Microphone and XP home edition

[Mel]

I am running Windows XP home edition on Emachine T2042 with Avance AC97
audio driver (version 5.10.0.3900-Emachine has no updated driver). I
have plugged several microphones that I know work into the microphone
jack, done the set up in Sound and Audio Devices under Audio, Volume
Control (unmuted the microphone), etc., then run the hardware test and
cannot record via the microphone.

I have scoured various forums, including this one, and learned that
many XP home edition users have encountered this same problem.
However, I have not yet seen the solution. If you have solved the
problem, please share it with me.

I need the microphone to use SKYPE, so maybe SKYPE users have figured
the solution out.

Mel

 

[D.Currie]

When you're "unmuting" the mic, are you looking at the playback devices?
Because that's generally where you would find things to mute or not, and you
really don't want sound coming out of the mic, so keep it muted there.

Go to the recording devices section, and it's a different way of looking at
things. You need to check the thing you want to use as a recording device,
and generally you can only have one chosen at a time.