I couldn't get the onboard sound to recognize the microphone at all. Well, it noticed (alerted me) when I plugged it in, but wouldn't allow me to adjust the volume for it. I got frustrated, and just installed my old Soundblaster card.
The microphone works. When I test it in Windows, it works fine, every time. Between the volume being turned up, and the boost enabled, I can raise folks out of the graveyard down the road, and dogs from 4 farms down the road start to beller.
It's a stereo-type hook-up for the back of the tower, but I have ports for it in front of the tower. It works fine in both places, because the front ports are just extension cords from the back ports.
Since it works in Windows, it leads me to believe it isn't the headset, plug-ins, sound card, windows sound settings, etc...
It works in windows when I minimize the game, but won't work at all in the game. My volumes in game are maxed out too, and I've tried it with the mute checked, as well as unchecked in windows. The mute switch on the mic cord has been broken for a few years now, but it isn't muted (works in windows...).
I have the inputs for the game mapped to my stick for both channel and range. The buttons work, because when I try to talk on range, people say "you're just beeping minute-man" or "I can't hear your voice mitten-man, just the beeps". Sometimes they say the same, but substitute "motion-man" instead. When I tune to myself, my name pops up on the screen, but no voice sounds transmit...
The processes I shut down are only in the partition I use for AH. I shut down all of them except for 18, which is about the minimum needed to play the game. I shut them down in Administrative Services, Services, and they simply don't start up when I'm in the AH partition, Windows Updates, print spooler, etc. I start my computer in my "normal" partition for normal computer use (with all processes running), and restart in AH partition, where I only play the game. No anti-virus or anything on that partition, so I do nothing but play the game there. I've needed to do this in the past to free up resources to be able to play the game decent, I probably don't need to anymore.
