microphone not detected (Win XP)

[Suppi]

My computer (Lenovo G-series laptop) doesn't seem to be able to detect any microphone that I plug into the mic jack, whether its a standalone mic or a headset. Can anyone help?
I've tried googling the problem, but usually the solutions that come up say to open the speech recognition tab, which my laptop doesn't seem to have. (only text-to-speech)
I actually don't need speech recognition, just wanna be able to use a mic with skype or msn video call... the inbuilt mic on my laptop (Conexant HD Audio input) is so soft the only way for other people to hear me when I use skype is if I put my mouth right at the mic hole on the laptop and shout, which isn't really practical cuz it's a really awkward position to be in and I don't want the whole house to hear my conversation...

[void]

First I would like to ask which other microphone are you trying to use with the Lenovo G series laptop that you are using, I would also like you to tell you that you might need to install a driver’s for that particular microphone that you are trying to use , I would also suggest you to download and install Conexant HD Audio Driver 4.18.0.50 which may be easily download from official websites .Just check that and let me know if the problem still persists as most probably this would surely solve your problem

[Suppi]

Hey, thanks for the answer.
The problem has been resolved. It seems that cause was an outdated driver (like you said) and a few of my other drivers were not the correct ones for my model (the shop I got my notebook from screwed up when installing those for me >.<)
Anyway, I updated all my drivers and it works fine now =)