can't record any sound from Realtek sound card (Windows Vista, Sony Vaio laptop)

[any ANONYMOUS forum user]

I have a laptop Sony Vaio VGN-N320E , Windows Vista Home Premium" and the Realtek sound card with "Microsoft High Definition Audio Device" driver. I can't record any sound, because "Stereo-mix" , "Wave Out", "Mono-mix" or "What-you-hear" feature is missing. Is there any solution to activate this feature?

[any ANONYMOUS forum user]

Do you have "Wave Out" ??? If you do basically those who don't have "Stereo Mix", use the "Wave Out" option, a replacement for VISTA users.

To enable Wave Out in Windows Vista:

1. Click the "Start" and open the "Control panel"
2. Click "Classic view"
3. Double click the "Sound"
4. Select the "Recording" tab
5. Right click on the "Wave Out" and make it default.
6. Click "OK"

Or you also try to "Show Disabled Devices" and "Show Disconnected Devices".
To enable disabled Stereo Mix in Windows Vista:

1. Click the "Start" and open the "Control panel"
2. Click "Classic view"
3. Double click the "Sound"
4. Select the "Recording" tab and right click any of the devices listed
5. Check "Show Disabled Devices" and "Show Disconnected Devices"
6. "Stereo-mix" , "Wave Out", "Mono-mix" or "What-you-hear" should show up. Set it as a default.
7. Click "OK"

If the "Stereo Mix" doesn't come up after you do the above, it may be disabled at hardware or driver level.

[any ANONYMOUS forum user]

I have the same issue and I have a Sony VAIO VGN-FW11M. The stereo mix is not there at all, not even if I Show the disabled devices. Can anyone please help?

[any ANONYMOUS forum user]

I had the exact same problem on my XP system with onboard ALC883 Realtek audio using driver v.2.08. It simply wouldn't record sound with Audacity, so I tried Ask & Record Toolbar, Replay Music and Replay AV from Applian and they work fine even if I disable my sound card completely.

If you're like me and you don't want to search for drivers, buy cables or sound cards with the "Stereo Mix" / "Wave Out Mix", then try this.

Hope this helps.
Thank you!

[any ANONYMOUS forum user]

The native Windows 7 drivers are minimalistic and will not support the stereo mix option. Download the latest drivers for your sound card and all should be well. In my case, Realtek, I had to go to the mother board site, Gigabyte, and download their motherboard audio drivers. Now everything works fine.

[any ANONYMOUS forum user]

I happen to have the exact same issue with my new Dell PC.
Here are the details:
1) I bought one Dell PC in 2005 (for my wife), and Audacity can see the stereo mixer out and therefore I can capture audio while playing anything in the PC
2) I just bought another one (also a Dell, same performance) for myself to replace an old Athlon, and on this PC, Audacity does not show the "stereo mixer out" option.

My question is: have you ever been able to resolve this issue ? If yes, please share me the info (besides adding another sound card or some kind of external USB audio capture device)

[any ANONYMOUS forum user]

Hi,

I use windows XP SP2.

I have onboard sound and Camtasia was not recording it.

I downloaded new drivers from the Realtek site, and the AC97 program, and the other thing, which was only 100kb or something, didn't use it.

I installed the new drivers and the new AC97 or whatever they are.

Didn't work, but what did work was I plugged my microphone into the rear yellow panel. Now, the Realtek Control Panel sensed this, and then asked me which jack I just plugged into.

I did *NOT* select the microphone jack, I selected the line out (or the line in I can't remember) jack. It said that this device is not supported or something, and now I will show you a screenshot of what the Realtek Control Panel "audio i/o" looks like (It now has red/white arrows on it I don't think it had those before):




It now records sound with Camtasia, Audacity and other programs I'm sure.

I didn't have this problem with my older PC which had onboad sound from nvidia (but no realtek programs so something different).

I think that plugging in a mic gets the hardware to "turn on the recording" or something but use at your own risk. I will be using it! Or it's something that should have been there the whole time it's just part of the design to save power or annoy us or whatever!

Missing sound recording option "Stereo Mix" / "Record What you hear" / "Waveout mix"

[any ANONYMOUS forum user]

You can try downloading the latest Realtek HD Audio driver from www.realtek.com.tw

In Vista, you can either use the manufacturer's driver (Realtek's driver) or you can use the Microsoft HD Audio "class" driver.

The Microsoft HD Audio "class" driver does not provide the "record from speakers" functionality you are looking for. I believe (though I am not sure) that the Realtek driver does provide it.

So you have three drivers that should all work on your hardware:

1) the Microsoft HD Audio class driver
2) the Realtek HD Audio driver from sony.com
3) the Realtek HD Audio driver from www.realtek.com.tw

2) and/or 3) will likely provide what you need.

[any ANONYMOUS forum user]

I fixed this on my machine (Toshiba A135-S4527) by installing the Spring 2007 Original RealTek HD Audio Driver that I downloaded from hp.com

Hope this helps