What is this CTIA tomfoolery, can't connect mic with a splitter?

[arpit.pkol]

I miss those days when there was a seperate LINE-IN jack on laptops. 2 years back I bought a HP Envy laptop which comes with a CTIA type combo audio jack. I can't connect my Shure mic or my electric guitar to it in any way. I have to use a usb sound card for that purpose but its sound quality is crap.

Today I tried every possible combination with the audio jacks and mic wires. I also tried to connect the mic's contacts to the audio splitter's mic in jack in different combinations, but no use. First I checked an android headset with the laptop and the mic and earphones worked properly. Then I stripped away the mic and tried to connect the Shure mic directly to points A and B in all possible combinations, but no use. Hell, if I connect those points A and B to the mic's red and yellow wires directly, the laptop shows "Not plugged in" for the front mic! And it returns as soon as I detach the wires.

Kindly check the pics from the following link:

https/imgur.com/gallery/kRnhds0

What is this mystery? Why can't a mic work with this configuration? What do I have to do to connect mic/guitar directly to the laptop?

P.S. The shure mic and electric guitar work flawlessly when connected to an amplifier or guitar effects pedal, I mean to say there is no defect in them.

 

[jay32267]

There are two CTIA configurations I'm aware of.

I think what you have is CTIA /AHJ.

If so....the tip of the plug is left audio....the next band is right audio....the next band is ground and the sleeve is the microphone.

Does this help?

 

[arpit.pkol]

There are two CTIA configurations I'm aware of.

Does this help?

Thanks for replying. Yes that's true, mine is CTIA/AHJ. I confirmed by checking continuity of wires to the jack's tip.But shouldn't it work if I connect the shure mic's red wire to the MIC (sleeve on the jack) and yellow wire to the ground (3rd band on the jack)? Even after doing that or swapping the wires, the laptop shows that the mic is disconnected and only appears again when I disconnect them from the mic.

How to get it working, it's a great mystery to me!

 

[jay32267]

Yeah.....I would think. Perhaps it has something to do with the impedance of the mic. Did that mic ever get detected?

The other thing I thought of is....sometimes in those jacks there is a switcj that gets enabled by the plug.....perhaps that's not getting enabled.