Basically,i bought a second hand samson C01U condenser mic,plugged it into my PC,set it as the default device,and it worked perfectly with Mixcraft 3,producing crystal clear sound. After about 5 months of not using my PC (as i had a new laptop) I plugged the samson mic back in,expecting it to work. It didnt. With the mic set as the default on my PC,and it would only just about record on Mixcraft (POORLY,with distorted,quiet sound. It sounded like a cheap dynamic mic) It also wouldnt work on my new Acer Aspire 7000 laptop running windows vista home basic,or another computer i had lying around running windows xp. It also wouldn't record on any other programs such as Cool Edit Pro 2.1,Cubase,Audacity & others.I took the mic to a friends house,plugged it into his PC,and it worked perfectly with his version of Adobe Audition 3 (adobe purchased cool edit from the software owners,upgraded it and released it with a new name). Can anyone help me ??

P.S

The volume settings for the mic were correct everytime i tried it,the level of default volume for the mic is not the problem.

Music - Samson - Audio C01upak C01u Microphone and Podcast Pack