Question Is my motherboard’s ability to process a mic dead?

[Michael Rempfer]

Microphones not recording, green light on the mic not moving when viewed in Sound, but when I hit the mic or headset Sound does register it and I can see the green light move. Both mic and headset ports I also tested this by recording in audacity, on all devices, and it did indeed pick up the hits to the mics/headset but nothing else. I tested this with three different headset all default 3.5mm: onikuma, astro A10 (for the switch) and ipod standard headphones using all ports and USB adapter. Mics/headsets all work on other machines. I do get normal audio from each headset but the mics never pick up unless hit.

To cover some bases and please let me know if you need more info:
Windows 10
Mobo - ASRock Z77 Extreme4
Recently purchase as a solve: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy FX PCIe 5.1 Sound Card with High Performance Headphone Amp
USB audio adapter

What I’ve tried using the case port, mobo port, USB audio adapter and sound card:
Checking sound settings with each mic marked as default during testing
Nothing set on mute and levels up and even boosted
Checked windows setting and given all app access to mics.
Uninstalled all drivers down to just windows.
Reinstall drivers one at a time and retested.
Reloaded Realtek.
Updated all windows drivers.
Updated mobo’s drivers from the manufacturer's site.
Purchased sound card and tried testing all mic’s again

Followed these guides here as well but they did not work:
https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...m-motherboard-and-front-panel-audioi.3093410/
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/front-panel-mic-jack-not-working.3098921/
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/microphone-jack-not-working.3091323/

Thanks in advance for reading and any feedback is appreciated.

 

[R_1]

for a true test of the hardware and to ensure that software is not at issue at all, I suggest booting into a new environment, like linux. this will force all new software to test the hardware involved. if its the hardware it will be borked here too.

Boot to a USB drive with linux on it. grab a USB drive, a copy of rufus and a linux distribution.
http://distrowatch.com/ has tons of differing linux distributions and download links. I personally am fond of linux mint with cinnamon.
https://rufus.ie/ the utility used to extract the ISO file to the USB drive.

use rufus to extract the selected ISO to the thumb drive. it will make the drive bootable and you can run linux from the drive once done.
Reboot into linux and proceed to test the hardware. connect to internet, watch videos, await problems.
if linux is good and stable the issue is most likely inside windows or otherwise software related.
this is a test of the hardware.

 

[Michael Rempfer]

Thanks for this, I'll hopefully have the time this weekend to give it a go and will report back once I do.

I did get a hold of a USB mic and that actually worked. It's odd since the USB adapter still does not