Win 7 Sound recorder- audio recording device cannot be found

I know this is an old post but I have the Windows 7 answer for this Dell PC issue. It recently happened to me too on my Dell OptiPlex desktop, Windows 7, onboard is SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD audio. I had no "Stereo Mix" type option in the recording tab. Tried several drivers even back to an XP version. None of the drivers from Dell worked. Until I ran across a posting of others with the same issue and can not record any audio that they can hear coming out of their speakers. It is that the audio drivers on the Dell site have this feature DISABLED during the drivers installation. To fix this you have to edit the drivers INF file to get the disabled changed to enabled so the recorder will actually install what is needed. Here is what I did with my DELL downloaded audio drivers install file:

First download the latest DELL audio driver and unpack it, probably at c:\dell\driver\R######

open the folder \ i386 \ Vista \ , it has a file in it called "ADIHdAud.inf" . Open this file with notepad and search for these 2 lines:

HKR,AD1983\Disable, OutR, 1, 01

HKR,AD1983\Disable, MonR, 1, 01

change the 01 into 00 at both lines so it looks like:

HKR,AD1983\Disable, OutR, 1, 00

HKR,AD1983\Disable, MonR, 1, 00

Save the modified ADIHdAud.inf file.

Now uninstall your sound drivers, reboot pc, go directly back to the folder where you uninstalled the driver (the folder with the R(number)) and run Setup.exe (it might complain that the files might not be genuine, if so ignore it), reboot after installation and you got Stereo Mix and Mono available. They both work perfect for me. What really blows me away is that if you look at the code in the inf file is that stereo mix is disabled ON PURPOSE, my question is why???

Also you can go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Cl ****{4D36E96C-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000\AD1983\Disable\

which had the two values: MonR and OutR... both set to "0000 01"

combined with the solution from this page, simply change those values to "0000 00" and restart. Stereo mix and Mono Out are now enabled.

Reinstall any streaming internet audio recording software and they will work now.

Many thanks for taking all this trouble, and it looks like someone's already picked it up and found it useful.  My computer's an Acer and, to be honest, I forget now what the issue was.  But thank you anyway.  We really need generous hearted people like you on the net.

Brian

I had the same problem - my microphone worked for Skype only, but not for the Windows Sound Recorder or other programmes.

This solved the problem for me:

(1) Go to 'Control Panel' (view by small icons) -> 'Sound';

(2) In the 'Sound' window go to 'Recording';

(3) Under the 'Recording' tab DISABLE all the divices that you are not using;

Typically, if you have only one divice (microphone), the one you are using will pick up sound whenever you say something, which shows by green bars (appearing and disappearing) next to the device's name; in my case, my microphone was connected to the back panel, yet both the back panel and the front panel was enabled; the problem disappeared when I disabled the front panel (by right-clicking on the unused divices' names -> selecting 'Properties' -> a the bottom of the 'General' tab selecting 'Device usage' -> '(disable)').

BTW If the device starts recording, but the sound is very faint, then you can increase the microphone settings by again going to the 'Sound' window -> right-clicking on the microphone's name -> selecting 'Properties' -> go to the 'Levels' tab;

The method 1 worked for me. Thanks so much, Shekhar S

Regards!

Audrey