Solved!
I was having difficulty with Skype. My sound would fade then come back, and then the mic would cut out on words. It just made it impossible to Skype. I tried a bunch of times to fix the Skype settings, and check with Skype Test Call, but nothing worked.
Then I realized the Gateway microphone default settings were the issue. Here's the fix:
go to:
control panel
->hardware and sound
-->manage audio devices
click the recording tab
+select the microphone
---->properties
----->levels tab
change your microphone volume to 100, and put microphone boost to 0dB.
when i tested again, my microphone sounded normal.
test skype again, and if that doesn't work, then try the "communication" tab from managing audio devices, and change the option of "When Windows detects communication activity: to "Do Nothing".
Working great now. Obviously Gateway didn't test their software after they built it in.
Hope this helps!