For some reason I'm having problems with my sound input.

I haven't used my microphone for about 5 weeks. Today I've plugged it in, and noticed there's no sound input capability at all.

Using Windows 2000, I've gone into the Control Panel, and into Sounds and Multimedia.... I click on the Audio tab, and under Sound Recording click the Volume button... Recording Controller comes up, and under Controlling Balance I cannot mute or unmute, as the feature has been disabled.

So somehow the audio input has been turned off.

Any clue how I can turn it back on?

Cheers.

Okay, so I have an IBM ThinkPad 380Z laptop, and I run Windows 2000. According to an IBM website (http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site...qse.380z#Audio), Windows 2000 contains the ThinkPad 380Z audio drivers.

So, how do I re-install them?

Do I need to completely re-install Windows 2000? I've played around with the W2K CD, and there don't seem to be any provisions for just updating a single driver.... any ideas?

Go to control panel/system/devices/sounds, video game controllers. Click the + sign to get to the controllers. You should download the driver and put it somewhere you remember. Click on the one in the list you need to update and click properties. There you will find the option to update driver. Select browse when youve clicked update and point it to where you stored the new driver.

I think I've finally pinned down what my problem is - my internal laptop microphone has been activated after being dormant for years. I didn't even realize my computer had an internal mic!

When I try to record sound without an external mic, the internal mic successfully records sound.... the problem is that if I turn the audio output up to a significant level, it produces deafening feedback.

When I plug in an external mic, it toggles the internal mic. However, the external mic does not pick up any sound, so that no sound is recorded at all.

I guess somehow my crazy computer re-activated the internal microphone after all these years, and it is causing a conflict with my external mic.

Any tips on how to de-activate my internal mic so that I can use an external one?

Cheers.

Here's what I found on how to turn off the mic.

1. double click the speaker icon on your tray. In ME and '98 it'll be yellow and it could be anything in xp.
2. choose Options and then Properties
3. Now click on Recording and then click OK
4. You'll now see the Input mixer - it may be called recording control.
5. You'll find the mic in selected. Just select the Line or other input. On most sound cards, only one may be selected, so selecting another one will turn off the mic.