Laptop troubleshooting forum: mic problems

ive been wondering that, or whether it is a hideous design flaw.ive spent a lot of time searching for an answer, and was hoping someone here might have some info, before i have to brave an overseas call centre.ive tried looking for anything i could install that may over ride it, but as i dont know really what to look for, i havent had much luck.does anyone know if there should be more than one device to click under the recording tab, as i only have one, the mic, which does make me lean towards the design flaw thing. thanks.

a friend who knows a bit about pooters said it may be harmful to connect a line from the speaker out to the mic in, im going to look into it, so i suggest if someones thinking about doing it, dont do it unless you are sure its ok.

but get ready for a surprise!after a nightmare back and forth, hp confirmed that there is no other way to record on ANY of the pavillion laptops, other than via the mic, which pics up external sound.it also applies to some other hp laptops too, including some really high priced ones!atleast i didnt spend a grand like some bloke i found who had the same prob!

thanks for your suggestions, but id tried them prior to asking for help, the only option is the mic. my dads 5 yr old machine has going on a zillion options...give or take. turns out hp think its perfectly acceptable to make brand new machines that cant record "inside" as it were and dont think its a design flaw.HMPH!!what a total, utter shambles!!it never occured to me that anyone would think this was a good idea!!!

blimey, youve got me worried now, as id asked a whole load of computer peeps about whether what i was doing with the lines was safe or not, and more ppl said it was ok than not, so thats what ive been doing!im freaked out now!surely if it was going to explode or something, it wouldve done it by now? right? oh flippin eck, well, ive got to keep this junk now as im a couple of months in!

somewhere along the line external sound cards were mentioned, so ill guess ill look into that, and see if itd work for me, but i dont know owt about em!

thanks again for youe help,

sherbet

thanks for the info! i have to say, as annoyed as i am youve had the same issue, im also relieved, as frankly i couldnt believe the information super highway wasnt awash with ppl mentioning the same prob!!we cant be the only 2 ppl to want to capture streaming audio etc, surely!!

flippin eck, dont get me started on the hell that is hp customer service, the phones a nightmare, but you should see the randomly worded emails ive got from them, or the 3 hour long live chats ive had, where, i kid you not, i went a made a bowl of pasta whilst waiting for a reply.i had to chuckle at something mentioned in one of the replies you got elsewhere that said if they dont know about it, it must be a good thing. LOL!!riiight. my experience is that they dont even know simple things. not the call takers fault theyve not had proper training, but customers deserve more than a stroke from high blood pressure each time they call the centre. 3 ppl i spoke to didnt know what capturing streaming audio meant, they raised their voices(i didnt, honest) kept reapeating the same thing, telling me i was wrong, i meant to say download. you get that alot when you call there. to be fair, hp arent alone, no matter what company you call, and no matter what country the centre is in, youre pretty much in for hell. i digress, sorry, but my router, and dvdr have broken this week, and ive od'd on rubbish call centres!

the info on the other forum is very interesting, i didnt know there was a possibilty of doing something to the card...live in hope eh?!

ill have a looksee at that software, id been using download studio for years...you get it free for 14 days, so all i do is unistall/reinstall it after it runs out, and off i go again!

i feel more sorry for you than i do for myself, as yours, like the other person i bumped into cost more than mine. i still cant believe that hp thinks this is ok.oh well!

thanks again, and goodluck with the whole shebang, if you ever come across a solution, pls drop by this way and let me know!

sherbet

Hi, Sherbet!

I have a similar problem, too, and I hope you found an answer to this "quest"!
I think you are a little ahead of me, because you could gather more information about the problem, and let me see if you or somebody else could help me out.
I am trying to record a cassete tape using my PC thru the mic input, as I was used to in my old laptop (windows XP). Now, with my new HP Pavillion laptop (windows Vista) I can record, but the quality is soooo low (bitrate 96kbps), like AM radio. I tried several ways to improve the quality, but with no success. When I go to panel control/sounds/recording, there's nothing that I can do to change it.

Any suggestion?

Also, I have a home studio, on which I used to make recordings of guitars and vocals using the mic input in my old laptop (XP). Now, I have the same problem - low quality.

I appreciate your suggestion.

Regards!

HP PAVILLION DV2815nr
WINDOWS VISTA 32 bit
AMD TURION 2X 2.0 GHz
DDR2: 3 GB
HD: 250 GB