Flatline on recording attempt

[Rhology]

I am trying to record from a Panasonic cassette player to digital format on my Dell Optiplex GX270.
WinXP Pro SP2, SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio looks like the sound card.
When I hit record on Aud, no matter what I do it flatlines, though there are certain configs where it records my voice and ambient noise. I traced that to the USB webcam and so disconnected it.

I've got the cassette player connected by red/black line-in cable to what I guess is a 3.5 mm jack in the blue line-in connector in the back of the PC. I've also tried the pink mic in, but no dice.

I've set the Windows Recording Control with checkboxes in the Line In, the Microphone, CD Player, Phone, and Stereo Mix settings and no dice.

I've played with the Aud > Edit > Prefs > Audio I/O menu and set it to 1 channel or 2 channels and tried both the SoundMax Digital Audio and the Microsoft Sound Mapper Input on the Recording section.

Still flatline.
And yes, I searched this forum but couldn't find any relevant posts for the last month.
Thanks for the help!

[comcon]

I would try first... forgeting about Audacity for the moment.

See if you can get your cassette player to play thru your computer speakers.

If you can, than choosing Microsoft Sound Mapper Input should work fine.

[Rhology]

I think I might've figured out what I did wrong.
The cable connected to my cassette plyr is connected to the Line IN; it's not a line OUT. I'll have to try it with a cable from the headphone jack OUT from the plyr to the PC.
Duh.