my gigaware 4300504 mic worked fine. I changed hard drives in my hp a1613w pc. now when I record voice all I hear is pops and distortion. I can import music into audacity and it sounds fine. The mic works in other computers’ audacity 2.0.5.
I have windows xp, audacity 2.0.5. I tried updating drivers, was told I already had the latest. Mic is plugged into the 3.5mm jack marked “mic”. I have “line in/microphone” selected in input dropdown box.
Thanks.
Did you “clone” your hard drive before replacing it, or did you re-install everything? …It can be difficult to change a hard drive without changing/affecting your computer’s configuration. 
Did you instal any new applications or change anything else at the same time?
Usually it’s a driver or there’s some other application running (or something else running in the background) that’s “hogging” CPU & databus. Are you multitasking while recording?
The tricky part is… the other application/driver doesn’t have to be using a lot of CPU time… It just has to “hold on” to the databus for a few milliseconds too long and your recording buffer overflows while the audio keeps streaming-in, and you get a “glitch”.
Try gong to Edit → Preferences → Recording and increase the Latency. That will increase the size of your recording buffer.
If you are on a laptop, maybe try switching off your Wi-Fi. (I’ve never had an issue, but I’ve read that it can eat-up resources and slow the computer down.)
Sometimes anti-virus protection can interfere with audio recording. You might try turning-off your anti-virus.
Also if you are recording in “high resolution”, try reducing to 16-bit/48kHz or 16-bit/44.1kHz. (The less data you have to transfer, the less likely you are to get glitches.) Normally one or two channels of high-resolution audio is no problem, but you are having a problem and less data may help, whatever the cause.
It’s possible that the new hard has a problem that’s causing it to run slowly, but that’s unlikely.
Is this also your post under another account mic distortion ? Please say if it is, then we can merge the topics to reduce confusion. To reply to this topic, press the “Quote” button. Don’t start another new topic for the same issue.
I agree with Doug that you could try increasing Audio to buffer in Audacity’s Recording Preferences. Do not change the “latency correction” setting as that does not change anything while recording. Also try 44100 Hz project rate.
But I still think you should look into the audio driver situation in detail, in any case. Who told you you had the latest drivers? You can’t assume from Windows Device Manager that you have the latest drivers. Also you may need to reinstall drivers having changed the hard drive, even if the drivers are correct.
Microsoft does not support XP with security updates any longer so you are at serious risk of being attacked by viruses.
First you must turn on the Windows Firewall if it is not already on.
Then you must make sure you have an anti-virus product with updated virus definitions. Under no circumstances turn off your anti-virus unless you first disconnect from the internet.
Then use Device Manager to uninstall the audio drivers.
Then visit http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=pv-42532-1&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&os=228&product=3261987&sw_lang to download the correct audio drivers and install them.
Then reboot the computer.
If the problem persists, did you connect the hard drive properly to the motherboard? Are the connections tight?
Gale