Hey check out the awesome new sound system in my fancy new Dell computer! It's so fancy that it provides no way to play, through the speakers, what the line-in jack is receiving. Every other computer I've ever owned, the signal from the line-in jack feeds right into the speakers - though it's subject to muting and volume adjustments. Not this one, apparently - but Vista is full of little surprises. So, I poked around for a while, assuming it was controlled by yet another hidden checkbox in Vista's twisty little maze of setup screens. But, I gave up after a while, and started an on-line chat with Dell tech-support...
Abjhit, the helpful Dell technician, spent 30 minutes remotely controlling my computer from the other side of the world, before telling me "you should have purchased the upgraded sound card".
Oh yeah? You should've put that on your website.
you should also have purchased a Maserati
i really should have. Dell only offers Bugatti Veyrons, though. i couldn’t afford the $1,000,000.
Hello-
My name is John, and I work at Dell headquarters. I read your blog here, and had a hunch. What kind of system is it? I think I may know what is going on.
You can reach me at customer_advocate@dell.com, if you place ATTN:John in the subject line. I’d love to help solve this mystery.
John,
there’s no mystery – the built-in sound system is sub-par.
What kind of system is it?
XPS 410
and i see, after going back and looking at the options, that there is an upgrade sound card available for the system. but, honestly, in the 15 years i’ve been buying computers, i’ve never had a system that needed an upgraded sound card to handle playing the line-in through the speakers in real-time (with or without recording it).
maybe i’ve been lucky all these years and just happened to buy systems with good sound cards without knowing it. but i kindof doubt it.
The built in sound system is an STAC9200, which is HDA capable.
-in the 15 years i’ve been buying computers, i’ve never had a system that needed an upgraded sound card to handle playing the line-in through the speakers in real-time-
I don’t believe that’s what you have now. We have one of these systems in our lab, and I am going to go into the lab Monday morning when it opens and tinker around. I’ll let you know what I find out.
John
Dell Customer Advocate
Ok, sorry it took me so long to get back, but I think I have it.
Do the following:
Open the Control Panel
Open Sounds and Audio Devices
Under speaker settings, click the “advanced” button
Ensure you selection here is compatible with the speaker setup you are employing.
Note: if you select 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound here, your line-in is actually a line-out! I am not sure about any of the other settings, but for the three 5.1/7.1 settings, the line-in is not a line-in any more!
Let me know if this helps!