XPS 8930, Sound Control Panel, No Line-In recording option

Maybe your audio-driver (usually an enhanced driver-suite on Dells) got changed ?

The audio driver-suite is usually what facilitates that "prompting dual-port" functionality.

Try a clean-install of one of these later ones.

http://downloads.dell.com/published/pages/xps-8930-desktop.html

Private message response 

Thank you for your message. Were there any Windows update or software changes made to the system?

Open Sound in control panel – Recording- right-click on an empty space in the box & make sure that show disabled devices are checked. IF unchecked check it & see if the line pops up.

If the issue persists – Download & save the audio driver from Dell Support site

Open device manager – expand sound & audio – right click on the audio driver & click on uninstall (check the box that says delete driver) Install the driver saved & restart the computer.

Thanks, 

 Sreejith

the front jack has no line in port, just MIC, (microphone is not line in,) mic is super high gain and if you stuff line out 300mV signals of any kind to any MIC jack you overdriver the preamps and they saturate and clip the sound (nasty 3rd harmonics and all that)

now the rear. (onboard, you didnt say , audio PCIe addin card present) and can do that at any time.

Realtek ALC3861, on board.

page 12 in the manual covers this,

read 3 JACK have no LINE IN oR MIC.

jack 8,9,10 left to right facing rear

is 5.1

Front L/R surround out

rear L/R same.

center speaker.

so that other told you right there is NO LINE INPUT<

LINE has meanings, it means signals that are typ, 100 to 300mV max in level from say a preamp or other source.

mic jacks are very tiny signals and must be used only with mic's, (dynamic mikes or electeret)

why not first post with what you are connecting to your PC so we can tell you what adapter you need.

to use  mic input we use step down transformer, or if real crude, run the source, at 1% and hope it does not clip all audio singles and worse noise.

dell has no spec on this topic, not really,

other  top end , audio cards have all  jacks there, or have  wild card jack that is programmable from mic to Line-in. ( if doing serious audio work why not use a real card? for that.)?

also the mic is  low impedance device, and will be a mismatch to line in , true inputs. and harmonics created  bad.

do you have a PCIe sound audio card

the mic is mono on many mike ports. this is legacy mike, like using say , SKYPE

if the driver did once say , the port is both Mic and line in, that means the mic jack as switch that changes

the pre amp on the sound card, from mic to line in.  (some PCs and  cards can do this)

sound features are complex and only because of very bad documentation,.

if you bought a real card, that would end, it covers all that in the manual, for sure.

the line in , mic port type jack may be mic mono, and line-in stereo.   and may be pure sofware switch.

and use the SOUND RECEIVER will have line out (2ch) and must be connected to LINE in 2 channels.

if no sound card there, (i cant see your PC, rear at all, and desktops can have 1000 of model cards there)

but if has a card with the 3.5mm sound ports there, do say so

otherwise only the DELL driver off your dell support page works, after all dell wired all that up,.

try to know that sound many not be just one chip , but others, including , mixer chip and 2 preamps.

and wired only as this dell is.  CUSTOM DELL SOUND, that means only the DELL driver can work and not realteks version from them.

Get the drive and load it, from dell ,then go in to w10, windows update and set driver upgrades  to OFF.

do now let, MS update your driver for sound, for sure it  keep failing !!!

i do not know if this PC is.

TRS PC's and TTRS

Tipringsleeve or TRRS, tip ring ring sleeve,  (this new standard adds a mic to line outport)

I do not know what mic ports exist here, dell is mum. no fuel spec. nor if they are line IN adaptive in any way.

it can not know what is there, there is no way to measure mics. with only 2 pins used on most.

Those 2 pins can be 100ohms or 1000ss (low z mic, high Z mikes and very high Z electrec mikes)

No PC can sense those pins and just know what to do. You have to tell it what you have, if it allows. that.

for sure the mic pins are on a pre-amp for sure, and if it has gain mode, IDK,  line in low gain,  mic high gain.

see?  if you worked on a Sound stage all this is SOP. (line amps and matching)

there are some sensing on PCs, the front phone jacks shut off the rear when using the front.

that is so others do not hear sounds from your speakers rear, due to your wanting head phones front.

what matters for you is WHERE IS LINE-in 2 channels and if supported how to get it working.

my guess is you have conflicting drivers, ( so much for daily driver auto update H3LL) no?

The problem was solved with the proper Realtek driver update.  Probably one of the windows 10 updates corrupted it - not sure when - my computer activity has been minimal for that last 6 weeks due to an injury (recovering fine).

The feed-in is the output from a stereo receiver.  The output is approximately 6 MV.  I adjust the levels in the control panel to about 50% and I get a clean stereo signal with no clipping.  That was important since I'm recording from vinyl and declicking and denoising the wav files.

I was considering purchasing a sound card, but I didn't see the point - it my not have worked anyway due to conflicts with the in sound card. 

Thanks for the various comments on this thread. I had the same issues, and solved it by removing the Realtek driver and reinstalling from the Dell link. Even though it was the same driver version, the reinstallation restored the "Line In" source. I noted that when I plugged in something I was asked if it was a microphone or line-in source, so that was helpful.

Thanks for this solution!  I had about given up after reading other posts and trying all that I could.  Didn't think about uninstall/reinstall, but it worked great. Now, I get the dialog asking whether to use line input (stereo!) or mic.  Now, I can get back to ripping some of my old vinyl records to disk.

Thanks again.

Glad this worked out for your.  Actually, ripping vinyl to disk (and then cleaning up the wav file with Izotope) is one of my hobbies.  Also, since I wrote the original message, I'm now using an external Sound Blaster sound card.  Connectivity to that little plug-in on the computer became an issue.  I don't know why Dell couldn't incorporate standard RCA jacks but that would be asking too much (sic).

Keep in mind that every time Windows Update installs a new Realtek driver on XPS 8930 (usually without any warnings), it also uninstalls and reinstalls Waves MaxAudio Pro, which is the sound control panel on this PC model.

So that means Waves "forgets" what audio input/output devices are connected to the PC. So, assuming you aren't using a SoundBlaster card, you have to unplug audio output and input devices, reboot PC and then plug in front speakers and wait for Waves to pop up and ask what you installed.

Now plug in rear speakers, if any, wait...and then plug in subwoofer, if any, and wait...  And finally plug in your audio input device and wait...

Finally, open the Waves control panel and configure things on the Playback and Voice screens. If you make any changes to default Waves settings, remember to save the Profile by clicking the disc icon and giving the profile a new name, different from any of the pre-set Profile names.