Chiff and Fipple Forums

I have a Sony microphone which has been a workhorse for years. I got it in 2000 and brought it round Ireland in 2003. Never had any problems with it. A few years back I got a Zoom H2 and put the Sony away, stored in a ziploc bag in my electronics drawer. No battery was in the Sony and it had been working perfectly when I stored it.

I took the mic out yesterday to hook up to my new desktop computer. I put a fresh battery in and when I turned it on the power LED flickered on and then off - I remember it being steady on when powered up but I don't recall. My sound software registered a blip when the mic turned on and off, and would register something if I blew really hard into the mic, but it was clearly not getting the proper signal. I tried it with four brand new out of the package batteries (one AA) with the same problem every time. There's no sign of corrosion on the battery terminals.

Any suggestions as to what might be wrong?

Try another new battery, get it somewhere else.
Clean the contacts well first.

If those don't help take it apart and check for bad connections (may mean re-soldering)

The user manual says that when the switch is turned to on the LED lights briefly, and that when it stays on it's running low.

I'd try plugging the mic into the H2. If it works with the H2 then you probably need to change something in the windows mixer control panel to set the input correctly.

[ Thread revival - Mod ]

+1 for post above.

Very likely that your computer input is currently set at line level and not microphone. This is usually a case of selecting the appropriate input level in soundcard properties.