audio - Windows 8 not picking up mic sound

06
2014-04
  • Aarmora

    I have been using an older logitech headset and both the sound and mic had been working perfectly. I purchased a new turtle beach headset and somewhere around this time the mic stopped picking up sound. I went back to the logitech and the same problem was there. I tried both headphones in another computer and they worked perfectly. I purchased a new sound card and the same problem occurs with both headsets. I upgraded from Windows 8 to 8.1 and still nothing. I've changed all the mic settings I could find (communications, mic levels, made sure application can't take exclusive control, etc) and nothing. I've upgraded drivers for both sound cards, I've ran troubleshooting, and I've googled. Oh how I've googled.

    Anyone happen to have any suggestions? My next step will be to reformat but is there something I'm missing?

    Thanks in advance!

    • Answers
    Know someone who can answer? Share a link to this question via email, Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.

    Related Question

    audio - Bad sound quality of 3.5mm headphone with mic on laptop
  • Isaac

    I have a set of headphones that have a built-in mic for hands-free calling. They work great on my Sony Ericsson Cedar cellphone.

    The problem is that when I connect headphone to my Dell N5010 laptop to listen to music, the quality is horrible, with very weak or no vocals.

    When I hold down the talk button on the mic, however, it changes: the quality goes up. When I let go, it goes back to sounding bad. When I adjust the jack by pulling it out and moving it around, the quality goes back up, but I have to hold the jack in place.

    I've looked for a way to configure the sound card but found nothing.

    Is there a solution besides gluing down the talk button on the mic?


    • Related Answers
  • slhck

    TRS and TRRS Jacks

    I'm afraid you won't be able to fix the problem by software. There are two types of jacks:

    • Those headsets have a three-way jack, with a tip, two rings and a sleeve (left, right and microphone plus a ground - middle in the image). Those are called TRRS.
    • Standard headphones uses only two channels, i.e. tip and ring (for stereo, left in the image), the sleeve is used for ground. They're called TRS.

    enter image description here

    The Problem

    The thing is: Your phone will fit the jack. Your laptop however probably won't – it could be that one of the stereo rings doesn't match the laptop's output jack perfectly. The laptop will only have two internal connectors (for stereo), whereas the jack has three. The stereo ones will have to overlap exactly. This is why you have to pull out the jack a little in order to get it working. In the image you can see that this is a matter of millimeters.

    From Wikipedia:

    TRRS plugs do not work properly with a TRS stereo jack if the ground contact in the jack connects to the microphone contact on the plug

    Pressing the talk button may short-circuit something so that you achieve the same effect as pulling the jack out.

    The Solution

    • See if you can buy a TRRS to TRS connector.

    • Don't push the plug all the way in (as I already mentioned above).

  • slhck

    Here is what I did: Remove the last insulating ring with a blade or cutters the one away from the tip of the head phone jack. You can see the one I mean in the pic above in the other post.

    Get your soldering iron and fill the gap in with solder. It does not have to be all the way around (it does not have to be neat – you can have it piled up and messy).

    Now use a small file to file down the excess and round it off (I used the file from the nail clippers).

  • tapped-out

    Stick a small chunk of paper or two into the audio jack.