Dell's Sorry History of Microphone/Soundcard Issue (Update)

Class_Action wrote:
"Grumps" wrote:

I have an old Dimension XPS. It has a mic that would appear to be
wired a little unusual. I thought that the 3.5mm stereo jack plug
used the end two conductors for the left and right channels, and the
longer conductor (nearest the jack body) as the common (or ground).
Well, the Dell mic that came with the XPS has the mic element
connected between the end two conductors and does not use the ground
part of the plug. This mic does not work (I haven't tried shouting)
in any other piece of audio gear (PCs, minidisk, etc). Does this
mean that the XPS has a weird arrangement on the sound card (mic
input)? And would it follow that only the supplied mic would work?

(The Dell supplied mic has the same problem.)

The cause is not the mic, but the soundcard driver:

So the problem is solved! And this thread can end. Great!

On Sun, 11 Dec 2005 23:16:20 -0700, Class_Action
wrote:

"Grumps" wrote:

I have an old Dimension XPS. It has a mic that would appear to be wired a
little unusual. I thought that the 3.5mm stereo jack plug used the end two
conductors for the left and right channels, and the longer conductor
(nearest the jack body) as the common (or ground). Well, the Dell mic that
came with the XPS has the mic element connected between the end two
conductors and does not use the ground part of the plug. This mic does not
work (I haven't tried shouting) in any other piece of audio gear (PCs,
minidisk, etc). Does this mean that the XPS has a weird arrangement on the
sound card (mic input)? And would it follow that only the supplied mic would
work?

(The Dell supplied mic has the same problem.)

The cause is not the mic, but the soundcard driver:


Well it only took you 4 weeks to figure this out,
congratulations.