Problem with headphones (mic specifically)

[Khanjin]

Hi, I really need some help with an issue!

My microphone doesn't work and I don't think it's a problem with the mic itself. I had the exact same severe problems with my former microphone, bought a new pair of headphones and this microphone doesn't work properly either. The sound in my headphones works just fine. Weird thing is that if I mess around in sound settings in the control panel disabling and enabling the "High Definition Audio Device" microphone things, sometimes it starts to work, but it ONLY works until I shut down that specific screen, and then it's totally jacked again. I can't reproduce this either, it's totally random. A few months ago I had a similar problem with Skype, but then the only thing I had to do was go into the Skype settings and change the microphone device to the second one available. Next time I got into Skype I had to change BACK to the first one and that worked. It's really, really weird. Nowadays I just stay away from voice com, because it's such a hassle. Got any advice?

[Rickz]

What headset are we talking about?

USB or mic jack?

[lilbruz]

Silly question perhaps, but are you sure you have plugged in BOTH jacks ? You need one for the headset and one for the mic. Your mic might also be disable or muted in settings

[Beefz]

Do you have any sound drivers installed? Also is your mic set as the default recording device?

[Khanjin]

It's a mic jack, of course I plug the headset audio into one jack and the mic into the mic jack. This mic jack that I've plugged the mic into is set to the default recording jack, but when I'm in audio settings and talk into the mic there is simply no recognition.

Just last week I used Audacity to record audio for a school project and it worked fine, now it doesn't work properly. I might get it to work if I jerk around with disabling/enabling stuff randomly in my audio settings. An hour later it won't work again. It's totally frustrating. (I use windows 7 64-bit btw)