Windows shuts down if I use Audacity with an external mic

[mattylevan]

So first up apologies for being totally new to this, my question doesn’t fit with the highly technical ones in this forum but I don’t know where else to ask.

I bought a cheap microphone online and decided to see if it could record to my windows laptop. The built in sound recorder simply wouldn’t recognise it as a microphone so I searched online. Found an article saying that you can connect a microphone via the headphones port (my laptop doesn’t have a mic in port) and Audacity will let you use it.

I installed Audacity, plugged in the microphone, and it asked me the type of device I just plugged in - great it’s working, then the computer just abruptly turned off - single beep, screen went blank, light on the side went off.

I tried again, this time the mic worked for nearly a minute and I even managed to test recording with it. Then the same thing happened again.

I’ve done this several times, it takes between roughly 10 and 60 seconds but trying to use the mic with Audacity always causes a shutdown.

Is there anything that can be done about this or do I just have to accept it’s a shoddy piece of hardware and I need to buy a different microphone?

[mac-christian]

A standard headphone connector is just what it says: you can connect a headphone - the sound comes from the computer and goes to the equipment over (or inside) your ears. Audacity cannot change the wiring inside your computer…

Most connectors nowadays are “combined”, for headsets, so they have an input connection also for mono sound. But they have a different layout than microphone-only or a headphone-only plugs.

For “real work”, you need an “external sound card” which converts your stereo sound from the source into digital signals and feeds it into the computer via USB.

When a computer just shuts down if something is connected, then there might be a problem with the device used. Or there might also be a problem with the computer itself.

[mattylevan]

I have no idea how the computer is wired inside but it did apparently record from the microphone, albeit briefly. Still it sounds like that microphone is the cause of the problem.