3DS audio input to OBS via 3.5mm male-to-male aux cord suddenly not working

[AriaNights]

UPDATE: The aux cable wasn't the issue! I just picked up one of those headphone-microphone splitter cables, and suddenly all's working well again! All's well that ends well.

So, I was trying to get my New 3DS XL to transmit its audio to my laptop (and OBS by extension) using the aforementioned 3.5mm male-to-male audio jack. I'd made sure that the aux in port I'm connecting it to can support a mic intake, and this has even worked a few times already! However, I must've gotten it to work by fluke or something, because it's now completely stopped working.

The steps to replicate are as follows:

• Plug 3DS into one end of the jack, and then plug the other end into the mic-in area of my computer. This then shows up as Realtek Microphone.
• Naturally, it pops up the 'Realtek Audio Console,' which I have set to the headset variant (which worked up until this point)
• Then, I add the audio capture input to OBS in order to bring the sound in.

Up until today, this has been working perfectly well -- not quite plug and play, as I had to plug and unplug things a few times mostly at random, but it seemed to start working pretty quick. However, for some reason, this is no longer the case -- instead, when plugging in the 3DS, there's absolutely no change to the aux input (tested by unplugging the 3DS and plugging it back in to see if the computer detected any change).

I've attempted to fix this via making the Realtek Audio Console manage the aux cord as though it were a Mic In input, but this only works if the part plugged into the 3DS is partially unplugged, and it also picks up some nasty noises if I accidentally move the damn 3DS or (god forbid) plug it in to charge.

I'd initially thought this was just a matter of laptops not having an aux-in, but mine did clearly work (and had actually worked for two streams before this!), so I'm definitely not sure exactly what went wrong here. I'll happily take pretty much any advice possible at this point -- and of course, if clarification is wanted, I'll happily provide it! Honestly, this feels like some weird puzzle or something.

*If all else fails, I will get an external sound card, but I do want to try and figure out what happened here first in case this happens again.

 

[Kwyjor]

The obvious thing to do is to make sure something else can still be plugged into your laptop?

I expect your cables are faulty. There's not much else that can go wrong with analog audio.

 

[AriaNights]

Yep, things can still be plugged in and work fine! I figured the cable was faulty as well, but considering it did KINDA work (and had worked before), I figured it was best to check in and see if it was user error before I committed to any purchases.

Still, well, a faulty device means I can't really do much of it! It definitely seems like that's the case. Thank you! ^^

 

[master801]

If you're using Windows 10, make sure you allow apps to access the Microphone in Settings.

Settings -> Privacy -> Microphone