Mic Issues, it won't work Options

[Memius]

Dear World,
In a recent equipment check while awaiting the arrival of my external capture card and controllers, I found out that my mic didn't work. I followed the instructions on several help sites, but none of them worked (all they mentioned about the mic itself was "plug microphone into mic port") which hasn't been working. I then tried the "line in" port with equal results. Any ideas?

notes on the situation:
yes, the mic is plugged in
yes, the mic is on
yes, the mode is on mic or line in, depending on which I'm trying to work through
I'm using Audacity (perhaps that's the problem?)
no, I don't care about sound quality at the moment
yes, the recording controls are set so it should work

-Memius

[Sedrin of slashd...]

Can you test your suspicious mic on a boombox or other audio device that you know works for sure?

Can you test a different mic that you know works for sure on your system?

That'll at least let you know with more confidence where the problem lies, either the mic itself or your system configuration.

[Memius]

Can you test your suspicious mic on a boombox or other audio device that you know works for sure?

Can you test a different mic that you know works for sure on your system?

That'll at least let you know with more confidence where the problem lies, either the mic itself or your system configuration.

Well, thank you for your input but

Yes, I tried using it with my guitar amp and it worked well with that

and

No, every other mic I've tried (2) gives me the same thing (nothing)

so it has to be the computer, but I'm really not familiar with messing around with the audio controls.

[Sedrin of slashd...]

What operating system and sound card software are you using?

[Memius]

What operating system and sound card software are you using?

I think I may have found the problem (old sound card driver). Thank you for your help, Sedrin (which sounds kinda like one of those cold medicine commercials).