G1 Sniper Z87 - Mic ports stopped working

[jimdriver2]

Hoping someone on here can help me.

I've got a G1 Sniper Z87 Motherboard. It's worked perfectly up until now. I've done nothing beyond a standard installation to it, when I put I built a new machine with it a few years back.

I'm on Windows 10 and recently got through the big recent update. Some strange things have happened since. First it started identifying my monitors as sound playback devices and using them by default rather than the 4 speaker & sub setup that's connected to the SoundBlaster Recon 3Di onboard motherboard sound device. That was easily sorted, I disabled the other devices.

However I've now discovered the mic doesn't work. I've got a mic (that I know works) plugged in and Windows detects the ports as being connected. But it just won't pick up anything from the mic. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Soundblaster software but that did nothing.

Can anyone advise what to do please?

[shadowsports]

Greetings,
I think where you want to start is in Device Manager. 

Do your installed devices appear under the correct device headings and are they functioning?  No red X's, Yellow Triangles...  Code 10's etc?

Next look at Sound in Control Panel and ensure the proper default devices are set for recording and playback.  Default/ Enabled = Green check mark.  You can disable (shows with red down arrow) the others that are not being used (right-click).   

If your monitors have a hub or audio ports patched to the pack of your machine, remove them while you are troubleshooting.

[jimdriver2]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

Yep checked the Device manager and the Sound settings. Nothing disabled or showing errors.

If I plug in and out the mic to both (front and rear) mic sockets Device Manager recognises them. However all I get is strange muffled sounds and if I speak into the mic (say using Audacity) it picks up nothing.

I've got a basic webcam that has a mic built in (connected via USB) and that detects and works fine. Tried enabling and disabling the Webcam to see if that causes some kind of glitch but it did nothing.

My feeling is that some change in the Windows update has messed up something in the driver for the motherboard's onboard sound and it just doesn't pick it up.

I just don't know how to fix it.

[shadowsports]

When you open Sound in Control Panel and click the Recording Tab, what is displayed?  Should look something like this. 

Also look at page 93 of your manual.  Settings under Crystal Voice. 

Noise Reduction and Acoustic Echo Cancellation.  Try enable/disabling these settings and retest each change. 

Pay particular attention to the settings for Mic and Line in on Page 95-98

Open the Sound Blaster Recon3Di control panel and
go to the Mixer page. In the REC section, click the Input
Device icon and select Rear Line In. Later you can use
the Line-In slider to set the volume.

This should have a direct impact (raise or lower) gain for Mic/Line input.

[jimdriver2]

Thanks. Tried all of that and doesn't fix it.

What I do get is a constant clicking noise on the port if I use audacity to attempt recording. Also in the Windows sound settings there's a constant jumping up and down on the Line-In as it detects input.

Maybe there's something overriding it somehow? Tried taking out the webcam but that didn't do anything.