How to get microphone to work on acer aspire one 722

I have an acer aspire 722, I recently went to use gmail/talk as well as empathy and realized that the microphone does not work. I checked the sound settings, adjusted microphone level, did a mic test but the level indicator showed no bars.

Now my speakers work & mic work:

• I installed linux-image-3.4.0-999-generic-pae_3.4.0-999.201205070447_i386.deb
• and then adjusted mic boost in alsamixer
• sudo alsactl store
• added to startup applications: alsactl restore

You need to unmute the microphone input. Try running alsamixer in a Terminal window (Ctrl+Alt+T), and checking it there. If it's muted or low, you can unmute and/or increase it in alsamixer.