Change a Headset 3.5mm port to a Microphone port?

[curry1]

Is there a way to do this I can't seem to figure it out?  I have heard it is possible though.

[Bizman]

It depends on your sound card. If you have a built-in Realtek with the Realtek HD Audio Controller installed, you can configure any jack by will. You can find it on the Audio-I/O tab, click the symbol between the picture of the jack in question. The Realtek Controller can be found in Control Panel. It also may have a bronze coloured speaker cone icon in the taskbar.

[curry1]

I'm not sure what to do?  But I have Realtek.

[Bizman]

Alright, I seem to have a similar thing on my mini...

So, having the Audio Manager open, plug your microphone in. A window should pop up, asking which device did you plug in. Tick your choice. In the same window there's a tick box in the bottom, about activating a pop up menu whenever a device is being plugged in.

Also, when plugging the mic in, a little message should appear over the Taskbar, saying "Information: A-jack plugged". Clicking that message will open the Audio Manager and the pop up menu.

[curry1]

I didn't have a window come up but the grayed out circles changed on the right.  It seems to think my microphone is a speaker for some reason or another.

[Bizman]

If you double click the not-anymore-greyed-out circle, the menu should pop up.

[curry1]

Apparently according to Lenovo the combined headset 3.5mm jack doesn't support stand alone microphones.  Only headsets or headphones.

[Bizman]

Apparently according to Lenovo the combined headset 3.5mm jack doesn't support stand alone microphones.  Only headsets or headphones.

Huh? Judging by the picture there seems to be separate inputs for mics and headphones. My mini laptop only has only one jack, my tabletop with the older version of Audio Manager has eight analog jacks. Each of them can be used and configured individually. Even if I plug a pair of headphones in, I can make the jack see it as a microphone. On a customer's rig I actually did that, since we had to test a recording function and she had no mic, only a pair of earplugs. They defaulted as headphones, but with a single click I changed the setting to be a mic. And it worked...

I refuse to believe that Lenovo has porked Realtek's software. I suppose changing it is even prohibited in the Eula between Lenovo and Realtek.

Go to Lenovo's support site for your specific model, download and install the latest Audio Manager. Actually, AFAIK it's included in the Realtek audio driver.

[curry1]

I have the latest driver I can't change it to the microphone one by double clicking no window comes up.  I went to the realtek site and found the new version too.

[Bizman]

One trick yet, though: Uninstall your Realtek Audio drivers in the Control Panel's Programs and Features, reboot and reinstall the drivers. If that doesn't do the trick, I'm beginning to be out of ideas.

[curry1]

One trick yet, though: Uninstall your Realtek Audio drivers in the Control Panel's Programs and Features, reboot and reinstall the drivers. If that doesn't do the trick, I'm beginning to be out of ideas.

I'll try I also just got in the mail a splitter from 4pin to 2x3pin 3.5mm.  So we will see if that works out.

[Bizman]

Whut? Are you saying you tried to plug in an iThing type plug with 4 sections? Headphones and microphone in a single plug? That wouldn't work, since the jack is split into 3, grounding in a wrong place. A splitter might work. You can test with simple stereo earplugs/-phones/speakers without a mic and try to change it to a microphone the way I have suggested. Or did I understand something wrong...?

[curry1]

Yeah I got it to work thanks for your help!

[Bizman]

  Glad to have been able to help.

What exactly was the problem and solution?

[curry1]

I re-installed the driver and used a splitter now it is working. dunno but it is working.