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Hello there. I recently bought myself a new headset, the Fatal1ty gaming headset by Creative. The speakers worked, but I could not record audio with the microphone. After seeing a lot of posts on various tech site reporting problems with the set, I took it back to the shop and got a new pair, Sennheiser's PC 320. Unfortunately, this headset suffered from the same problem, so I did some digging into what the source of the problem could be.
I have a Dell L510x laptop with three audio jacks, one for audio out, one called SPDIF, and one for microphones. I also had Realtek's HD Audio Manager installed, and this let me select each jack and change what it was that jack was being used for. The microphone jack had three options, Mic In, Line In and Front Speaker Out (I think that's what it was called). Ignoring the Out option, I experimented with the In options and the Recording Devices window in Sound. When set to Mic In, none of my three recording devices, Microphone (which I think is the one built into the laptop), Line In (which came up as unplugged) and Stereo Mix showed any signs of activity when I spoke. When set to Line In, Microphone showed some sign of activity, whereas the other two, Line In and Stereo Mix, stayed dead.
I came to the conclusion that Realtek was causing the problem, so I uninstalled the Realtek audio driver from my computer. This was replaced by a driver called "High Definition Audio Device". Now, in recording devices, Microphone (the built in one) and the microphone of my headset (also called Microphone, but I renamed it to Headset Mic) appeared as separate devices. I disabled the built in microphone, and turned my attention to the Headset Mic.
This is where I get stuck. It doesn't appear to react to sound, but the indicator showing what it is receiving just oscillates up and down. Even weirder, when I silence the mic, I get a constant signal. I have a screenshot of the signals I get in Audacity.
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The shorter signal with a higher frequency at the start is the signal I get when I mute the mic. The signal afterwards is the oscillating signal I get when the mic is on (it's just noise). I also included the mono signal, if it helps.
Thanks in advance for the help.
I have a Dell L510x laptop with three audio jacks, one for audio out, one called SPDIF, and one for microphones. I also had Realtek's HD Audio Manager installed, and this let me select each jack and change what it was that jack was being used for. The microphone jack had three options, Mic In, Line In and Front Speaker Out (I think that's what it was called). Ignoring the Out option, I experimented with the In options and the Recording Devices window in Sound. When set to Mic In, none of my three recording devices, Microphone (which I think is the one built into the laptop), Line In (which came up as unplugged) and Stereo Mix showed any signs of activity when I spoke. When set to Line In, Microphone showed some sign of activity, whereas the other two, Line In and Stereo Mix, stayed dead.
I came to the conclusion that Realtek was causing the problem, so I uninstalled the Realtek audio driver from my computer. This was replaced by a driver called "High Definition Audio Device". Now, in recording devices, Microphone (the built in one) and the microphone of my headset (also called Microphone, but I renamed it to Headset Mic) appeared as separate devices. I disabled the built in microphone, and turned my attention to the Headset Mic.
This is where I get stuck. It doesn't appear to react to sound, but the indicator showing what it is receiving just oscillates up and down. Even weirder, when I silence the mic, I get a constant signal. I have a screenshot of the signals I get in Audacity.
The shorter signal with a higher frequency at the start is the signal I get when I mute the mic. The signal afterwards is the oscillating signal I get when the mic is on (it's just noise). I also included the mono signal, if it helps.
Thanks in advance for the help.
