Recording Properties greyed out in Win XP

[kirkmc]

I had to replace Gigabyte motherboard and remove my soundblaster card. The new board is Asus P5K SE/EPU which I think uses Intel chips.
XP is still showing Realtek HD Audio. And playback is ok. But no recording properties active. (No errors in Device manager although one "unknown device")
Does anyone know how I can check the right drivers/settings etc? And hopefully get the recording option livened.

[october262]

try this-
1 Open the Windows XP control panel by (depends on your Windows settings):
Clicking on "Start > Settings > Control Panel"
Clicking on "Start > Control Panel"


2 Open the "Administrative Tools" Control Panel by (depends on your Windows settings):
Double-click the "Administrative Tools" Control Panel.
Click "Performance and Maintenance" and then "Administrative Tools".


3 Open the "Services" Control Panel by double-clicking on it.
4 Locate the "Windows Audio" service.
5 Check the "Status" column to see if it is disabled.
6 If it is disabled, right click on "Windows Audio" service and choose "Properties".
7 On the General Tab, change the "Startup Type:" drop-down menu to "Manual".
8 Reboot your computer.
9 Follow steps 1-6 to open the "Windows Audio" service properties.
10 Click the "Start" button to enable the "Windows Audio" service.
11 You will now be able to make changes to the "Sounds and Audio Devices" control panel.

[DB83]

If the above does not work I question whether you re-installed XP when you installed the new mb >> that is a major component and XP might not function correctly without a re-install.


Without a re-install, XP will be using the previous drivers >> that 'unknown device' could well be the SoundBlaster.


The CD that should have come with the mb should have the appropriate drivers for all components including audio. But a newish mb may not even support XP any more. If the drivers are missing and you know the audio device(but without a re-install XP could still be reporting the older ones) >> Realtek is quite a common one << you can go to their site to see if there are legacy drivers available

[johnmeyer]

Rather than re-install the entire operating system, which is almost never required, the usual thing to try is to first go to the Devices section of Control Panel. You can get there directly by typing "devmgmt.msc" in the Windows Run box (click on the Start button to get there).

Select View --> Show Hidden Devices to show hardware that is not connected. Scroll down to the Sound section and find the various listings for both your current and also the removed sound card. Right-click and uninstall each one of them, and then re-boot. During the boot process, everything will be re-installed.

Hopefully your mixer will now have the record options enabled.

[johns0]

Have you installed the drivers for your realtek audio?

[kirkmc]

Thank you for the replies. I've attempted to follow the instructions as best I can, and did kind of resolve it. With the new mobo I wasn't familiar with the Realtek sound properties and didn't realise I couldn't see the record mixer. It was present but the Window had moved way off screen. When moved back, I found line in was muted.
On fixing that, I can record again but the levels are way too high. The Recording Mixer control has to be almost at zero. The Line In Volume is at 75% but it greyed out. All I can do there is Mute it.

When installing the new mobo (a second hand one that supports XP) I expected trouble with different hardware, but it pretty much sorted itself out (or looks like it - apart from the one unknown device). I did use the correct drivers form the Asus website, Audio, Chipset, LAN etc.

Under Device Manager-View mode there's:
Sound, video and game controllers
/ Audio Codecs
/ Legacy Audio Drivers
/ Legacy Video Capture Devices
/ Media Control Devices
/ Microsoft Kernel System Audio Device
/ Microsoft WINMM WDM Audio Compatibility Driver
/ Realtek High Definition Audio
/ Video Codecs
These all show closed/ok.

There are 2 open paths showing. Under Keyboard there's an exclamation mark beside Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
and Under Mice and other pointing objects Microsoft PS/2 Mouse
I don't have a ps2 mouse connected (it's usb) and the keyboard is wireless.
Under Non Plug and Play Drivers there's a red cross on SASKUTIL

So the main remaining problem is the greyed out Line In Volume. I will next try Johnmeyer reinstall suggestion.

[kirkmc]

Just to mention to October 262 "Windows Audio" service had started.
John meyer 3 of the entries could be uninstalled, which I did and rebooted.
Windows installed Realtek (again I think) and I'm back to how it was. The Line In volume controls are still greyed out.

[october262]

Just to mention to October 262 "Windows Audio" service had started.
John meyer 3 of the entries could be uninstalled, which I did and rebooted.
Windows installed Realtek (again I think) and I'm back to how it was. The Line In volume controls are still greyed out.

did your audio card come with a driver CD ?? might try
reinstall the drivers with the CD.

[kirkmc]

Its not an audio card, integrated audio on Asus P5K SE/EPU motherboard. I don;t get a disk with this but dloaded the drivers from Asus website.
There is a Realtek icon in the tray, looks like a fancy graphical interface, but it doesn't seem to be 'all there'. A drop down its mixer tab shows empty and a rotary playback volume that doesn't work (so far!).

[october262]

Its not an audio card, integrated audio on Asus P5K SE/EPU motherboard. I don;t get a disk with this but dloaded the drivers from Asus website.
There is a Realtek icon in the tray, looks like a fancy graphical interface, but it doesn't seem to be 'all there'. A drop down its mixer tab shows empty and a rotary playback volume that doesn't work (so far!).

try reading the Manuel ?? - https://www.manualslib.com/manual/473159/Asus-P5k-Se-Epu.html#manual

[kirkmc]

Thanks for link, I did have the manual but it's little or no help.
In the end I installed SB5.1 card from my previous setup. This is working fine. I uninstalled Realtek to get rid of that fancy thing from the tray but it came back again next boot. So I have disabled it. Does anyone know if it's needed ? Or how to exclude it from Device Manager ? I now have the following (if someone advises if not ok)

[johns0]

Go into your motherboard bios and disable the onboard sound,it will keep coming back unless you do that.

[kirkmc]

Thanks muchly johns0 that sorted it nicely. I should have known to do that - but thought all the onboard stuff was disabled when a sound card was plugged in !

[johnmeyer]

Yes, good catch Johns0. I completely missed that he had onboard sound.