New Sony Vaio, headphones w/ built in mic dont work

Al,

I am the new owner of a Sony Vaio (model umber VPC131FM). I have a set of earbuds that also have a microphone attached. On my previous laptops, I could plug the earbuds in to listen to music, movies, etc without issue.

On the Vaio, I can hear the background music (instrumentals, etc), but the vocals are played very quietly. Also, when using Skype, my microphone cuts in and out.

We have determined that the headphone jack cannot accept the 3 ring plug that my earbuds have. Normal headphones work just fine. I can partially insert my earbuds to a point where everything sounds fine, because the microphone section of the plug isn't engaged or powered.

The easy solution is to just use normal earbuds, but my earbuds are also what I use to talk on the phone at work. I listen to Pandora from my laptop, and when my phone rings I just unplug the earbuds from my computer and plug them into my phone. It's a very easy way for me to do this and has worked well for over a year with my old laptop.

Questions:

Is there anything 'wrong' with my vaio, or is this how it is expected to react with three ring earbuds?

If it is normal, is there a way for me to adjust the levels of vocals to music to make it sound normal?

Any help would be great.