RECORDING difficulty

[lgunther]

I have had great difficulty in recording:
Each time I open AUDACITY I have to choose among various recording input settings - among which are line-in, TAD-in, wave, microphone, stereo, ....
I also have a choice among a number of recording devices in preferences - such as Integrated Audio or SBLive.
However, each time I open AUDACITY I am given a different set of choices of recording inputs. Most of the time TAD-in is not on the list. Yet TAD-in has allowed me to record in the past. I can close AUDACITY after a successful recording and then find that when I reopen AUDACITY, the setting that worked before doesn't work any more OR the input list has changed. Worse still, most of the time I can't find any combination that records my input even though I use the same input jack on my PC and the same settings.

[kozikowski]

I bet you're on a Windows machine.

You may be hosting a {word rejected} web site in the background which is causing instability when you try to use your machine. When was the last time you ran your virus software and updated it? Checked and defragged your hard drive? Are there several real, actual users on your machine?

Virus is the leading cause of sudden, unexplained computer insanity.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Oh, the next most popular Windows problem is trouble with the sound card. Update the sound card drivers.

Koz

[alatham]

lgunther, this is an odd problem.

Are you often plugging/unplugging any USB devices into your computer (especially a USB turntable or similar)? Those can change your sound card settings without telling you.