Soundcard in new PC not supporting recording

peasant

Not Peasant here, but Peasants wife.:D

We bought a new PC, after the old one got fried in a thunderstorm.
The old one was a Dell Dimension C2400 and I used it a lot to record sounds off the internet, mainly radio programms, using programmes (freeware) designed to do that kind of thing.

When I wanted the new PC(Dell Dimension C521) to do the same, it didn't work. I checked EVERYTHING, all the configurations are set to how they are supposed to be (line in checked etc)
I updated the driver, checked directX with diagnostics-everything is fine.

I rang Dell tech. support and after 2 1/2 hours off being pushed from pillar to post, cut off twice and having to explain everything again and again, they finally kept telling me that the soundcard is fine and they won't want to help me anymore because I am using a "3rd party programme":mad:

All I wanted to know is wether the soundcard in this PC (Sigma Tel 9227 CODEC (7.1 Channel Audio) is compliant with what I want it to do, ie. recording audio and if not, which soundcard which is, can I use in this PC.

After all, when we ordered the new PC, we asked for one, which is able to do everything the old one could, only newer.

So this thing does not do what is says on the tin.

The soundcard might be in working order(it is, as Media Player works fine) but it just doesn't to what I want it to do.

Can anyone help me? Does anyone know about soundcards, which will record and which this new PC will take?

I would really appreciate some help!

Thanks!;)

Ghost Train

is it that the volume panel only has mic and line in recording?

the links below might help, the first link worked on my laptop

http://www.ekhoury.com/2006/08/25/sigmatel-stereo-mix-support-for-dells/

http://www.togeo.com/togeo/wordpress/?p=38

peasant

Hi eolhc,

Thanks for your answer! That looks really interesting and I'll try and do something with that. Most gratifying to see that I am not imagining the problem as I started to doubt my sanity over the last few days.
It is unimaginable how hard it is to get the simplest question answered by the so called Dell "Support".
For days now I have been pushed around, fed misleading information, irrelevant information by countless Dell chat operators and telephone operators..
I could fill a book by now.

All I wanted to know was wether the soundcard in this heap of ****e called C521 supports recording and it took me 3 days for one Dell guy to actually tell me that it doesn't.
So it should be easy to then find an alternate way of getting what I want, ie. another soundcard which does the job and which fits into the HOS (heap of ****e).
I innocently thought-"ring the Dell sales team and ask them which card to get."

Hahaha.

After 2 Hours and being shoved from Sales to Upgrades(which I couldn't contact), back to sales, back to a technician, to a girl who kept apologising for the inconvinience and wanted me to rate her performance(well,they all wanted to get their performance rated) and who then assured me she would put me through to the relevant person.:rolleyes:

That relevant person turned out to be at the Reception desk"I cannot help you mam, I'm only reception)(Hello???? )and gave me yet a different number to call(the 5th this morning alone)
That number turned out to be a firm under Contract by Dell who make parts for them.
They knew what I was trying to tell them and could even tell me what Soundcard to use(unfortunately only an external one with USB connection), but what the hell, at this stage I would have connected a frying pan.
Unfortunately, they didn't have it to sell, so sorry. The card I mean, not the frying pan.

At this stage my blood pressure is through the roof, the animals are fleeing in disgust because I'm screaming at the PC:mad: :mad: and they take it personally.

I've lost the packet of really good headache tablets and nearly the will to live and I'm spitting venom at that stupid silver box in front of me, because it's just HOS.

So thanks for those links, I'll try if I can do something with that, maybe it'll work for me as it did with your laptop.

Now where is the valium again???:eek:

peasant

This is peasant himself now ...

Tried the fixes in both links, but got nowhere unfortunately.

Installed the new drivers (even got new symbols) but the soundcard wouldn't work at all then. Had to download the driver from Dell (without the recording feature) again to get at least sound. (that's the short version of three hours worth of agonizing, cursing, re-starting, re-re-starting etc, ad nauseam)

Both fixes were for laptops/notebooks and we have a desktop ...guess that's were the problem is.

That and the fact that I'm no computer boffin and not all that familiar with the deep internals of drivers etc and a bit nervous about fiddling with files that I don't know what they do.

If anybody should come across a fix for this that works on desktops, I'd be eternally grateful.