I mentioned in my goals article that I wanted to start a sports podcast sometime in 2007. So I took the first step in this goal, by purchasing a headset and microphone. I found an awesome deal on ebay and picked up an Altec Lansing AHS-5021 headset.

I got home yesterday and noticed the package sitting at my front door. I was excited to hook it up and test it out. However, I hit a little bump in the road. Actually a HUGE bump in the road. The mic won’t work! And I think this is a problem with my computer, not the headphone because when I googled the error, other people had the same problem.

So I am pleaing for someone, one of you tech guys, to help me out. I hope that someone here knows what this problem is and knows how to fix it.

Initially, I plugged the pink mic cord into the pink mic hole in the back of my computer, and the light green cord into the light green hole into the back of my computer. The headphones worked, and I could hear sound, but when I opened Microsoft sound recorder, the mic did not pick anything up. So I tried the front pink mic hole on my computer, and it didn’t work either.

I went into the Sound section of the control panel and did a voice hardware test, to find this error:

Error Message:
Sound Hardware Test: An error occurred during direct play voice setup. The error code is 0×80004005.

I googled the error and followed all the steps from Smart Computing. I did all the edits and cleaned out the registry like it suggested. I was able to run the hardware test this time without the error, but when I got to the mic section and it asks you to read a paragraph into the mic, it still didn’t work. I read the paragraph and the mic didn’t pick anything up. I switched all the cords around and plugged them into every hole I could find. Still no luck.

I’m at a dead end. If anyone out there has experienced this same problem with getting a mic to work on windows XP, please let me know! This was a brand new device so I doubt the mic is broken. But it could be the case.

Post a comment or email me or msn message me if you have an answer! Thanks!