Vista - microphone not working

I have a laptop with a built in microphone. when I want to skype with my
friends I can see and hear them but they just can see me. sometimes they dont
even hear me and sometimes very quiet. I have read a lot of the suggestions
posted here but my problem is that I have vista home basic and well I dont
know I am not able to hit the default button when I want to change something
on the playback devices. Can somebody please help me? that would be great
since I am not really familiar with computer
thank you

"MonaBo" <MonaBo@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:2A31BBA7-5133-41B6-B04B-76B3CFDF81C0@xxxxxx

As an initial check, go to Start Menu > Control Panel, then to Hardware &
Sound. Choose the "Sound" option. Make sure the status of each audio device
shows as "Working", specifically the Microphone.

Since the mic on your laptop is built in, maybe check under device manager
to make sure all the functions are working correctly.

It could well only be a matter of adjusting the microphone recording level
("volume" (or sensitivity).

A good way to test the microphone is actually working, is to record a test.

Open Sound Recorder, and record a line of speech like "The quick brown fox
jumped over the lazy dog" and play it back; if the recording is OK, you know
the Mic is OK, but if you don't get any playback you might need to play with
the recording level settings to get it to work, but if none of that helps,
suggestions below may narrow the problem and present a solution.


If the above doesn't lead to any success, the next course of enquiry would
be

1) The store you bought the computer from (if they provide tech support for
the products they sell).

2) The manufacturer of the computer for support (such as acer or toshiba, HP
or whatever).

3) Visit the manufacturer's web site for driver updates and/or
troubleshooting tips for your model computer.

4) Windows Help would have general troubleshooting tips about hardware
problems.

5) To help further we would need the specifics of your system i.e. the make,
model of the computer and the hardware specs, which can be obtained from
right clicking the "Computer" icon on the desktop, or right clicking
"Computer" option on the Start Menu.

This will open a window with technical info about the hardware, operating
system etc.
Other information can be obtained from Device Manager under the Control
Panel.

Hope this helps. Please post back with your systems specs as described
above.

Thank you very much for responding so quickly. I tried everything you
mentioned but well when I recorded myself I could hardly hear myself. I have
to other things that might have caused the trouble, because I did that around
the time the problem occured, I installed AIM and the other thing that I was
"playing" with the voice recognition thing on my pc and startet to set it up.
Unfortunatelly I never took a look at all this before this problem was
there... so I don't know if there are just some things changed or if there is
any problem with my hardware
the computer specifics are:
Dell Vostro 1500, Windows Vista Home Basic, 32-bit operating system,
processor and memory. unfortuanetelly I dont know since it showed me that
this information
is not available
thank you very much for all your help this far

"MonaBo" <MonaBo@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:E3989CE7-9984-4F68-A50F-84CA8C19FF04@xxxxxxThe only other thing I can suggest is to rollback the system (System
Restore) to a point in time when the Mic was working correctly, or to
uninstall anything (one thing at a time, and re-test the microphone after
the uninstall/restart etc) you have installed since the time it was working
correctly.