Solved! I have a laptop with a combined sound & mic port: I wanted to test out the microphone, but it doesn't work?

azry_al

Prominent
Jun 27, 2017
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510
Hi! Sorry, the title may seem a little confusing but lemme just reword this:

I bought a headset recently, (Etekcity Scroll H5GX) and I was aware that it comes with two jacks, one for sound and the other as a microphone respectively. The sound jack works perfectly fine, but I bought this headset primarily because of the superb mic quality. The splitter I bought is coming in a few days or maybe a couple weeks, I'm not really sure, but regardless I wanted to try the microphone while I wait for the splitter.

I plugged the microphone jack into my laptop port, and went to go to Recording Devices. What I was planning to do was to go into my microphone's properties and enable "Listen to Device" so I could test the microphone live: However, the microphone didn't appear in the Recording Devices tab.

https://image.prntscr.com/image/9wozdE3sSli9qb8B6tCJsw.png

(Usually, when I plug a microphone into that jack, it enables the "Mic in at front panel (black)" microphone)

So as you may be able to tell, it doesn't work here. My brother's already tried my headset on his laptop (his doesn't have a headphone & mic fused port, rather he has one for each) and the microphone works perfectly.

I've gone into the properties of the headset and have only encountered these list of options:

http://prntscr.com/fp01j7

Does anyone know what's up? I have an HP Star Wars Special Edition Laptop.

Thanks!
 
Solution
It is a very common flaw in the devices. Even if the jack says it is dual, it may not work when it is a mic alone plugged in from a dual jack device. I have heard a ton of reasons for it, but none really make sense. :)

Alas, even getting that splitter (which should be an adapter not a splitter) may not resolve your issue. I have seen them not work well either.

To resolve it you may need a dual 3.5mm to USB adapter, which would work great without the issues the singular 3.5mm port can give you. If the product you ordered doesn't resolve it, then I would return it and try the adapter type I have mentioned here.
It is a very common flaw in the devices. Even if the jack says it is dual, it may not work when it is a mic alone plugged in from a dual jack device. I have heard a ton of reasons for it, but none really make sense. :)

Alas, even getting that splitter (which should be an adapter not a splitter) may not resolve your issue. I have seen them not work well either.

To resolve it you may need a dual 3.5mm to USB adapter, which would work great without the issues the singular 3.5mm port can give you. If the product you ordered doesn't resolve it, then I would return it and try the adapter type I have mentioned here.
 
Solution