Razer Carcharias Headset not detected in Windows 7

Today I got a shiny new Razer Carcharias Headset for X-Box and PC. When I tried plugging them into my laptop however, Windows seems simply not to detect them. All the lights come on on the headset, and I hear a light static in the background (from what I've read this is a common side-effect of usb connections), but the device simply does not appear under Playback Devices or in the Device Manager. Any sound played comes out of my laptop speakers. When connecting them to the audio jack on the laptop, its the same story except then even the lights don't even come on and I don't think its getting

Question by KSab on Super User, licensed CC BY-SA. We show a short excerpt and link to the original thread as credit.