Solved! Lapel Microphone Won't Properly Work With Laptop

[mathiasjrg]

Hello! I recently purchased a lapel microphone for my HP Pavilion Laptop. I want to use this in conjunction with my headset. My headset already has a built in microphone, but it is quite rubbish - hence the new lapel. If I use a audio splitter (1 male to 2 female) I run into a problem. If I use the both the audio jack and microphone jack for the headset, the headset turns on + the microphone in the headset turns on. If I plug in the lapel microphone however, it doesn't work with the splitter. If I plug the lapel mic in without the splitter it's instead recognized as a headphone. Another weird thing, is that contrary to my previous computers, the new devices I plug in aren't registered as a new device per sey, but they just "take over" for the laptop speakers or built in microphone (using the same name, and same device "profile" in the sound control panel.

TL;DR/Clarification:

• If I plug it directly into the headset jack, it will either not register or it will be registered as a speaker/output device. If I speak into the microphone, I'm able to see the speakers volume bar go up.
• If I plug in a headset directly it works completely fine.
• If I use an audio splitter with a headset and the headsets microphone, it will work fine.
• If I use an audio splitter with a headset and my lapel microphone - what I'm trying to do - it DOESN'T work. I am able to hear through the headset but the microphone isn't being picked up by anything.

Any idea how I can use my lapel mic in conjunction with my headset?

P.S. My laptop uses something called a B&O audio system and Realtek HD drivers. If I enable "Multistreaming" in B&O a new device "Realtek HD Audio 2nd output" shows up as headphones and "Mic in at front panel (black)" shows up under recording devices
Since I'm stuck with the horrible B&O Audio Manager it means that I don't have access to the Realtek HD Audio Manager that everyone online tells me to use.

 

[webworkings]

Your headset having a microphone is a large part of your problem. If it was just headphones it might would a bit differently. However, that said, the 3.5mm ports on many laptops just don't work well with things like splitters, etc. The ports seem to be getting more cheaply made.

Alas I don't think you can make it work while you are still connecting with the headset that has a mic. You can try to make it work connecting through a USB port (using a 3.5mm to USB adapter) instead, but I still think you are going to run into trouble while there are two competing mics in the mix.