microphone not working

My Internal microphone not working on my Gateway MX 3042, SP 3, Intel Celeron M, Processor 1.50 ghz, 480 MB RAM.
Default Device is SoundMAX digital Audio for both Voice Playback and Voice Recording
We have never tried the microphone before, so we are not sure if it ever worked.
I have tried START>CONTROL PANEL>SOUNDS AND AUDIO DEVICES >VOICE>
VOICE RECORDING>VOLUME and have set it all the way up
TEST HARDWARE.... it brought me to the screen to speak, but nothing happened.
I am depending on getting Skype set up to make phone calls as we do not have a land line. I am a novice on the computer and trouble shooting, so I would appreciate any help at all.

 

Have you checked the obvious, the Mute setting?

With my desktop system, which a PCI sound card and the sound software installed that came with the card, I need to enable a feature called "Microphone booster". Otherwise, I get no sound from a mic. I don't know whether this applies to your system, but might worth taking thorough look through your sound settings to see whether your system has a setting.