No splitters. I connect the line directly to the USB soundcard and soundcard to the pc. Everything is updated. The mic playback only happens when software/game that uses mic is running, i.e when there is a mic icon on the system tray.How are you connected to the system? Using the inline USB driven sound card or the analog splitters to the audio I/O ports? Make sure you're on the latest BIOS update for your motherboard/platform. Then uninstall and reinstall your audio drivers. If USB driven, then uninstall the soundcard listed in Device Manager(assuming you're on Windows 10).