Help, please. Conflict with microphone

[ferdinando_villa]

Hi,
I've recently switched to Kubuntu (gutsy 7.10), and I am having serious issues with my microphone... the sound works fine, headphones too, but I am trying to use a headset with a microphone, and i can't get the microphone to work... I think there must be a conflict with something else, because everytime i try to test it, either with Ekiga, Audacity or Skype, the application just freezes.
Help, i don't know what to do, and i really need to use an Internet telephone application in order to talk home... if anyone knows what could be wrong, here are my card specifications

lspci: Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SB450 HDA Audio (rev 01)

lshw: *-multimedia
description: Audio device
product: SB450 HDA Audio
vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
physical id: 14.2
bus info: pci@0000:00:14.2
version: 01
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=HDA Intel latency=64 module=snd_hda_intel

And if it helps, here is also a list of my inputs...
amixer: Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
Capabilities: pswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Mono:
Front Left: Playback [on]
Front Right: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
Capabilities: pvolume
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 255
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
Front Right: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Front',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 23 [74%] [-12.00dB] [on]
Front Right: Playback 23 [74%] [-12.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 15 [48%] [-12.00dB] [on]
Front Right: Playback 15 [48%] [-12.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic Boost',0
Capabilities: volume
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: 0 - 3
Front Left: 0 [0%]
Front Right: 0 [0%]
Simple mixer control 'Surround',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Center',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'LFE',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Side',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'CD',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost',0
Capabilities: volume
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: 0 - 3
Front Left: 0 [0%]
Front Right: 0 [0%]
Simple mixer control 'PC Speaker',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Capture 0 - 31
Front Left: Capture 31 [100%] [34.50dB] [off]
Front Right: Capture 31 [100%] [34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',1
Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Capture 0 - 31
Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [-12.00dB] [off]
Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [-12.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Channel Mode',0
Capabilities: enum
Items: '2ch'
Item0: '2ch'
Simple mixer control 'Digital',0
Capabilities: cvolume
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Capture 0 - 120
Front Left: Capture 60 [50%] [0.00dB]
Front Right: Capture 60 [50%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0
Capabilities: enum
Items: 'Mic' 'Front Mic' 'Line' 'CD'
Item0: 'Front Mic'
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',1
Capabilities: enum
Items: 'Mic' 'Front Mic' 'Line' 'CD'
Item0: 'Mic'