Why won't a microphone work?

[Gobbling_Monkey]

Hello. I have a HP ENVY 17t-j100 Quad edition with Windows 10. I tried to plug in a microphone into the headphone microphone combo jack. It does not work. No recording device shows up in the Sound manager or device manager. A few times, it recognized a headphone being plugged in. The microphone plug only has 2 stripes. Does it need to have 3? Is that the problem? Does the headphone jack support a mic with only 2 stripes?  I plugged in my earbuds that have a mic and 3 stripes on the plug. It worked fine. Is the other mic just defective, or do I need one with 3 stripes? Thank you.

[banhien · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Looks like the combo port does not support stand alone microphone. Many people try the following adapter (or similar):

     http://www.cablechick.com.au/cables/4-pole-trrs-to-35mm-stereo-mic-adapter-male-to-2x-female.html

Regards.