I got a microphone for the computer awhile ago and put it in, and it worked right away. About, oh I don't know, 3 months ago, the computer stopped recognizing it. Now when I put it in, using any slot that has a picture of a microphone, even any slot where a sound device gets plugged in, my computer won't recognize it. I am running Windows XP and when it was working I know I was running Windows XP. Anyone have an idea of the problem? Or should I get a new microphone?

Have you tried re-installing your Sound card drivers?

since we talking about microphones how come the speakers of my headphones stopped working, but the mic continues to work..

COoLI2iCeFOo, your headphones are broken! Please post a new thread if you want to discuss this in more detail - thanks

what about me?

Have you tried re-installing your sound drivers as putasolutions suggested? This is the most likely cause of the problem.

Microphones are cheap to replace but it's not worth buying a new one if you don't know whether the sound card is working properly.

Incidentally, you will normally only have one socket to plug the mic into. They are normally colour-coded pink on modern PCs. I would recommend that you only ever plug the mic into that socket as plugging it into the speaker output and then running sound through it may damage your hardware.

ok well i haven't reinstalled my sound card drivers, but i'm confident they're fine because my speakers work... unless there's a different driver or something for the microphone.

Yes, your sound card drivers control various aspects of your sound hardware - a bit of the driver deals with your outputs (speakers), another bit deals with the wave table (whatever that is!), another bit deals with your microphone, etc.

So, even if your speakers work OK, re-installing the sound drivers might still sort out your microphone.

You could just go and buy another mic and see if it works but Putasolutions' initial suggestion won't cost you anything!

ok well now i know the mic works but i can't use it to record or do the speech stuff or anything because i get error messages. in sound recorder it says some other application is recording. what to do now?

sorry for the double-post-action, but it seems i have slipped through the cracks here... anyone have any idea of what other application could be recording that i don't know of? hey thanks!