Windows 10 - Line In interface intermittently working

[jpetrone]

Hi All,

I've been broadcasting from this Windows 10 PC for about 30 days now. However, within the last couple days, I'm finding that the "Line In" interface is randomly disappearing/becoming unavailable. It no longer shows up as a valid connection and does not show up as being disabled. If I reboot the PC the interface returns. This happens randomly while broadcasting with either RadioFeed or ScannerCast. Has anyone seen this before? I've updated the sound card drivers but that didn't help. Maybe the onboard sound is going bad? Maybe I should try buying a cheap PCI based sound card? I was looking at USB but they only seem to offer a MIC input and no line in. Has anyone seen this issue before?

 

[jonwienke]

Sounds like a hardware problem erroring and shutting the connection down.

 

[jpetrone]

Sounds like a hardware problem erroring and shutting the connection down.

I agree ... I looked at the event viewer in windows and checked all the logs in there but nothing shows up. I don't know where else there would be logs for something like that.

 

[a417]

I have. For me it was the beginnings of a motherboard failure. I took mine behind the woodshed and disposed of it before it cost me data.

As for the line level vs mic level issue, you can put your line level device into a mic plug (and I do) by using an attenuator or a DI (direct injection) box. There is no witchcraft or magic. A line level signal is approx 1 volt, a mic level signal is approx 0.001 volt. That's directly from these guys, they might know what they are talking about. You just need to do some basic math , and some entry level electronics.

Direct Injection boxes tend to be XLR or 1/4in plugs, so that's more moving pieces for you - not necessary.

I have just done 2 or 3 resistors in the past to make a 40db or 50db attenuator when doing that. Here's all it is.

I'm sure some consumer audio zealots are going to jump up on here and tear this apart, but for something simple like streaming from a home computer, this is more than enough when implemented correctly.

 

[jpetrone]

I have. For me it was the beginnings of a motherboard failure. I took mine behind the woodshed and disposed of it before it cost me data.

As for the line level vs mic level issue, you can put your line level device into a mic plug (and I do) by using an attenuator or a DI (direct injection) box. There is no witchcraft or magic. A line level signal is approx 1 volt, a mic level signal is approx 0.001 volt. That's directly from these guys, they might know what they are talking about. You just need to do some basic math , and some entry level electronics.

Direct Injection boxes tend to be XLR or 1/4in plugs, so that's more moving pieces for you - not necessary.

I have just done 2 or 3 resistors in the past to make a 40db or 50db attenuator when doing that. Here's all it is.

I'm sure some consumer audio zealots are going to jump up on here and tear this apart, but for something simple like streaming from a home computer, this is more than enough when implemented correctly.

Mobo is probably the issue... however it's been stable the last few hours so maybe it has some life left in it ... this PC was sitting in the corner for a couple of years and I finally threw 2 more gigs of RAM in it, bumped the CPU from a 1.7ghz processor to a 3ghz processor and put in an SSD just to give it a little life but at the end of the day the motherboard is 9 years old this month. With about 2 to 3 years of dormant time. Maybe I'll luck out and it'll run a little longer. I shall see.

 

[jonwienke]

You'll always get a better S/N ratio using a line-level signal, rather than attenuating down to mic livel and re-amplifying.

 

[a417]

thankfully we're talking about audio without a wide dynamic range here, as it's for a mono scanner feed.

 

[a417]

Mobo is probably the issue... however it's been stable the last few hours so maybe it has some life left in it ...

You're on borrowed time. good luck!