Just bought a power spec g162 gaming desktop

Danny529

Audio is coming from the monitor, my kid wants to plug in his gaming headset to the audio jack on the computer
but does not seem to be active, has to plug into the monitor, there is a headphone and separate microphone jack on the computer, how do I activate these.  Do we need a separate microphone or can he use his gaming headset combination?

TSTonyV

Hello @Danny529! Welcome to the Community. 

First things first, click the volume icon on the bottom-right corner of the screen. It should list a name for the current audio device, click on that and see if it gives you any other options. You should have the monitor listed as well as another device, usually something like "speakers" or "Realtek audio." Select that and the headphones should work. 

If that's not listed, Go through this guide from Microsoft: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4520288/windows-10-fix-sound-problems

Start with step six under "fix your audio drivers." You can also re-download the audio drivers the powerspec. Go to our Tech Support page, then click "Powerspec Drivers" over on the right and search G162, it will give a list of driver downloads and you can download and install the audio drivers: https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/tech-support.aspx

You don't need to use a separate microphone. The microphone should automatically detect and be usable by the system when the headset is plugged in

Danny529

All of this answer was good information and helpful in understanding. The problem turned out to be 
the audio jack on the gaming headsets was not comparable with the headset and mic ports on the computer. My son Lucas figured this out and ordered a cable converter that plugs into both jacks on one end and the headset on the other and now everything works great.  Thanks for the help.

TSTonyV

Glad to hear you found a solution! I didn't think of it at the time, but a lot of headsets utilize a single plug for both microphone and headset audio so a splitter is sometimes necessary.