Audacity's Input Source Control not clickable.

[Sevenor]

I've used Audacity many times before but never had this problem. I've just installed Audacity and wanted to use it but found that the control on the right of mixer toolbar (where you choose "Microphone", "Line In", "Audio CD", etc) is grey out and not clickable. I've tried to uninstall and re-install it but to no avail. Couldn't find anything in the menu (such as Preferences) that can help me to activate it. Can someone please let me know what's wrong? (BTW, my os is Windows XP Pro and the Audacity is v.1.2.4) Thanks!

 

[Ste]

Haved you played around with the defualt settings for your sound card or included software in the either the control panel or the sound card folder? (Creative for a creative card)

 

[Sevenor]

Incidentally, I'm doing this on a new notebook, I had no problem with all my old computers, both desktops and notebooks. Therefore, I suspect that it has something to do with the notebook rather than Audacity.

I've checked the "Sounds And Audio Devices" in the Control Panel, everything in there seemed to be in order. I don't know where else to look. Any other suggestion?

 

[Naphtali14]

I've got the exact same problem.. I haven't ever really used audacity before. I just installed it and have had a **** of a time trying to get the button to work.

 

[Ste]

Maybe try an older version of the program, if you can find one..

 

[Sevenor]

Maybe try an older version of the program, if you can find one..

Don't think it's the version of Audacity that I'm using that is causing the problem as I had used it umpteen times in the past. It has got to be the notebook's settings somewhere. Really regret buying IBM ThinkPad now cos it has caused me so much trouble since I bought it.

 

[Sevenor]

Thought maybe my copy of Audacity was corrupted (since it's stored in my hard disk) I downloaded and installed another (and newer) version of Audacity but result is still the same - the mixer toolbar's control still not clickable. Think must be my notebook's settings somewhere has stopped it from appearing or some things missing in my notebook causing this to happen. I'm also having problem burning mp3 CD with Nero now which I never had problem doing. After adding the songs to be burnt, in the next window there's a box called "Current recorder" where I'm asked to choose, there's just the default recorder shown, namely "Image Recorder (CR-R/RW)". I remember previously it would show me the optical drive(s) that I had in my computer. I now think I maybe having a hardware problem probably.

 

[Sevenor]

I think I had found the cause of the problem - the stereo mix had been intentionally disabled (thinkpads.com Support Community :: View topic - T61/p Sound Recording?). And it's not just in IBM ThinkPad T61 but also most (not all) notebooks new in the market. So make sure the sound card of the notebook you plan to purchase is not crippled or else you will not be able to capture the audio from any audio/video stream/CD/VCD/DVD in audio editing software such as Audacity or Nero Wave Editor, so be warned! The only way round, according to someone in the above forum, is to use Virtual Audio Device, which has a learning curve.