-
i just downloaded and played audacity 1.2.6. right there in the main window there is a place to select the audio input. i only have one input source, so it only listed one. above it is a mic icon with a little down arrow next to that. click on it and make sure that there isn't a check mark next to disable. and below that is a slider with a mic icon next to that, make sure it is slide all the way to the right. also, if you goto the preferences of audacity, there is a tab to configure the audio i/o's, so i'd check in there too. one last place to look is the app audio midi setup which is found in the utilities folder. the icon looks like a keyboard. open that and on the left side will be the settings for the sound input make sure that the line in/mic isn't muted or set up funny. if all of these things are set up correctly, then the mac will get a signal from a working mic if the port is working, unless there is some other kinda of app installed that is messing things up by bypassing the system settings. if that is the case, i have no idea on how to fix that without knowing what that app could be.


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