Trouble with Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook Line-in

[Ianuarius]

Howdy

EDIT: Yes, I meant Mic Input in this post when I talk about Line-In.

I've got a very random type of problem and I wish that I could just fix it without buying an USB/FW soundcard or a new laptop.

The thing is that I normally record stuff by plugging my guitar straight to the laptop's line-in. With my previous laptop (which btw was also Fujitsu) this worked perfectly well. This newer model, however, has given me some issues.

When I plug the guitar in the sound comes out loud and clear for a random amount of time. Sometimes I can play for 30 seconds... sometimes 5 seconds. After that the Line In stops working. It just goes mute. Earlier I though this was because of Audacity since I only used that software. Also, after I installed Reaper, I've encountered this problem less and less... so that supported the theory.

It's not just Audacity, however. Earlier I tried to record something with my webcam and I set the sound to come from Line In. And guess what... that's right... after a while it goes mute. Also, just now before I came here, I plugged the guitar in just before I logged in Windows and got the same result.

Interestingly enough, the line in never mutes during recording. Also when I used to shut down Audacity and open it up again, the device started working again. Maybe the startup process loads up something which turns the device on. Oh and one more thing. I had days when I just had to record for hours and hours... and after switching stuff on and off and shutting the program down and up again... the line in stabilized somehow. It was never the same thing (I think) I did with it. It seems like it just gave up and let me do what I had to do.

I don't know. Despite of Googling hours and hours, I haven't encountered anyone with the same problem. That's why I decided to ask if someone knew what's going on here.

Ok, so the laptop is Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook AH530 and soundcard integrated is Realtek HD Audio (yeah it's a piece of whatsit but worked for me with the previous laptop). OS is Win7 home premium.

Thanks for anyone who can help me out.

EDIT: Hello! Now that I started playing and kept on it after the muting I got out few random bursts of sounds like the input's not reading right. It's like the sound is clipping to silence very heavily and I could only get out a little bit of crippled waves. Strange. Now it's quite silent again. The input and cord are fine. I've trid multiple cords and moving them around in the input doesn't do anything.

 

[Ianuarius]

Is there absolutely no one who can help me?

 

[Bobbsy]

Are you sure you actually have a line in? Most laptops only have a mic input. Could it be some form of automatic gain turning levels down to try and make it mic level...then just getting to the point where it mutes everything? If so, perhaps a cheap DI box to convert your guitar to mic level and pad it down before the computer.

It's also worth checking that your cable is sitting properly in the socket. I assume you have some kind of quarter inch to eighth inch adaptor in the circuit. Mini jacks are notorious for making poor connections.

The longer term solution is a proper USB audio interface--even if you can get around this specific problem, the inbuilt sound card in a lap top will be doing no favours to your quality. Realtek HD audio is designed for Skype phone calls, not music.

Bob

 

[Ianuarius]

Are you sure you actually have a line in? Most laptops only have a mic input. Could it be some form of automatic gain turning levels down to try and make it mic level...then just getting to the point where it mutes everything? If so, perhaps a cheap DI box to convert your guitar to mic level and pad it down before the computer.

Yes, mic input is what I meant. Thanks for pointing that out.

I gotta investigate this automatic gain thing a bit.

It's also worth checking that your cable is sitting properly in the socket. I assume you have some kind of quarter inch to eighth inch adaptor in the circuit. Mini jacks are notorious for making poor connections.

I've had this problem for so long now. It's not the adapter, unless the faulty signal somehow turns the whole device off. They could've programmed something like that there. I don't know. Thats why I'm asking from someone who might know. Even if I plug in something else after the adapter the signal is still mute once it goes mute. Also, I never had any problems with the adapter when I worked with my old laptop.

So just that we're on the same page here: same guitar, same cords, same adapter, different laptop.

The longer term solution is a proper USB audio interface--even if you can get around this specific problem, the inbuilt sound card in a lap top will be doing no favours to your quality.

To my purposes the quality is good enough. To your purposes it might not be. However, I'm not you.

 

[Bobbsy]

To my purposes the quality is good enough. To your purposes it might not be. However, I'm not you.

Hey! No need to get snotty. If it's good enough for you, that's great. However, plugging an instrument or line level source into a mini jack microphone input is never going to work all that well. Without SOME kind of external box there will always be a level mismatch. At best you'll have to turn the input level on your Windows level control down to just above zero (where it's hard to be accurate) and you also have to use a specially built adaptor cable, depending on whether your mini jack socket is mono or stereo and whether your computer provides a 5 volt bias source for cheap mics.

There are some dirt cheap USB interfaces out there that would let you plug your guitar in directly at exactly the right impedance and level to avoid the hassle--and have the added advantage of improving your signal to noise by 25 or 30dB at the same time.

Anyway, only you can know what's best for you but I wouldn't be doing my best for you if I didn't point out better alternatives.

Bob

 

[Ianuarius]

However, plugging an instrument or line level source into a mini jack microphone input is never going to work all that well.

Well, I'm gonna say that you are just wrong there.

As I've stated many times, with my previous laptop this setup worked perfectly well for my purposes and I was quite happy with it. I wasn't being snotty. I suspected you were being condescending... and as I subtly pointed that out you confirmed it.

I appreciate all the alternatives you can give, but you present them as "solutions" and not alternatives. You say that what I work with is never going to work all that well when in fact it WAS working with a lot older laptop. I guess that is a solution as much as buing a car is a solution to a guy who wants to improve his use of a bike.

Absolutely best would of course be USB interface, but I'm trying to work here without purchasing any additional hardware. Now, I was able to do that before and since I've only upgraded my laptop, something tells me that this should be fixable without any hassle, as you say.