Audacity Forum

I am totally unable to record sound going through my computer such as , streaming radio. All recording devices are greyed out (unavailable) I cannot even record via the mic. using windows sound recorder. I have a new computer with a Realtek ALC888 sound chip on board. I have the latest drivers (16-01-08) and I have also updated the Intel chipset driver. I run a dual boot system with Windows XP Pro and Vista ultimate. the problem is the same on both OS's. In 'Vista' when I right click on the sound icon (quick launch) and choose recording options I get the message "no audio devices are installed". The Recording Control shows the normal options i.e., Line ; Stereo Mix; CD ; and Mic. but they are all greyed out and the selection boxes are missing only a mute box is shown, the volume sliders are in-operable. The only option on this screen is the Record Volume. Consequently, I am unable to record using Audacity as I cannot select a source from the Audacity preferences screen under recording, only ' Realtek HD Audio' and 'Microsoft Sound Mapper' are shown. I would normally be offered Line or Stereo Mix amongst the options.
I am at a complete standstill with this problem and have spent days trawling the Internet for the solution to no avail. I have sent an e-mail for assistance to both Realtek and MSI (motherboard) but no reply so far.
I am quite experienced re computer matters and don't normally get beaten with a problem but this one...........!!!.

Any advice most welcome

Have a look at these pages first:
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... bar_Issues
and
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... s_Problems

If you still have problems, try to record something with Microsoft Sound Recorder and see if you can get that working.
http://webster.commnet.edu/DL/dl-help/h ... corder.htm

Let us know how you get on

No, that does not work either. I even tried to do a Microphone test using Sound Recorder but the Mic. is not 'live' so the test failed. Nothing was recorded.

OK, so this is a Windows sound system problem rather than specifically Audacity.
Since you are dual booting, lets stick with XP while we sort this out.

I presume that you can play audio? (yes/no)

Go into the Windows Control Panel and open up "Sounds and Audio Devices"
Click on the "Audio" tab
You should see your audio device listed in the "Sound Recording" and "Sound Playback" boxes - they should not be greyed out.

You can also look in the Windows Control Panel under "System > Hardware > Device Manager".
Check that there are no device errors indicated, and no big yellow question marks.
There should be a list of devices in the "Sound Video and Game Controllers" section - post a screen shot, or simply copy the names of what is listed into your reply (you need to click on the [+] to expand the list).

Yes, this is a Sound system problem and not an Audacity problem. Yes, I can play Audio.

The audio device listed in the Playback and Recording boxes is 'Realtek HD Audio output and input'.
They are not greyed out.

No yellow question marks in device manager and here is the list you requested.
Please nnote i did not know how to show a screenshot or paste into this reply so hereunder is a transcipt of the Device Manager component

Sound Video and Game Contollers

Audio Codecs
Legacy Audio Drivers
Legacy video Capture Drivers
Media Control Devices
Pinnacle PCTV DVB-T Common
Pinnacle PCTV DVB-T Tuner
Realtek high Definition Audio
Video Codecs.

Hope this helps and I very much appreciate your attention.

I was hoping that a fault would show up, but that all seems to be correct.

You say this is a new computer - have this problem existed from brand new?

I'm running out of options here, but there's still a few things that it could be:
1) A hardware problem (the recording device is faulty)
2) The audio device may be designed to run with a custom audio mixer utility rather than the regular Windows Mixer.
3) The device is set for recording from S/PDiF-In (digital input), rather than analogue in.

I've just had a look on Google and found this page: http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/prod ... ProdID=135
I'm not saying that this is the correct driver (you should get the latest drivers from the motherboard manufacturer), but from the specification given there there are a lot of "Software Features" that are not supported by the standard Windows Mixer. This would imply that there is an audio driver utility specifically for this device.

Ah ha - I think that I may have found the problem.
The driver that you installed (2008-01-16), did you download it from MSI and was it about 300 KB? If so, then I think that this may just be an update (driver only and no utilities) for the earlier version (2008-01-14) This earlier version is much bigger (38 MB) and includes other software (sound manager etc.)

If this sounds likely, go back to the MSI site and look for the big 2008-01-14 driver download.
(Fingers crossed, hope this helps).

Thanks again for your efforts to help. the drivers were an msi download and they were dated 14-01-08 (sorry if I misled you). It was the full package, my download was 56mb. Checked the 'digital' setting only 'output' is shown and it is set for S/PDiF. There are no settings for Analogue.
I am hoping that the 'help' requested from Realtek and MSI might bring something tomorrow.
thank you again for all your efforts on my behalf I really do appreciate it but I must admit this problem is getting me down.

Some good news, I managed to get the problem sorted out on Windows Vista ultimate. the problem here ws that by default microsoft decided not to show the record options until something is plugged in e.g., microphone. This then shows up and right clicking on tis icon gives access to other record options such as line in or stereo mix. these are disabled, again, by default and have to be 'enabled'. after doing this i found 'stereo mix' as an option in the Audacity Preferences/Imput window. I was then able to make recordings. Line -out is not an available option (another Microsoft 'own-goal'). I read on some of the 'postings' last week that a workaround is to use an audio splitter and plug it into the line out and then run cable from line-in and speakers.
that was the good news, the bad news is that I still have the problem with Windows XP Pro and there are no such options here. something is definitely blocking the record options including the microphone and even the Windows sound recorder does not work.

After waiting four days I got a reply from MSI (UK), directing me to the MSI Global site for tech support. The amount of info they are asking for in respect of my motherboard is such that I would almost have to dismantle my installation in order to get at all the part and serial numbers there are asking for. I will have to give this more consideration.

I am feeling a little more upbeat and am prepared to battle on.

Good news indeed - at least you can now be sure that it's not a hardware fault.
So what we're left with is RealTek audio with RealBad drivers - it'll be interesting to hear what MSI have to say.

The reason that they need very specific information about your mobo is that they probably have a lot of minor variation of the board, probably manufactured by different companies and using some different components. If they know exactly what board you have, it gives them a much better chance of being able to identify the problem.

If you find yourself waiting for ages for MSI to get back to you, you could always try using an older driver for XP.

I have completed the on-line tech help application including a screen shot of the Record Control screen showing the greyed out options, so I eagerly await an answer. I have actually tried using the original drivers from the motherboard CD, without any luck and i even allowed Microsoft to load it's own driver, same result.
I will post back if i get some useful info.

Do you think Vista users are aware of 'record' problems brought on them by Microsoft.? Have Microsoft done this as some kind of gesture to the DRM movement?