Cybercore,
Thanks for your reply.
I think that I need some help here. Your suggestion “Control Panel>Sound>Levels>Set Microphone to 100%”: when I select Sound, I get a window that doesn't have “Levels” on it. It shows “Speakers” and “Digital Audio (S/PDIF)” with four tabs, “Playback, Recording, Sounds, Communications” none of which has the word, “Levels” in their windows.