Computer Won't Record Audio From Any Microphone

[melonbuggu]

This is an issue I've had with my computer for a long time, so I've always bought headsets that come with an external sound card/usb adapter to get around it.

However, upgrading my headset this time I went with the Sennheizer Game One's, which do not come with any USB adapter. When I plug them into the front audio/mic ports on my pc's case, or the back ports on my ASRock Z97Extreme3 motherboard, sound comes out of the headphones without any issue, but I only here a screeching white noise (sounds like an extremely loud wind turbine) for a few seconds from my microphone, then it cuts all audio entirely.

I've already tried reinstalling my motherboard's audio drivers, so I'm really at a loss for what to do. Please help

 

[banibrata.dutta]

Possibly an issue with the motherboards onboard audio codec subsystem. I've seen a similar report on MSI motherboard forum, where it turned out to be some damage inflicted by the person performing some component installation / replacement. How about getting one of those USB sound-cards. There are some that perform much better than the onboard codec. Those are pretty inexpensive.

 

[melonbuggu]

I took your advice and bought a Sabrent USB sound card, but there is still no audio recording from my microphone. Not sure what to do 🙁

 

[banibrata.dutta]

I took your advice and bought a Sabrent USB sound card, but there is still no audio recording from my microphone. Not sure what to do 🙁

Sabrent USB sound cards are one of the better ones. So if you still don't get recordings from your microphone the motherboard's audio coded/subsystem is not the issue. Some questions then:

1. Does the same headset (with mic) work well on another PC ? Can you try, if you haven't already ?
2. Can you borrow another headset (with mic) and try on your PC ?
3. Are you sure that you are using the right connectors ? Quick check of the Sennheiser Game One headset reveals that it has 2x 3.5" connectors for PCs/macs, and a 1x3.5" connector for consoles. I hope that you are matching the right set of connectors to the audio jack-ins. Do you know about TRRS, TRS ? Mobile phones (and perhaps consoles too) for example use a single TRRS jack (Tip-Ring-Ring-Sleeve) which provide electrical connectivity to L-/R- audio-out (to headphone) and mono audio-in (from mic). OTOH, the 2x TRS/TS setup provide separate jacks for headphone and mic.
4. Finally I hope that the motherboard to front-panel audio header connectivity is wired up fine.

Those are few things I can think of, that are worth checking.

 

[melonbuggu]

I took your advice and bought a Sabrent USB sound card, but there is still no audio recording from my microphone. Not sure what to do 🙁

Sabrent USB sound cards are one of the better ones. So if you still don't get recordings from your microphone the motherboard's audio coded/subsystem is not the issue. Some questions then:

1. Does the same headset (with mic) work well on another PC ? Can you try, if you haven't already ?
2. Can you borrow another headset (with mic) and try on your PC ?
3. Are you sure that you are using the right connectors ? Quick check of the Sennheiser Game One headset reveals that it has 2x 3.5" connectors for PCs/macs, and a 1x3.5" connector for consoles. I hope that you are matching the right set of connectors to the audio jack-ins. Do you know about TRRS, TRS ? Mobile phones (and perhaps consoles too) for example use a single TRRS jack (Tip-Ring-Ring-Sleeve) which provide electrical connectivity to L-/R- audio-out (to headphone) and mono audio-in (from mic). OTOH, the 2x TRS/TS setup provide separate jacks for headphone and mic.
4. Finally I hope that the motherboard to front-panel audio header connectivity is wired up fine.

Those are few things I can think of, that are worth checking.

Hi, thanks for replying.

1. I've tried the headset on other pc's and it works fine, including the microphone.
2. Other headset's microphones I've tried only work with USB connection, never with the 3.5mm mic jacks.
3. I'm pretty sure I'm using the right connectors, It's just a green headphone cord and a pink mic cord, and it works fine on other computers I've tried it on.
4. The front panel is wired up to the motherboard, I've checked several times.

The only thing I can think of is maybe the Sabrent sound card I bought wasn't the right thing? I just bought the $8 "Adapter", which I assumed would be enough, as all of the "usb adapter's" that headsets typically come with have always been enough in the past to make the headset function.

 

[banibrata.dutta]

In that case, I'm afraid I've nothing more to add, other than one final thing about the operating system configuration regarding input/recording device. I just hope that when the default (motherboard's inbuilt) sound source (mic-in) is selected, some odd/incompatible setting is not getting in the way. What is strange is that even Sabrent sound-card didn't work though headsets with USB connectivity did -- is quite strange, since they are effectively very similar from the way the PC sees them.

The $8 Sabrent sound cards work just fine. I use one that is very similar, bought for about $4 in India, and works just fine.

Afraid that I'm unable to offer any more ideas at the moment.

 

[banibrata.dutta]

Just check if you have ASIO drivers installed by any chance, and/or try updating the drivers for your audio interfaces if possible. If you have special ASIO drivers (s.a. ASIO4all) try removing them.