windows 7 audacity 2.05 ,version .exe downloaded .I am trying to convert cassettes to MP3 ,my laptop only has a plugin for mic and headphones no line in and I have tried repeatedly to record and have at times seen the line on graph travel across screen with no wave or line only quivers ,no sound ever recorded I am only 80 years old so please keep it simple 
The Mic-In on your computer will not connect to a stereo cassette player.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/Line-Out_Mic-In.jpg
Some computer will do this. Those are celebrities and we look upon them with awe and respect, but that’s not normal.
You didn’t tell us anything about the player, but if it’s a garden variety older, analog (not digital) player, you can use my favorite digitizer the Behringer UCA-202.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/peaveyUCA202Lenovo.jpg
It will adapt almost any analog player to the USB digital connection of your computer. Other USB devices will do this job, that’s just the one I have wide personal experience with.
Does that sound like the way you want to go? If you have a good cassette player, this can be a good solution.
You can buy cassette players that have the USB digital connection already built in, but those players tend to be trash.
Let us know.
Koz
The player is a radio,cd,tape player I have a mixer I used to use with my desktop computer I will check to see if that can work in any way
Thanks for reply