Sound wheezy/KDE -- testing the microphone

[Sian Mountbatten <poenikatu@operamail.com>]

Hello! I am having trouble with a microphone plugged into my
soundcard. According to Kmix, the Playback Devices are set to about
55%, the Capture Devices are set to 100% and both playback and capture
are shown as not muted.

speaker-test shows that the right speaker is working, but not the left.
The microphone is not working at all according to the Skype Echo test.
When I was using Windws 7, the microphone was definitely working. It's
a simple device: no controls, just a pink-coloured plug.

Can anybody suggest why the microphone doesn't work? And why do I only
get one speaker working? I have an Intel ICH5 sound card.
-- 
Dr S Mountbatten