Problem with USB Headset Microphone on Win7 64-bit

Hello Max,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

As per the description, I understand that your Plantronics DSP500 USB headset microphone has stopped working, however, headset sound works fine. You have already tried a number of troubleshooting steps but none of them helped you enough to get this problem resolved.

I would appreciate if you can provide us the following information to help us understand the issue better.

1. You mentioned that you tried to perform System Restore, what was the result? Were you able to complete the restore successfully?
2. Have you checked connecting any other headset to the computer? Do you get the same result?

I understand the inconvenience that you have to go through due to this issue, however, let’s try these methods below to check if that solves the problem.

Method 1:

First, I would suggest you to run Windows inbuilt troubleshooter (Recording Audio Troubleshooter) to get the problem automatically detected and fixed

Open the Recording Audio troubleshooter

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Open-the-Recording-Audio-troubleshooter

Method 2 :

Use the steps below and verify that the default sound device is set correctly.

1. Open Sound by clicking the Start button, and then clicking Control Panel. In the search box, type sound, and then click Sound.
2. Click the Recording tab, click Microphone, and then click Properties.
3. Click the Levels tab and make sure the Mute button is on, if off click it to turn on sound for this connection, and then click Apply.
4. To listen to microphone sounds through your speakers or headphones, click the Listen tab; click the Listen to this device check box.
5. Also click the advanced tab, click to clear the Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device check box, and then click OK.

You may also refer to the below links for assistance on the issue-

Connect a microphone music player or other audio device to your computerhttp://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Connect-a-microphone-music-player-or-other-audio-device-to-your-computer

Tips for fixing common sound problems -

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Tips-for-fixing-common-sound-problems

Hope this helps. Feel free to write us back for any further assistance. We will be glad to assist you.

Thanks for your reply.

1. System restore appears to have been successful.
2. I don't own a second USB headset so unable to test this.  Already tested and shown the headset is working OK though.

Tried Method 1.  Result: Troubleshooting couldn't identify the problem.

Tried Method 2.  It is not muted in the levels tab.  I have tried it with exclusive on and off, neither works.  Listening to the device gives no input at all.  The grey bar in the recording tab shows no input at all.

Hi to all,

maybe this one helps.

Had a similar (same?) problem, were ALL USB Audio devices were still recognized, but didn't function. Couldn't open, play, set as standard device any of them. No level controls in the control / property panel as well.

The hint to my solution was finally found here (click)

Turn out that it was a registry problem: The registry Key HkeyLocalMachine>Software>Microsoft>Windows>CurrentVersion>MMDevices

was completely missing permissions for the user groups "AudioEndpointBuilder" and "Audiosrv". On a working Windows 7, they were present and had the appropriate rights

Since I could neither create nor fidn those groups, but didn't want to use the radical "all access to everyone" method in the link above, I simply gave (inherited) admissions for "everyone" on the whole HkeyLocalMachine>Software>Microsoft>Windows>CurrentVersion>MMDevices sub-branch. Restarted computer, plugged in USB audio device - worked again.

Cheers!

Hello Max,

I am sorry to have mistakenly typed the incorrect number in the registry entry. The correct entry is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\Control{4D36E96C-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0005\Settings.

Change the value of 'DisableMicFromPlayback' to 0 if it is 1.

Warning: Make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

Try this step and keep us updated with the status of the issue.

Hello Max,

Thank you for keeping us updated on the status of the issue.

I would suggest you to set Microphone as Default and check. Please follow these steps:

a. Click Start and then click Control Panel.

b. Click on Sound. A new Window will open.

c. Click on the "Recording" tab, Right click within the Window and click Show Disabled devices.

d. Now check if Microphone is listed there and right click on it and select Enable.

e. Highlight the Microphone and then click "Set as Default".

Also, refer to suggestions from Gaurav Prakash replied on October 19, 2009 and check.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-pictures/microphone-input-not-recognized-under-windows-7/e706f0d7-786d-4f2c-89eb-f3368b164087

I hope this information helps.

Please do let us know if you need any further assistance.

Thank you