My Mic won't work and no one knows why!

[Syntex]

Now this is almost going on a week since my mic just out-of-the-blue stopped working.

I didn't install any updates, drivers, software or hardware.
I didn't open my PC and mess with anything.

I have plugged 3 different mics in both the front port and the back port and they all can't pick up sound but do so on my laptop so its not the mic.

Ventrilo is not muted or outbound put to minium.

Dell has come out and replaced the motherboard, sound card AND the front panel with the ports and it still doesn't work.

Dxdiag says there is no problem.

System restore didn't fix it and trying to restore with the new parts is now(I think) preventing me from restoring it to an ever further back date(keeps giving me the cannot restore to this date error).

I have no idea what this is and its frustrating when your playing a game and you can't communicate with people.

By the way sound is fine, speakers work, sound is clear and perfect just the mic doesn't pick up anything.

I challenge you guys, anyone have ANY clue as to why after all these problems it STILL isn't working and even Dell is like "we don't know".

The guy who came out said the new parts might be defective but the off chance that isn't the case what else could it be?

EDIT: I am running windows XP currently.

[Princemercury]

Does your sound properties look like this?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...Mizuno/MIC.jpg

(I know you're using XP, but same thing).

Edit: Dug out an old XP machine:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...zuno/MICXP.jpg

[finalwolf]

Now this is almost going on a week since my mic just out-of-the-blue stopped working.

I didn't install any updates, drivers, software or hardware.
I didn't open my PC and mess with anything.

I have plugged 3 different mics in both the front port and the back port and they all can't pick up sound but do so on my laptop so its not the mic.

Ventrilo is not muted or outbound put to minium.

EDIT: I am running windows XP currently.

right click the Ventrillo Icon and click on "Run as Administrator", not clicking that will cause my mic to not work. I'm on window vista, but you said your os is xp. worth the try though.

[Eanae]

Run as Administrator has nothing to do with XP..

[Ratatapa]

There is a Program i forgot the name that some game use exemple counter strike.

That program is used to not cheat, when i played CS with friends i had to use that program, if that program was on, people couldnt hear me on vent. But as soon as i closed it, my mic worked on vent.

So might be a similar issue

[Syntex]

I am 99% sure its not ventrilo related I just mentioned that so people don't give me the obvious answer that the quick fix for most people.

The problem is bigger then that because when I go into sound devices in the control panel and when I go to voice tab > test hardware > and it lets me test the mic where when you talk the colored red/green/yellow bar goes up and down it doesn't move even yelling into the thing.

I am still lost at what is causing this and even Dell doesn't even know.

Since they replaced the hardware I am thinking its a software problem with some settings being switched or something I saw some people with that issue but I can't find one thats specific to me.

[Princemercury]

Delete your sound card entirely in device manager and scan for hardware changes from within (full refresh).

Un-mute mic monitoring if you happen to have that special feature (I know you haven't altered anything when the problem came up).

What I would do is stick another HD in there and do a quick new install of Windows & sound drivers and see if it works to narrow it down to your current installation.

[Syntex]

Delete your sound card entirely in device manager and scan for hardware changes from within (full refresh).

Un-mute mic monitoring if you happen to have that special feature (I know you haven't altered anything when the problem came up).

What I would do is stick another HD in there and do a quick new install of Windows & sound drivers and see if it works to narrow it down to your current installation.

Bolded that.

Now I am not a tech saavy guy but that sounds like if I go that road I could screw something up and really have bigger problems.

It sucks its a holiday weekend because I know this really good computer guy who can come out and take a look but I will have to wait till monday and ill have him take a stab at it.

I just have a knack for screwing things up more then I need to :/

A friend suggested reformatting and I might buy a 1tera byte HD for like 60 bucks on black Friday to do that since I have too much shit on my HD anyways.

Either way it sounds good I might try it.

[Princemercury]

When you remove drivers Windows PnP will recognize the "unknown" (hardware without drivers since you removed them) hardware and reinstall the drivers, basically reinitializing your device and clear up any potential driver issue.

But good luck.