Vista - Problems with microphone input:(

I have been having some trouble getting Vista or Realtek HD to playback audio from both channels of my headphones. Here's the scenario

I plug in my headphones - REAL recognizes them - I choose 'headphones'
and I am able to hear audio from the computer (left and right channel) as it should be.

I plug in my microphone - REAL recognizes it -I choose 'microphone'
and I am able to hear the input from it...But only from the left channel.

Also I have checked the sound options from the control panel...But there is no correctly functioning 'balance' option...There is an option for balance but...What it is actually doing is providing a medium that acts as a volume control, not a balance option.

Even weirder when, I pullout the headphones just a little bit, I can hear the microphone through both left and right channels.

But when I play back what I've recorded it only recorded the left channel.

And this next one just completely boggels me, I went back a day or so later and listened to one of my recordings, and it came through both channels. I cannot figure it out. Please help

Thank you,

Trent

Hi Trent and welcome to Vista Forums

Are you sure that your microphone is stereo and not mono? Check the plug. How many contact areas are there on it? For stereo, there will be 3, whereas mono only has 2.
When you pull your headphones out slightly, you are causing the tip and ring contacts (R and L respectively) to contact the L contact in the socket, thus giving you sound apparently coming from both channels.

Hi Dwarf and thank you for your reply,

To give a better explanation, (yes it is a stereo jack).

When I tried it on my other computer everything worked fine.

There are a few qualifications this computer (the one I'm having problems with)
has that make it better for recording.

I just cannot figure how to get it to work

Truthfully I think that it has nothing to do with Vista but with realtek hd, I just thought you guys might have some info for me.

To give a clearer picture...

*If I try to slide the balance or panning option over from left to right the audio signal just fades out when it hits the 'center' mark. hence no right channel being played back.

thanks again.

Hi

Im new to this forum and i am having the exact same problem... well really similar. My microphone input is only coming through the left audio, and I checked my balance and everything I could think of and it seems like it should work. I have a new LP turntable set up to record through the microphone input, and I set everything up correctly, it works great except only the left audio comes through...and you can tell its coming through in stereo not mono because there are parts in the songs where the harmony/melody is meant to come through different channels and only the left channels is working. Does anybody have any suggestions, like things I should check or anything? I am pretty decent with computers but I'm stumped. Sorry to ask on an already started thread detreno but the question is the same I think.