You keep blaming the software but Realtek is the driver used by many motherboard manufacturers, including Asus which I currently have and have 0 issue with.
You continue to rant about the software when I'm pretty sure this is 100% hardware related. If the Mic and Headset are being detected but no sound then there is a fault somewhere in the Mic itself or the receiver that is connected to the computer.
In the Recording control (right click on speaker then click recording devices) when you talk does the green bar next to the Mic move at all? If it does then sound is being picked up, the enxt thing to do would be to open up the properties for the mic and increase the levels and boost.