I just bought a microphone, because I wanted to use a speech recognition program. I plugged it into my pc, but it won't work! Any ideas on how I can fix this? I'm using WinME.

Leau, did you get a CD with the microphone ? In Windows XP, it detects the Microphone automatically. But in other OS's, you normally have to install it manually. So, did you get a floppy and CD with your microphone ?

Did your sound card driver software install a 'mixer'? Double click on the volume control icon next to the clock. Windows should pick up on it and display it. If you can't see any microphone controls, go into 'Options > Properties' and check the microphone box.

The installation of my SoundBlaster PCI128 sound card leaves the microphone muted by default. Perhaps this will be the case with your sound card mixer.

*EDIT* The sound card may install its own icon next to the clock. I usually disable it though ...so I forgot about that.

I didn't get any software with the microphone. I had already tried every single setting in my SoundBlaster program, to no avail. Thanks though, Angi and TW!

Looks like I finally did get that microphone to work though! It needed to be plugged in a hole that was already occupated... But for that, I had to unplug one of the cables of my 5.1 surround speakers... According to the color of the plug on that cable (pink/orange/red) it should be where it was though. Now the center speaker won't work. Any ideas?

Pulling a wire out that stops the centre speaker working suggests that this is an ouput socket. Yet, plugging the microphone into that socket makes it work. This means it must be an input socket. Seems strange Hmmm!

What is the model number of the sound card?

My soundcard is a Creative Labs SB0220 (if that's the model) and I'm using SoundBlaster Live! from Creative.

The socket that I pulled the speaker wire out of, had a tiny picture of a microphone next to it, so that's what made me think the microphone wire had to go there... But that still makes it weird that my center speaker did work with its wire in that same socket, I agree!

I've just had a look at the SoundBlaster Live Player 5.1. This is a surround-sound card. I don't know whether you have the manual. Just in in case you haven't:

The jack socket nearest the joystick connector is an output for rear speakers, the one next to that is an output for front speakers, the one next to that is the microphone input, the one next to that is an input for external devices. There is a jack connector next to that for supporting the centre and sub-woofer channels on the 5.1 speaker system. The centre speaker should connect to this one (5 jack sockets in total). Does this compare with the card you have?

Thank you so much! That is exactly the card I have! I don't have the manual for the soundcard, so I'm glad you found me the appropriate info. I plugged the center speaker in the jacket that was suggested and it works!! Thanks again!

Now all I have to do is get this speech recognition thing to understand my English...

Oh Good!

You can download the sound card manual in PDF format from here. Click on the button at the bottom of the page.

Be prepared for hours and hours talking to yourself before any sound recognition programme starts to recognise it's being spoken to. it will be!

PS - thanks TW I can never remember where the microphone mute switch is and every time my kids unplug my headset it goes to mute microphone.

Thanks for the warning fosse! I guess I'm lucky, because I did maybe half an hour of reading fairy tales out loud to the computer and it's doing pretty well by now. Maybe it's because I know the difficulties the program encounters, since I'm majoring in Language & Speech Technology. But maybe it's just that I have a very standard voice and pronounciation....for Dutch, that is. I haven't taken the time yet to try different languages. I guess that will be hell, because I probably have a funny accent.

Thanks for the link TW!

I guess my accent is not too funny after all! I just installed the English version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking and read a chapter of "Charlie and the chocolate factory" to my computer. It's working quite well so far, except for some peculiarities of the program that I have to get used to. For example, when I wanted to write the word Charlie in the previous sentence it somehow refused to write out the full name and kept writing a c instead (yeah, I'm writing this post without typing ).

All in all I had expected it to be much worse and it's a nice surprise! And I don't have to worry about my spelling anymore. It's all taken care of.

Would that be English or American spelling?

I have no idea! I guess it's American spelling. I chose American English, since my nice British accent went down the drain soon after high school.
My usual spelling is a total mixture (read: chaos ) of American and English, because I can't tell them apart...