Vista Microphone and Line-In Issues?

I've been using Microsoft Windows Vista for almost 6 months now, and recently transitioned my Media Center PC to Vista Ultimate.  Everything has been working phenomenally and I am really pleased with the operating system!  Security is vastly improved, sharing has taken it up to the next level, searching is much better, and it is much more visually appealing.  However I have been running into a few annoying issues as of late, and it seems other people are having the same issues, yet no resolution.  The main annoyance?  Why does my microphone not work?  I should re-state this, I mean the microphone itself works, and if I plug it into the microphone port and record, it works great.  However, I cannot hear the microphone audio through my speakers... and I also have no option of turning it on through the new audio control panel. 

As you can see below, the new design is great, and I love the ability to set audio levels for different applications!  What a concept!  However, I can’t set my microphone audio levels at all, nor can I un-mute its default state.

The new Volume Mixer in Vista

So I did some more poking around the control panel, and found out that my Microphone is definitely working, however, options have changed in Vista, and it seems I have no way of turning on my microphone to play through my speakers.

Sound Control Panel in Vista

Microphone Properties - Levels

Nothing to exciting in Levels either, all I can do is set it to 100, yet Vista still seems to want to not play anything through my speakers.

So why do I want to get things playing through my speakers from the microphone anyway?  Well, on top of Karaoke which is a blast with friends (singshot.com and ksolo.com), I'm trying to learn Guitar and have a few programs that I need to hook up with my Line-In.  However Line-In seems to have the same issue, no audio through speakers.

If anyone has a solution to this, please email me or post in our comments below!  I'll post the solution to this issue as soon as I find a way to do it!

Comments

[Joseph]

I just noticied this myself. Mic setup was working fine with Y!Messenger before the Vista installation. Afterwards, the mic level is so low that I can't be heard in voice conversations without yelling into the microphone. What gives Microsoft?

[nzjono]

Same problem, driving me nuts, installed new vista realtek ac97 audio drivers...but same problem!! grrrr! Hopefulyl someone will come up witht he fix soon I cant use my mic in game for bf2 :-(

Why wont the line in work??

[Andrea]

same problem here. Can't hear the mic through the speakers. and no way for unmuting the mic. Any solution !?

[Adrian]

Hey I found it! After about half an hour of desperate button pushing and knob tweaking, I managed to hear my microphone through my speakers. Here's how to do it: Right-click on the sound icon in the system tray and select Playback Devices (or alternatively, go to Control Panel and select Sounds). Once in the Sounds window, double-click the Speakers options, then go to the Levels tab, and there you'll find the available options. Why oh why did they make it so complicated?

[Chris]

Thanks, I've been looking for this for ages. I don't think it's over complicated, just takes some lateral thinking. The option is in speaker levels because you want to either turn on or off the mic sound coming from the speakers, not nessecarily the mic itself :D