I know the mic itself is working, checked that under the control panel. Know that the correct mic is selected on the program, because it’s the only one on the computer (the internal mic). The music waves are picking up some sort of sound (they don’t look completely flat but they’re close). When I press play I hear a small vague white noise. Have tried every combo of the drop menus. Set it to 2 channel 16 bit 48000 Hz, though I fiddled around with that too.
This same issue happened when I was running the program regularly back in December, but I got free of it somehow and either something else has changed or I’ve just forgotten what I did. Any ideas?
checked that under the control panel.
So you got the Audio Control Panel meters to jump when you yelled in to or scratched the microphone?
Some internal microphones identify themselves as both stereo and mono. Some don’t. Try Mono. Right-click on the red recording sound meters > Start Monitoring. The meters will wake up and live-monitor what you’re doing without you going into real record.
You can also make the meters bigger (recommended). Click on the right-hand edge of the meter panel and pull sideways. All the other tools will scamper out of the way.
http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/Audacity1_record.jpg
I would close all other sound programs. Do you run Skype and leave it napping for an incoming call? Try searching for your microphone with Skype completely closed.
Koz