Would you please help me to get my computer microphone working?

My computer is kind of old, it’s a Dell Inspiron E1705, Media Center Edition blahdy-blah. I have a microphone jack on the side and I finally realized it would be handy to have one, so I bought a mic. I have never used this function on my computer, so I’m not 100% sure that the mic stuff is working, hardware-wise.

I plug in the mic, and I get a pop-up window saying ‘Audio System Event’ and it asks me to select Microphone, Line In, or Open SigmaTel Audio Control Panel. So, at the very least, the jack seems to recognize something is being plugged in.

My recording software is Andrea VoiceCenter. No matter what I do with my settings, it tells me no sound is detected from the mic.

I have tried adjusting settings in Recording Control (in XP) and also through Surround Mixer (audio card software). Neither works.

Please help me!