Headset microphone not working on Windows 7

I've been googling and searching youtube for three hours now, without finding a valid solution. My new headset microphone simply won't work on windows 7. I have:

- Switched it on
- Made absolutely sure it's plugged in correctly
- Downloaded and installed the latest Realtek HD audio codec driver
- Unmuted the microphone (as it's muted by default)
- Tried increasing the sound level in various places to no avail
- Tried increasing the efficiency boost to the max to no avail
- Set the microphone as my primary recording device
- Restarted my PC a few times
- Went to the toilet
- Enabled listening of the microphone
- Done a virus check
- Unplugged and replugged my headset a number of times
- Got my laptop's integral microphone as well as the headphones of my headset, but since only one of these can apparently work at a time that's no solution
- Messed around with everything in the Realtek HD Audio management
- Despaired


All right, I will admit there's one thing I haven't accessed yet, and that's the speech recognition. This is because I can't access it, since it's disabled for my OS language which is Finnish (I didn't and wouldn't have chosen that myself, it was pre-installed). But I only noticed something related to the speech recognition listed in two or three of the solutions I went through, and besides I just don't want to believe Windows 7 could be dumb enough to not let something as basic as a microphone work in all it's language versions.

Plus, as I said, I already got my laptop's internal microphone working though I didn't intend to, so logic has it this one should somehow be able to work as well. I'm just out of ideas.

So, anyone got any more suggestions?

Before listing any other suggestions, I just wanted to check if you've tested that headset microphone on any other hardware to make sure it works? It could be something as a faulty mic - I'd rule that out first if possible.

Nope, I don't really have the possibility to test it on anything else. The headphones are working though, so I naturally presumed the microphone would too since they're together.

I'd try and test it on another system first, or try another mic on this laptop - either way should rule out a fault in the headset mic. You've done all of the logical things to get the mic working, so it's worth making sure it's not a hardware problem .

Is the headset USB or does it have two audio jacks (one for headphones out and one for mic in)?

If it is not the USB-type then if you don't plug in the mic audio jack your laptops microphone should function.

Well, the built in one works, does that count? If not, I guess I might borrow another mic to try that, though I can't do that right now.

@TrainableMan: It does work like that too, but I would very much prefer the microphone on my headset since the built in one records things like button sounds way too loud. I'd also have to increase the efficiency boost to the max to be able to talk into that, and I've already noticed that causes a horrible static noise.

No that doesn't count. The mic attached to your headset may be broken or your mic port could be broken/disabled. So you would need to test that headset on another computer to see if the mic works. You could also try somebody else's mic to see if that works in your laptops port to verify the port is working.

Okay never mind everything, I just finally got it working... I took a look at the headset itself and noticed the microphone wasn't properly plugged in to the headphones. That's to say, it has a tiny mark showing which way it needs to be plugged in, and I'd missed that the first time so it hadn't actually gone all the way back.

I guess everything I already had tried had limited the nature of the problem to be either very complicated or very simple... in this case the latter one. Oh well. Thanks for the responses.