Vista Tutorial - need help with audio

I’m trying to use my laptop with vista as an amp for my guitar so that I can hear what I am playing while I record and I can’t get any sound. I didn't have any trouble doing this with my old pc that was running xp. Anyone have any suggestions?

A few questions to get us started:

What type of sound card are you using? Are you plugged into the correct input spot? Have you checked settings on the card (or the software it came with)?

The more you can tell us about what you're working with and what you've already done, the easier it will be for us to fix this.

Thanks,

Scallion

Here is a link to the pc that I just bought Laptop Computers - Satellite X205-S9800
Hopefully that can tell you what sound card I am using, because I don't know. I'm positive that I am plugged into the right import spot.
I called Toshiba tech support and they said that they don't think that you can listen to anything live through the mic input, I can't imagine that Microsoft would have over looked something so minor.

Okay, this could end up being a bit annoying, but we'll see what we can come up with.

To start with, do you have a microphone that you can plug in to that slot?

By annoying, I don't mean you. I mean the issue and solution. I have a weird feeling it will suddenly work at some point, and I won't be able to explain why. Sorry if there was confusion.

Good news. I figured it out on my computer. That should mean I'll be able to help you out. We'll be able to figure it out once I know a few things. If you can give me an idea of where you'd put yourself in computer knowledge, I'll know how much I need to go into detail in getting to certain windows.

thanks for the quick reply. I would consider myself fairly knowledgeable. I know how to open the properties etc.. but I don't know how to write programs, lol.

Good deal.

Alright, connect a standard microphone to that jack for now (we're going to start with just making sure this works, without getting into if it's an issue with a guitar). Then go to your sound settings in control panel. If you go to the "Recording" tab, you should see the image of a microphone. If you talk into the mic, or tap it, or blow into it or something, you should see little green bars going up and down. Does that happen?

Let me know if you need guidance to any part of that. I skipped steps, since you said I could.

Yes, the green bar moves up and down when I talk/tap it.

Okay, click properties in that window for that particular device. Click the Custom Tab and check the box for the +20 dB gain. Under the Levels tab, make sure you're at 100%.

We may actually be through the thick of things at this point. Turn off all applications that are causing sound through your speakers. Then, turn up your speakers a bit. Tap/talk and see if you get any sound through the speakers that indicates this is going on. While doing this, watch your little green bars and make sure they are getting near the top of that (just to guarantee the mic didn't inadvertantly mute or something). If it works, we're done. If not, we move on.

Next, we need to figure out what software came with your sound card. This could be a difficult thing for me to reverse engineer. I'm working with Creative stuff on my end, but let me see what I can come up with for you. My big problem is that I can find nothing about the sound card on the website or any other source. So, we move on to different methods.

In your control panel under the sound category, are there any other options that seem like third-party software? If not, look through your start menu and see if there is anything like "Realtek HD Audio Manager" or something like that. If not, do a search for it. Safest bet is that you have a Realtek sound driver.

If you can find it, you should be able to find an option to unmute your microphone in there. Then you can test again, and you should be able to get some kind of sound through your speakers from your microphone in real-time. After that, you can try the guitar, and it should work immediately.

Good luck. Let me know how it goes.

I found Realtek High Definition Audio under the device manager, but there aren't any options for unmuting the microphone.

Also, under the sounds category there are three tabs that I will list for you.
Under the first tab labeled "playback" there is "Realtek HDMI output" "Speakers" and "Realtek Digital output".
Under the second tab labeled "Recording" there are also three tabs "Frontmic" "Microphone" "Frontlinein" and "Stereo Mix".
Under the third tab labeled "Sounds" there are options for "Control Scheme" and "Program".