Hi,
I’m a first time user of the forum but been using Audacity for about 6 months. I’m posting this on the Windows forum because I suspect it could be a windows problem but equally could be Audacity or possibly Mac OS. I recently moved all my audio conversion activities to a PC that I made to be dedicated to iTunes. While attempting to record it won’t listen to ‘line in’ input and won’t playthrough either, basically it wouldn’t do anything whilst recording from tape or vinyl. I’ve checked all my connections and after a bit of fiddling & googling I’ve traced the fault to the ‘line in’ settings in windows. Every time I check the levels for ‘line in’ its always muted and if I unmute it then go to record, by the time I’ve started the recording it’s muted itself again. I’ve managed a workaround where I set the ‘line in’ window to be at the front, start a recording then unmute it but its a messy way round. The main problem is that when I unmute the ‘line in’ I can’t apply it because the apply button is greyed out, I’ve set it to default but it still mutes every time unless I use the workaround.
Any ideas how I can set ‘line in’ to unmute and keep it that way, it’s very frustrating. 
Thanks in anticipation
M
PC is running Windows Vista, latest Audacity (updated yesterday) and very latest iTunes (updated yesterday too)
What is getting muted - playthrough of the line-in (at “Playback” tab of Windows “Sound”, line-in Properties > Levels), or recording of line-in (at “Recording” tab of Windows “Sound”, line-in Properties > Levels)?
If playthrough is the problem, Transport > Software Playthrough (on/off) in Audacity, or set “Listen to this device” for the line-in (at “Recording” tab of Windows “Sound”, line-in Properties > Listen).
Sound device controls behaving unpredictably is usually an indication you do not have correct or up-to-date drivers for the sound device. See here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Updating_Sound_Device_Drivers .
Gale
What is getting muted - playthrough of the line-in (at “Playback” tab of Windows “Sound”, line-in Properties > Levels), or recording of line-in (at “Recording” tab of Windows “Sound”, line-in Properties > Levels)?
Hi Gale, yes it’s the line in at “playback” tab of windows sound, line in properties>levels. I’ve gone to update my driver but it says it is up to date. Unpredictable is the word, when I change the settings in “levels” I should be able to “apply” the changes but the “apply” button is greyed out.
I’ll have a look at the link you sent but I seem to remember reading something like that before I put the post up.
Thanks I’ll post whether or not it’s fixed
Mark
Yes done all that. Everything up to date and supposedly “working”. Tried to change the levels settings again and it won’t save. I’m thinking the only option is another sound card, with drivers!
Doesn’t Transport > Software Playthrough (on/off) in Audacity work? The reproduction is not as fast as unmuting line-in in playback, but it usually works.
Unmuting playback may possibly not work on later sound cards. That is why Windows Vista and later brought in “Listen” which is software playthough like Audacity’s. Does set “Listen to this device” for the line-in (at “Recording” tab of Windows “Sound”, line-in Properties > Listen) not work?
You cannot always accept what Windows Device Manager says about audio drivers being up-to-date; it just depends what it can find online.
Have you been to the computer manufacturer’s web site (if it’s a branded computer) or otherwise found the motherboard details and gone to the motherboard manufactuerer’s site?
Gale