OK so, here goes... because nobody's solutions ever worked for them or were relevant.
Just bought this Inspiron 17 7779 2-in-1 today. Like everyone else, it has a combo jack (4 pole), etc etc etc. and yes, my heaphones do have a 4-pole plug.
Unlike others: mine came with Windows 10, it does NOT have Dell Audio/Dell Audio Manager. It does have the Realtek Audio Drivers and yes, they are up to date (I even double checked). It also has "MaxxAudioPro".
I have the Samsung headphone/earbud stuff that came with my Galaxy S5. I tried these because, well it's all I have. I plug them in and a popup comes up:
No matter which option I select (headphones, headset, mic in), the headphones work in stereo and don't play through the laptop's speakers (an issue some had, I don't), but the microphone does not work at all.
One thread had suggested that it could be that the poles are wrong, so I decided to look on the Dell website to see if maybe there were some like what I have that are compatible. Found this listed: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&sku=520-aaim, which says: "Windows & Android Compatible - Dell recommends Dell Audio software to maximize the listening experience in Windows".
OK then, my Android compatible headset earbud/microphone should also be compatible here, right?
But wait, I look at product compatibility for those and it has four Inspiron series listed, none of which are mine.
So what's the deal? From all the hours of reading I did, I don't think a single person had a real solution. One guy that had asked on a forum said "never mind, figured it out, had to enable it in Dell Audio options"... a thing that doesn't exist on my laptop.
So what's going on with this? Literally every other device ever (outside of Apple, no comment there) has had no issues with compatibility with these types of earbud/microphone combo things.
One person on another thread or forum suggested to another one of the billion people with this issue, that even though the jack and the headphones were both 4 pole, that they may not have the same pole configuration, and that could be an issue.
In which case, I don't want to spend money buying another pair of earbud/microphone headset type things if they're not going to work.
I need a definite, clear solution.