blue flatline

[mikel75]

Audacity 1.3.2 beta (Unicode) is running on my 1.5 GHz Dell Inspiron 600m laptop under Windows XP SP3 and recently it's been flatlining - the blue line that shows amplitude is completely flat, as if no inputs whatsoever, not even ambient noise, are detected.

I have changed nothing by way of connections or software. I am recording lectures via a wireless mic.

I have tried rebooting numerous times.

It has worked well for over a year, until now. It now seems to work intermittently per day - last week it didn't work. Two days ago, it did. I'm afraid it will stop working again unless I find out what's going on.


Mike

[steve]

Wireless microphones are not always the most reliable things, so I would try and eliminate that from the question if possible. Could you try recording from something else and see if Audacity behaves correctly.

[mikel75]

Thanks. I should specify - we are primarily recording via the wireless, but other mics are linked as well. None of them are being picked up either. So I'm thinking it's not the wireless.

[steve]

but other mics are linked as well.

That's something that you've not told us about. How do you have your equipment set up?

[mikel75]

Have you ever ended your posts with "You're Welcome!" Just kidding. You know, I'm not sure I have the savvy to help you help me ....... well I'll try, there seems to be a receiver with a bunch of cords going into it, one of these is connected to the laptop carrying Audacity. So there are microphones, a receiver, knobs on the receiver that control inputs, what else. I guess that's about it?

[steve]

Have you ever ended your posts with "You're Welcome!"

While I'm typing that I could perhaps have helped another user out of their frustration
Besides, the reason I spend too much time on the forum is purely selfish - it's my way of "paying" for all the free, open source software that I use and enjoy (also a really good way to thoroughly get to know Audacity).

there seems to be a receiver with a bunch of cords going into it, one of these is connected to the laptop carrying Audacity.

That sound interesting. How is the "receiver" connected to the laptop? USB? Firewire? Plugged into the headphone jack socket?

[mikel75]

The receiver is connected to laptop with a simple cord, goes right into the headphone jack. the other end of the cord has two ends, red and white. So it's similiar to those cords that hook into the back of TV's for DVD's. Thanks again for your help.

[kozikowski]

Your Welcome.

Has it ever worked? Is this a new system straight out of the shrink-wrap? Who set it up the first time? Radio Microphones must be adjusted before they go into service.

Koz

[mikel75]

I didn't hook up the system myself, but I can find out when/how from the guy who did. Yes, it has worked like a champ 98% of the time. It's just this last month it's been acting up. So no modifications were made to the laptop, the mic, the receiver, or any other component prior to the malfunctions.

Is there a chance the laptop's RAM has something to do with it? Relatively speaking it's an older laptop. I don't know - have either of you guys heard of the happening in the past?

[steve]

I think that you will need to get hold of the guy that set it up. The problem here is that you have quite a few links in the chain between microphone and hard disk, and a broken link anywhere in that chain could cause the problem. It could easily be something as simple as a wire that has come unplugged, which the guy that set it up would probably spot immediately.

If after having that guy check it over there are still problems, ask him to hook up a microphone or other signal source directly to the laptops audio input socket and get back to us.