VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

melissa eX

All of a sudden my sound card isn't detecting my mic. It had started to go strange on me yesterday. I noticed the levels were much much lower than usual and I hadn't touched anything. I went into the software mixer and everything looked fine but the audio coming in was barely there. I had a job to do quickly so instead of messing with it I hooked up the MicPortPro and recorded that way.

When I went back to mess with it the audio was not only barely there - it wasn't there AT ALL. I went back into the Sounds and Audio devices control panel (on XP Home here) to make sure everything had defaulted back to the sound card - and tho' it had, something was strange. In the volume tab under Device Volume it was on high. Normally, the entire thing is grayed out and the slider is as far down as it can go. Also if I pull up the record strip whereas it's usually on high but not adjustable, it's now about 3/4 and it appears as though I should be able to adjust it but I can't.

I can't see any levels in the software mixer but I can hear hum. It appears that maybe it's looking for audio from somewhere else? I have no idea what to do to get it back to it's original state because - and here's the part where you can all throw rotten fruit at me - the audio people set the sound card up for me when I bought this computer almost 3 years ago and I DIDN'T ASK.

Sound card is e-mu 1212m - Software is what's bundled with it PatchMix DSP. I'm going from my mic to a symetrix pre and into the sound card.

Did any of that make sense?

Gp · Guest

I have the same card. Try reinstalling the software. More than likely it's a software issue over a sound card but you never know. You can download it if you don't have a current copy.

dMichaelb · Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 3:29 pm Post subject:

Just a stab in the dark, but have you tried "system restore" to a prior restore point on your system.

Doing so has saved me from bizarre losses/changes of audio in the past.
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Jeffrey Kafer · Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 3:30 pm Post subject:

I hate to ask, but did you try rebooting your computer?
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melissa eX · Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 5:16 pm Post subject:

*sigh*..... yes Kafe...

and swapped cables. And tried another mic. and the other input/output on my dual mic pre,

I'm convinced it's a software thing.

haven't tried system restore.

hmmm. that's next

SimondsSays · Guest

Odd problem.. however they are all odd until they are understood, they they get fixed... Smile

There are several possibilities... this kind of thing is a sherlock problem, in that we need to find out what it isn't.

Right click on "my computer" or choose "system" from the control panel. Click on the hardware tab of the window that pops up, and then click on the "device manage" button. Here is the list of hardware that XP knows about. scroll down the list presented if need be and note any ! marks.. my guess is that it is ok and there are no ! marks.

SO, if the sound device is there, we'll go ahead and remove it by right clicking on the device and choosing uninstall. Click on Start/Shut down and choose shut down computer... you want to make sure you shut it off, not just put it to sleep.. once it is dormant, unplug it.. Open the case and physically remove the sound card. Repower the computer without the card in it. Once at a stable desktop, shut down the computer again, unplug and reinsert the sound card, and if you have it, choose an alternative slot. XP should see the card at boot and will likely auto load the drivers, if not you should have the driver CD available. In the event you remember how the card installed originally, you might have one that requires you to run a setup routine prior to installing the card, if so, follow that routine after the clean boot without the card.

You could try a simpler approach first... power off the computer, unplug it ( when unplugging also hit the power switch to drain the capacitors). Physically remove and replace the card in the slot and try again. Sometimes a bad contact will result in weird performance.

If neither of these things does it, you may have a trojan/virus that has attached the system,,, do teenagers use this computer ever?

Let me know how this goes.....