Audio Troubles: Microphone Input

Aureum · September 6, 2019

Hi there everyone! I've been needing some help for a while now with some microhpone problems. After having gone throughout the internet looking for various fixes I haven't found a solution to my problem. Anyway, so, for some reason my PC will not take microphone input at all. Whenever you plug into the front microphone port or the one that's on the motherboard-- there's a device detected by my pc. The problem arises when you try to speak into the microphone. There is no traces of any audio being picked up by the microphone. I've tried looking at the input visualizer and only sometimes does the bar ever move. Another thing that I've noticed is that when you enable the "listen to this device" option in the windows properties-- there's a constant electronic hum that resembles that of when you pass by an electrical substation; except it's high pitched. I'm not really sure what to think of it but I've already tried a number of fixes to combat the problem but nothing has worked.

Some of the fixes i've already tried includes the following:

Reinstalling sound drivers
Trying different microphones
Trying earbuds with a wire splitter
I've tried to plug into the motherboard

None of these have worked unfortunately, and see the funny thing is microphones used to work but I'm not sure what happened. My headphone connections still work properly, its only the microphone lines that seem broken. Someone's suggested to me before that it might be hardware issue and that perhaps the microphone inputs are broken.

So one of the last things I have in mind is to try an external sound card (no room left on motherboard). Would that work? If so, does anyone have any recommendations for external sound cards?

EDIT: I forgot to mention, that if someone else has any other solutions please let me know ;-;

Last but not least, my specs:

Processor: AMD A10 6700 APU (integrated graphics) @ 3.7 Ghz (64 bit system)

Motherboard: M32cd_a_f_k20cd_k31cd (proprietary mobo. It fits the MicroATX category)

RAM: Generic 12.0 GB 1600 Mhz DIMM

GPU: GTX 960 2 GB

Power Supply: ThermaltakeTR2 500W