Sound Card issues

The sound card works fine in everything but mic pickups. Everytime it records anything, it turns it into either a demon or a chipmunk type of voice if it works at all. Sometimes I reboot it and it works fine for a while then goes back to the weird fucked up voices.

Solutions I've tried: Switching the card to different PCI slots. reinstalled drivers, Installed newer drivers, installed older drivers. Messing around with all the settings in the program the drivers come with that have anything to do with mic's.

Nothing worked, thats why I'm here. Is the card defective?

I'm using XP Pro, the sound card is called BlueGears b-Enspirer.

If the mic isn't the problem, then sound cards are cheap.  Are you married to this sound card for any particular reason?