I have an audio patch cord, but simply connecting from the headphone out to the microphone in does not patch the sound through my laptop speakers. Anyone have a solution?
Under your volume control applet make sure the Mic isn't muted and that it's volume is up a bit. I'm not entirely sure if that's the best way to go, though- does your sound card have a line in jack on it? That might be a slightly (or more than slightly) better way to go about doing that.
Jerry, I would like to point out that MP3's were made famous because they played back on computers. Why would you want to do what you're suggesting? :-? If the MP3's aren't already on your computer, transfer them over, and just use winamp or something.
But, to answer your question, (assuming you are running a windows machine) I would open up your control panel, and in the sound properties, check to make sure that the microphone jack is selected as the primary recording device. (sometimes windows thinks differently)
Secondly, check to make sure the microphone volume is turned up all the way.
Hope that helps.
Usually the "mic in" is not well suited for anything but the cheap mic you recieved with the computer. I'd suggest going from the headphone out on your mp3 player to the "line in" on your sound card. Unfortunately, the headphone out may produce sound that is too loud for a typical line in, so you may want to first route the headphone out through an inline volume control meant for headphones.
Thanks for the advice everyone.
I never did get it to work through the mic jack, and this new Sony Laptop does not appear to have an accessible sound card.
I thought I could save the time of transfering MP3's to the department's laptop if I could patch through the computer speakers. Oh well.
I would imagine that allowing input from the mic in to be played through the speakers could result in some pretty bad feedback if a mic was used, so I imagine that scenario came up in the design phase and was taken care of.
I do have a solution. Mail me the laptop. I'll mail a nice set of Altec Lansing computer speakers and an etch-a-sketch and we can call it even.
Does this laptop really have such nice speakers that they would beat some headphones? I've never been particularly impressed with laptop speakers.