no apparent input signal from turntable

[bfx]

I am recording (or attempting to) from vinyl to audacity. When I select the record button, audio tracks come up and the resulting waveform is a a flat blue line, which I interpret to mean that the signal from the turntable is not reaching audacity.

Here is the configuration / setup
* running 1.2.6 on Windows XP
* Soundblaster! Live sound card
* Turntable runs through preamp to line input on Dell Dimension Computer (input is color coded blue)
* Audio I/O Preferences are set to Soundblaster! Live Wave Device
* Channels set to 2 (stereo)
* The volume controls are both set at .8

Other notes
* When the selected input device is "line input," there is no sound from the input
* When "microphone" is selected in the dropdown the audio from the input passes through
* I recorded about 50 albums two years ago, and I don't see what I may be doing differently from before (although two years is sufficient time for my memory to play tricks).
* I have viewed documentation and forum postings from the past seven months and have not found an answer / solution.

Final note
* I appreciate any help you guys may give. If it would be help, I can send more info about configuration and preferences ... screen shots ... whatever.

Thanks,
Bruce

[steve]

Audio I/O Preferences are set to Soundblaster! Live Wave Device

What other options are available?

Do you have any way to check that there's a signal coming out of the pre-amp?

[bfx]

Steve,

Thanks very much for your reply. I don't know what to say. Monday, I thought I would have another look and tinker around trying to troubleshoot the problem. Put an album on the turntable, fired it up, hit record on audacity ... and a non-flat waveform appeared in the recording tracks. I have since recorded three albums. I changed none of the settings, did nothing differently from before. Ghost in the machine?

Thanks again for taking the time to respond. Sorry for the bogus query.