Audacity Forum

I have windows XP.

The input is greyed out so I can't select mic.

I have spent 2 days doing all the things recommended such as updating drivers and have got nowhere.

I find this Forum very difficult to use. Its taken me ages to find out how to post this message.

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paddy bergin wrote:I find this Forum very difficult to use. Its taken me ages to find out how to post this message.

Congratulations, you have succeeded.

paddy bergin wrote:I have windows XP.
The input is greyed out so I can't select mic.

This is a very common problem with Vista, but can sometimes also occur with XP (and other operating systems). It is because your sound card driver does not allow Audacity to access its controls. If updating the sound card drivers does not fix it, then you need to control the sound card directly (not through Audacity). Look in the "sys tray" (bottom right corner of the screen near the clock) for an icon that looks like a loudspeaker. Try right clicking or double clicking on it to open the sound card control panel/mixer. Find the "Record" settings and enable recording from the microphone. You will also need to adjust the recording level (there is usually a slider).

Unfortunately, not all sound cards mixer/panel look the same, but a typical example is described here: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... bar_Issues

oldandwise wrote:IF THERE ARE ANY ACTUAL AUDACITY UPPER LEVEL TYPE PEOPLE CAN WE PLEASE FIND A WAY TO MAKE IT SO THAT TOOL BAR ISNT GRAY LIKE THE OLD VERSION SO WE DONT HAVE TO ALL EXPLODE WITH FRUSTERATION WHEN THE PREFERENCES OPTION ONLY HAS ONE OPTION JUST MAKE IT WORK LIKE IT USED TO PLEASE

You are addressing the wrong people - you need to get on to Microsoft and the sound card manufacturers. Please ask them to stick with some kind of standards and to stop moving the goal posts, then software developers may have a chance.