microphone issue

ok i have a generic brand headset with a mic. (it didnt come with any CD or anything so...) it works and sounds crystal clear but there is 1 thing. evrytime i log into ventrilo (latest edition) the voice doesnt register. i press my hotkey and it lights up but other people in the channel cant hear me. the only way i found out how 2 fix it was 2 go 2 control panel-sounds and audio-voice-test hardware. i test it and then it all works out great. but if i get disconected from the internet or 4 some reason log out of vent and log back in i have 2 do that process all over again. its tedious boring and a waste of my time, a minor annoyance. does any1 here have clue on what i can do 2 have my voice register all the time, everytime?

Maybe you've got Ventrilo configured to use the wrong audio input?

Windows only supports one audio source setting per device at a time without any weird hacks, while most sound drivers offer a variety of sources like "stereo mix", "line in", "microphone", "CD audio", etc. It could be that when you start Ventrilo it sets Windows up to get sound from the wrong source, which gets reset to the right one when you try the voice test in Control Panel. Since the audio input configuration is global (that is, it's shared by every running application), this also affects Ventrilo and makes it work right, at least until you restart the app.

So I'd check Ventrilo's settings first.

More or less as was said above - make sure Ventrilo is set to input from the mic and make sure windows is set for mic input too.
Depending upon what sort of sound "card" you have, there should be a mixer icon in the Systray - Double click it and make sure the input is set to microphone (not "line").