P4R800-VM Front Panel - Sound Issues

I have a brand new Asus P4R800-VM that has some issues with the front panel
sound connections. The first is that I can't get the front Mic to work at
all. The case (Silverstone SST-LC03-B Lascala Series) has three wires,
MIC-IN, MIC-POWER, and GROUND. The board's relevant connectors are labeled
MIC2, MICPWR, AGND, and +5VA. No idea what the +5VA is used for, and I
haven't tried connecting it.

This is what I connected:

(Silverstone case connector -> Asus P4R800-VM connector)

MIC-IN -> MIC2
MIC-POWER -> MICPWR
GROUND -> AGND

with no success.

The I tried removing the MIC-POWER connection on the advice of a Usenet post
I found, since I am not using powered mics. This also didn't work. I
tested the mics I am using on the rear mic connection, and they work fine.
The board uses a SoundMax digital audio system that is built in. Any ideas?

Then, after fooling around with the mic problem for a while, then the rear
speaker out stopped working! After trying a few things, I finally
disconnect the front speaker out connection, replaced the jumpers, and now
the rear speakers work fine. Is there any way to get the front speaker and
rear speaker connection to work at the same time? Here is how I connected
the front speakers:

R-OUT -> Line out_R
R-RET -> BLINE_OUT_R
L-OUT -> Line out_L
L-RET -> BLINE_OUT_L
GROUND -> AGND

Well, as I redid everything very carefully to write this post accurately,
now both the front and rear speaker outs are working. Still have the mic
problem, so I will post anyway, and maybe this will help someone else.

 

Your wiring looks fine.

The sound chip will likely have two microphone inputs, and you have
to select one or the other in the mixer panel. Some mixer panels hide
this setting, so it may require some searching to find it. Similarly,
there is a "Mic boost" button in there somewhere, and it adds +20dB
gain to the microphone path, suitable for weaker microphones.

HTH,
Paul