help on mic

[Craig Cassel]

I am new to this list and I am new to using ubuntu. I don't have all the skills to configure this and configure that. I have used Puppy and Mandriva some.

I have ubuntu 8.04 and mostly everything works okay. Some freezing some time. 

I am using a gateway laptop and my mic (plug in is all I have) does not work. I need it for skype and gizmo.  I also installed virtual box and
Windwos xp and my mic does not work there either. Just before all the installations I had XP and Mandriva install and my mic worked fine so I
am pretty sure its not a hardware problem. 

Can some one give me extremely simple instructions on how to get it working?

thank you,

Craig