Okay, this one is wierd and freaking me out...

I was playing a game about 30-45 minutes ago, and it locked up... I couldnt alt-tab or bring up the task manager.. So I hit the reset button of my tower.. when it booted back up I got no error message, no un-expected PROBLEMS the only odd thing was that at the windows loading screen it took 5 minutes to load.. but now for reasons I can't explain my mic is SUPER low.. I can't even hear myself in sound recorder unless I hold the mic right to my lips and even then it's barely noticeable... I've checked my sound options dozens of times even went through the "Test Hardware" thing in my control panels sounds and audio..

Here is a screenshot of my volume settings



As I said, 5 minutes before I Rebooted it was working perfectly, now it's not.. I think maybe it could be the mic itself but could it short out that quickly? I'de like to know before I PURCHASE a new one, any help is appreciated.
You might need to enable the 20 decibell boost for your microphone under the advanced tab of "Mic"Already is. any other suggestions?Reinstall the soundcard drivers and test the microphone on another PC to verify wheter it is still working or not.You have Mic muted, as clearly shown on the screen print you posted.  Nice catch, soybean...i just noticed that as well.It's muted on the output, not on the input... Quote

It's muted on the output, not on the input...