I'm not sure about the bad 1/4-1/8 connector, i just bought it today...and my sound card shouldn't THAT bad that it won't work with a mic, considering i can get sound from my speakers and everything else, audio-wise, is fine. I am not completely sure at this point what the problem is, and considering that my soundcard sounded just fine before, and that i've used it for recording before, it doesn't make sense that the sound card itself would suddenly become defective, especially when i'm still receiving audio waves (just not through my mic).