Counter for the hate thread.
A while back I had to do some maintenance on my computer, and I saw the entire faceplate bus is just a burnt out spot on the mainboard. I cleaned it up with my plastic tweezers and a q-tip (A sin, I know, but it worked).
Today I went to test a clip on microphone, and found out there is no mic input on the rear panel, just the one on the front panel. It had previously not operated, but I figured, hey, worth a shot.
Not only did the mic jack work, the headphone one does too now! And it's good clean sound, no clipping or errors!
That makes me very happy.