That makes me think the wiring is good.
How close do you have the mic to your mouth when you talk? You might have to have it almost right against your lips...

just another thought, I know u said u only have 1 mic - do u have a webcam ? most have a built in mic that could be conflicting.

Hmm, I'll do a test with audacity in a moment..

and I have the darn thing right next to my mouth, if I pull it closer, it either scrapes my beard or gets all my breath hisses in it.

And no webcam :)

From a forum I just found .......

I had this problem for a few weeks, i recently read a forum post telling me to untick the :allow applications to take exclusive control of device:

Well, I found that setting and changed a couple of others, and I think it's fixed it

I went via Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Manage Audio Devices to get to the Sound panel.

I then selected Playback > Speakers > Enhancements and made sure everything was un-checked.
I then selected Playback > Speakers > Advanced and un-checked 'Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device'

I went to Recording > Microphone > Listen and ensured 'Listen to this device' was unchecked.
I went to Levels and ensured the Microphone level was at 100% and the Boost was at +10db
I went into Enhancements and ensured everything was un-checked.
I then into Advanced and un-checked 'Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device'

And finally I went into the Communications tab of the Sound panel, and changed 'When windows detects communications activity' to 'Do nothing'

Heh.

Well, hopefully the audacity thing will work out, but that might have a lot of noise (even after reducing it) since the starting volume is so low.

Maybe the mic got dislodged inside the retractable holder itself? That might explain why blowing on it gave a sound but speaking is muffled. I don't have experience with this particular headset/mic combo, so I'm at my limit now. :)

Did all that, and... I am not sure. I think it did enhance it a bit, but still not satisfied. But it did help a bit :)

well at least u going in the right direction :D

strange i recall hearing your voice well when playing me 3 co-op

try using the settings-> chat in gmail if you have to see how much it picks from your mic

i suspect some software is auto leveling your voice to remove echo or other effects

I know you said everything is maxed out, but the first place I would look would be to open up windows volume control, click "options", "properties", click the clicky for "recording" under "adjust volume for" and then select what you need under "show the following volume controls:", then click ok. In the recording control window, click the "select" box in the Microphone section and then move the volume up or down. This is how I adjust volume up or down as needed when I use the line in to record things with audacity. Maybe you could move the line in volume down if that is too loud. This is all using XP volume control too, I don't know if 7 or 8 might be different.

edit: The default volume control in Windows that pops up when you double-click the volume icon is for playback which is separate from the recording volume, so you need to get to the "recording control" volume window like I tried to describe above to adjust the volume of recording.

Has this mic setup previously worked properly, or is this the first time?

Also, just to be sure, is there a little switch on the headset or cable that toggles mic mute?

I'm not familiar with Windows 7so I might not be the best person to help you but I'm gonna try, damnit. Is there a volume icon in you taskbar that will open up a window that looks like the attached picture when you double-click the icon?

Apparently it worked alright with skype. My friends told me they could hear me okay. This is the first time I tried to record my own speech, so I really have no idea.

And it has an on/off button, yes.

It has been awhile since I've used XP, but I think the Win 7 equivalent is in that "Recording devices" screen that I mentioned.

Right click "Microphone" and go to "Properties" then the "Levels" tab. Set your level to 100. You mentioned boost being set to +30db... that's where it's at here, right?

Already done, not helping. And Kyle, all is maxed :)