Headset mic shows as default but barely working

[dmd0705]

Last night, my headset mic was fine. Today, it's barely functioning. In audio manager, it's set as default, but when I say "hello" loudly, there is only one little green bar, yet the built-in laptop mic is getting many green bars.
I normally have it plugged into the extra USB port on my laptop cooling fan, so I changed it to one of the laptop USB ports with the same result.
I need this to work because I use it to teach 7 days a week. OS is Windows 8.1. I hope that someone can help me quickly. Thank you!

Update: It magically started working again.

 

[Laptop_Nerd]

Hi,

Have you tried adjusting the microphone levels?
- Right click on the speaker icon and select Recording Devices.
- Right click on the default Microphone and select Properties.
- Once opened, click on Levels tab and make sure that the Mic Level is at 100%.
- Change the level of Microphone Boost as well and click Apply and OK.

 

[dmd0705]

I tried everything, but it magically fixed itself today and a few hours ago I added an update to my post mentioning that. Thanks for the help!