My headset mic was working fine, then I went to use it in Skype (like I always have) and it wouldn't work. Went to Sound Recorder and mic didn't work there either. Realtek audio says all is working properly, but it's not. Checked the levels in 'recording devices' and went to 'device manager' to get an update of the latest Realtek driver. still nothing. tried system restore but that did not work.

Any help would be welcome. I didn't change anything, the mic just stopped working. speakers still work fine, including headset speakers

Try another mic.

Yes, I've already tried a couple of other microphones. nothing

Look at the event viewer.
start, run, eventvwr.msc

I'm not that familiar with the event viewer. What should I be looking for, or do, or change?

You can't change anything. You are just looking for errors.

I appreciate ur attempt to help, but that doesn't tell me much. I don't know what to look for there. Fill me in on what type of error i might look for and then where i go to change it so my mic will work

There is no guarantee that anything in there will help you but it's worth looking. That's why those logs are there.

For example, double click on system. Look for the word ERROR in red. Double click on it and see if it applies. Do that in all 3 logs. You may find something and you may not.

Thanks, that explanation helped me. Did that, and nothing applying to audio or mic or anything. It was stuff like Ad-Aware stopped responding when I used it, or browser errors, etc.

-My guess is that my mic problem has to do with Windows changing something or maybe some site that grabbed control of the mic. When searching the net for 'mic stopped working" it's not an uncommon problem. i've tried most of those fixes but just can't seem to get anything to work. i'm thinking it's something like a tiny registry entry or maybe even something in the bios. but the bios on this machine doesn't have many controls

Did you try going to control panel, sounds and audio, audio, volume in the sound recording box and make sure that mute is not checked?

yes i have done that

I don't see any other alternative other than installing another sound card.

Since you said it was working fine & the problem seem to have come out of nowhere, did you try a system restore to the last time you knew the mic worked fine?

Skype Sound and Audio Set-Up

Jabbering Idiots: Everywhere You Look!

yes, i did try that. forgot to mention. unfortunately it didn't work

Ok, then I don't have any more suggestions.

Are you sure your mic is configured as the default recording device & statused as working?

Jabbering Idiots: Everywhere You Look!

yeah, that's the oddest thing, you look in recording devices, and the mic has that green check mark highlighted and says "working". everything else says working to. just one problem: it ain't working lol.

Look carefully at the "Mute" check box; some times it has changed to, I believe, "Select", in which case it should be checked. Also, with a couple of apps using a mic, I've had to "Mute" the mic to get it to work! Strange!!!

Don't squat with your spurs on!

Hi Alpha, thx for the response. I agree the mute thing can be screwy and i had already checked that, but thx. I had the same problem as you -- my previous machine was win98 and I too had to have the mute mic box checked before it would work. totally crazy. lol. i mean, how many people would ever even think to try that as a solution? There's no reason you ever would. Just the beauty of windows i guess. i mean, it would be like stepping into an elevator where the doors stay open and the elevator doesn't move, and you have to figure out that you're supposed to push the "doors open" button to make the doors close and get the elevator moving! lol