First, did you plug in the microphone when the computer was off or not? If you connected the microphone while the computer was on, it may not have seen the new device to load the drivers. If the computer found the microphone when it was turned on, then the problem could be driver or hardware related.

You need to make sure that the computer is seeing this as the recording device. Click Start and select Control Panel from the right hand column. Click on the Hardware and Sound link. Select the Manage Audio Devices link under Sound. Click on the Recording tab. Is the microphone listed as plugged in? If it isn't, then the microphone isn't making good contact with the jack, has a bad wire or the jack isn't working. If you have another computer, check if the microphone works on it. That will rule out the microphone being faulty. Next go back to the starting Hardware and Sound Control Panel. Look for the link to the Device Manager under Devices. Expand the section for audio inputs and outputs. Check for a red triangle with an x or yellow triangle with an exclamation point. This indicates a problem with the audio drivers. Check with Toshiba for the audio drivers for your computer and the current service pack for Vista. You may need to uninstall the current driver and then reinstall that driver. A final option may be to check if the external audio input was disabled in the BIOS. When you turn on the computer, you should see a screen that tells you how to access the BIOS. (Usually this is F1, Esc, Del or F2). I find pressing the appropriate key repeatedly after turning on the computer doesn't always work. If you get to the Windows splash screen, turn off the computer at the login screen and try again.

If the microphone is plugged in, set it as the default device. You should be able to record with your software.

If the microphone still doesn't work with this computer and does work with another machine, you will probably be better off using a USB microphone or a USB audio adapter (USB to 3.5 mm microphone and speaker jacks). The wiring of the jack is probably faulty and it's not worth the effort to repair.

I hope this helps.

Cindy Wells