Mic on my Headphones Doesn't Work - Please HELP! -

[Baasha]

On my Sennheiser PC350 headphones, I've been using my mic for a while when playing BF3 or other games.

Recently, the mic just stopped working and it is something to do with the settings on my computer.

I tested the headphones and mic on another computer and they work great so I know that's not the issue.

When I check the "Properties" of the Recording Devices in Windows, it shows the Mic as being plugged into the "Front Panel" (see pic) when it is actually plugged into the rear panel (pink port) of my motherboard (ASRock Extreme11). The motherboard comes with a SoundCore3D chip on-board so it has a "Control Panel" where everything seems to be set correctly (see pic) regarding the mic but I still get no sound. That meter next to the device in Recording Devices does NOT move at all so it isn't receiving any sound. It is set to "95" for the Level and the mode is 2-channel, 16-bit, 48,000hz which I have not changed.

I am not able to use my mic and it is highly irksome as it's important when I play BF3 or other games with friends.

Please help me resolve this issue.

Thanks in advance.

 

[fralexandr]

have you tried plugging your headphones into your front panel audio?
I'm guessing most headphone users use the front panel inputs, as they are easier to reach
what's it look like under "jack setup" and "speakers/headphones"? maybe one of these settings was changed


Do you have another 3.5mm microphone you could test on your computer?

I doubt this would be the issue since the webcam is USB, but have you tried changing the "microphone" name to something else? i.e. "PC350 mic"
maybe something is trying to use the webcam, since they're both labelled microphone?

 

[Baasha]

have you tried plugging your headphones into your front panel audio?
I'm guessing most headphone users use the front panel inputs, as they are easier to reach
what's it look like under "jack setup" and "speakers/headphones"? maybe one of these settings was changed


Do you have another 3.5mm microphone you could test on your computer?

I doubt this would be the issue since the webcam is USB, but have you tried changing the "microphone" name to something else? i.e. "PC350 mic"
maybe something is trying to use the webcam, since they're both labelled microphone?

Unfortunately, I don't have another mic to test the rear jack. The front jacks are NOT plugged into the motherboard so it's kind of strange as to why it shows that microphone as being the "Front Jack" in the properties menu(?).

The weird thing is that the mic from the PC350 won't even go into the front jack; it seems to be too big for that. I have a feeling there's some setting with the Creative Control Panel that's conflicting with the Sound settings in Windows 7 that's causing this.

Here are the pics of the "Jack Setup" and the "Speakers/Headphones":

 

[fralexandr]

are you using the x79 extreme11? as that's the only extreme11 that asrock lists with soundcore3d
ftp://174.142.97.10/manual/X79 Extreme11.pdf

on my computer (windows 7, asrock p55 pro), all of my microphone ports are available in the recording section, whether or not it's active or plugged in.
I don't see why your windows is detecting a front panel mic port if it's not even plugged in, with no mention of a rear mic port at all.

did anything else change between the mic working and not working?

you're sure it's in the pink port (#11) and not the orange (#6) right? (see page 14 of the pdf)

since you think it's a software issue, you might want to try a system restore to a point before the problem occurred. Maybe there was an update that messed something up?

also, weird that your cases front panel mic port doesn't use a standard 3.5mm jack :S

 

[Baasha]

are you using the x79 extreme11? as that's the only extreme11 that asrock lists with soundcore3d
ftp://174.142.97.10/manual/X79 Extreme11.pdf

on my computer (windows 7, asrock p55 pro), all of my microphone ports are available in the recording section, whether or not it's active or plugged in.
I don't see why your windows is detecting a front panel mic port if it's not even plugged in, with no mention of a rear mic port at all.

did anything else change between the mic working and not working?

you're sure it's in the pink port (#11) and not the orange (#6) right? (see page 14 of the pdf)

since you think it's a software issue, you might want to try a system restore to a point before the problem occurred. Maybe there was an update that messed something up?

also, weird that your cases front panel mic port doesn't use a standard 3.5mm jack :S

Yes, I'm using the ASRock Extreme11.

I'm definitely sure that the mic is plugged into the pink port. For a while though, I had it wrongly plugged into the orange blue in the rear (Line-In). I don't remember whether the mic was working when it was plugged in there but it doesn't work now if I plug it into the Line-In port.

I don't think anything changed between the mic working and not working. The sound driver is still the original one from ASRock's website.

The way I have it set up is I have an optical cable (ToS-Link) that goes out to my Denon receiver and then my speaker/sub system for "regular' stuff (when I'm not using headphones). I also have the headphones (PC-350) plugged in to the headphone and mic jack in the back all the time but only select it late at night in Windows 7 ("Speakers" in that menu whereas the ToS link is the "SP-DIF"). The PC-350 is always plugged in so I'm not sure if that could have messed something up but the headphones work great. Only the mic is acting up. :'(

What else can I try to fix this? I don't have a restore point with regards to the mic working; I've installed so many programs and games etc. that I really don't want to go back just to check if the mic works.

Should I uninstall the sound driver and try to install it again?

 

[fralexandr]

Should I uninstall the sound driver and try to install it again?

sure, i've had issues with sound drivers corrupting/failing to work (particularly creative x-fi)
there's little risk, and it might help

 

[Baasha]

sure, i've had issues with sound drivers corrupting/failing to work (particularly creative x-fi)
there's little risk, and it might help

I reinstalled the driver to no avail. The mic still doesn't work and the same problem persists.

It has to be that the jack is showing as "front panel" instead of "rear panel". That's the only logical reason I can think of as to why the mic isn't working.

I have no idea how to correct that though. Ugh...