I have just bought a HP Pavilion 15 n-278sa laptop. It comes with a single 3.5mm port which is used for both audio out and line in.
The laptop will work fine when outputting sound through the jack and a pair of headphones. However when i try to use the same port as a line in to record sound from an external device i am having some problems. I am trying to connect my mixer to the laptop using a standard lead, red & white one end and 3.5mm jack on the other.
At first I was not getting any change whatsoever under the Recording tab in Sound settings. It just says 'not plugged in' under the microphone. After doing some research I found that the lead I was using, a 3 section plug, would not work and that was the reason there was no change when i plugged it in.
I bought a 4 section plug & eureka, the laptop recognised the lead & showed this on the Recording tab. I thought my problem was sorted but this was not the case at all.
As soon as I plug the red & white end of the lead into the output on the mixer, the laptop screen displays the 'not plugged in' message again as though I have unplugged the lead at the 3.5mm jack end.
This makes no sense to me whatsoever?!? How can it recognise the lead is plugged in with no problems but then go back to not recognising it as soon as the other end is plugged into an external output?!
Surely there must be a way of rectifying this as currently its impossible to record any sound on the laptop from an external device, in this case, my mixer.
The main reason I bought this laptop is so I can record the mixes I do. It is literally of no use to me with this problem. I had no issues with this on my old laptop as it had separate 3.5mm jacks for input & output.
Please can someone advise me of a way around this problem.
Kind regards,
Dave