headphones with built in microphones do not work

hey folks, this is my first post and im sorry that I made an account just to get a question answered >__>
anyways, here it goes:
just got a new laptop, an asus q400a, fairly new laptop hardware wise, and ive got 1 lil headphone jack problemo with it. I own 4 pairs of headphones, 3 of which are above average (bowers&wilkins, bose, and sol republic) and a $10 burner pair. the ones with the built-in mic have 4 pole jack ends while the burner has 3 pole. the 3 are apple specific (their volume control is, but mic works with android/everything else anyway)

all 3 of the mic ones don't work properly with varying results each time ( maybe 1 ear working, grainy sound, screwed up voice v instruments v bass) etc, and the burner and my speaker system work 100% . the earpieces are working according to my other devices, including my old laptop & desktop which can deal with the headphones just fine. but for some reason, this up to date device isn't made to handle an easy component as 4 pole headphones?
anyways, this post is basically to ask whether any of you readers may have a whim as to whether this is specific hardware malfunction or just faulty design, maybe you have personal experience or have a friend who Is fairly annoyed about this same problem (its a windows 8 :c and is the first comp I own with front facing camera and preloaded with Skype, maybe this has something to do with it) anyways, I just dealt with asus reps, and I wasn't expecting any answer from them haha, so here I am googling away and I found this as a top search site and hope you readers can help. I tried my best to paint a picture with info from every angle, though im sure its gonna be a much more simple answer,

thanks in advance c:

 

On most laptops I know, there's usually a single jack for audio and another for microphone (3 pole for each). 4 pole jack ends are more common just for mobile phones. Not sure if any netbooks would have a single jack for combined microphone/audio plug.

Does your laptop seem to have separate jacks for microphone and audio?

 

It's also possible that your sound is fine, since you mention the speakers work well, but there's an issue with the just the audio jack. Have you tried a plain pair of headphones with no in line mic or volume controls?

 

Unless the laptop has just the one audio jack, it's likely that it's a regular audio jack with no support for TRRS headsets.

You can buy an adapter to plug into both mic and headphone sockets of your laptop if this is the case.