Audacity Forum

I am having windows Vista Home basic in DEll laptop. It does NOT have speakers but has sound card in it.

When I speak into the microphone to record my voice using the sound recorder, it gets saved as .wma file and I am not able to play it back.

If I use Audacity can I record and play sound without a speaker attached to my laptop?

How did you find a Dell computer without speakers? Is it a deskside? You don't get the Windows sounder when you turn the computer on?

Almost all computers with a sound card have a place to plug Headphones. So we'll start there. It doesn't matter what kind of headphones. I have a variety of different headphones from nice but cheap Sony MDR-V150 through my iPod earbuds up through the more expensive Koss Pro-4 sealed units. All work.

This is also the magic place in the sound card where you can plug your existing sound system. Buy a cable adapter from Dual RCA connectors on one end to a stereo 1/8" connector on the other. Connect the headphone output to the AUX-IN or TAPE-IN of your sound system.

When you can hear your Windows wake up and go to sleep, then we'll get fancy.

Koz