Windows 7: Recording Streaming Audio

I had previously tried, but failed, to get my system to record streaming audio.  The concept, in this mission, was that I wanted to be able to capture, in a file, the sound that I was hearing in my headphones.  Seemed like a simple expectation, and as I recalled it had been almost automatic on my previous system.  But it wasn't happening on my current motherboard, a Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H, so I searched for solutions.

The first requirement seemed to be to use the right software.  Not every audio program is capable of recording streaming video.  The free Audacity program could, so I was using that.  I found a video and a webpage that were supposedly going to help me, and probably I did incorporate some of their suggestions into the approach that eventually worked for me.  The only suggestion that I recall making a difference was that, as recommended, I was using the version 1.3.13 beta of Audacity, not an older one, though at this point I'm not absolutely certain that was necessary either.

Ultimately, I found two ways to record streaming audio.  One was to use a video capture program and convert the resulting file to audio.  I'd had tried a number of video capture programs, with very mixed results.  The only one that seemed to work reliably was Debut, and it cost money after its free trial period.  Ultimately, I did buy a copy of that.  For the conversion, I used Oxelon.

The other approach was to use an audio cable to connect the computer's headphone jack directly to its microphone jack.  Basically, I would be recording what the headphones were supposed to be hearing.  Sadly, this didn't work as advertised, when I used the actual jacks on the computer itself.  But I was able to make it work in a different way.  I bought a Syba SD-CM-UAUD USB-to-audio adapter.  No software required.  I just plugged it into a USB port, plugged both ends of the patch cable into it, and it worked.  Actually, to make that work, I had to set Audacity as follows: the audio host was Windows DirectSound; the output device was Primary Sound Driver; the input device was Microphone.

The Syba device gave me really loud volume.  Later, I had to fiddle with Control Panel > Sound to get all my devices back the way they were before.  But so far, it seemed worth it.

Adding a PS/2 Port

I had always used PS/2 rather than USB mice and keyboards.  USB had the drawback of not being functional in some circumstances (e.g., when I was booting from some kinds of CDs, or was adjusting the BIOS settings before the operating system loaded).  This seemed to be true even when USB devices were enabled in BIOS.  Unfortunately, my new motherboard had only one PS/2 port.  I would now have to go with at least one USB device.  Between the two, USB mice seemed to function better than USB keyboards in the environments just mentioned, so I could live with a PS/2 keyboard and a USB mouse.

Problem:  I had two computers, and was using a keyboard-video-mouse (KVM) switch to share my mouse, keyboard, and monitor between the two computers.  Now I needed two PS/2 connectors unless I wanted to get a USB KVM, mouse, and keyboard.  I didn't want to spend the money, and I liked the PS/2 KVM better than what I was seeing in the USB KVMs.  So there was a question:  could I add a second PS/2 port to a computer with just one PS/2 port?

I tried using Y-splitter cables, which were physically able to connect two PS/2 devices to one PS/2 port.  But they didn't work:  only one device or the other (i.e., mouse or keyboard) would operate.  I ran a search and saw some references to adapters that would convert the computer's serial port to PS/2, though apparently that could have its complications.  The pictures looked familiar.  I dug around and found that I already had something like that.  I didn't want to reboot the computer right then to try it out, so I searched a bit more.  There seemed to be some USB to PS/2 adapters; presumably those wouldn't have the serial port problems.  I also found a PS/2 adapter backplate, which would have required an unused PS/2 header on the motherboard.  I wasn't sure if my mobo had one of those, but I could scope it out when I did shut down.

I wasn't sure which of these solutions I would ultimately wind up using, or even if I would definitely try to stick with PS/2 rather than USB.  This is as far as I took the question at this moment.

PUSBLANXAD01 AD-LAN01 PC USB Network Adapter Driver Blues

On Amazon.com, I bought an item described as "NEW USB to LAN RJ45 Ethernet 10/100 Network Adapter Card."  The purpose was to see if I could use USB to connect to the Internet, where I did not have a working ethernet connector for the usual cable connection.  The device was cheap -- about $7 with shipping -- and when I plugged it in, it lit right up.  The problem was, contrary to the ad, it did not come with a driver CD.  And since the Windows Vista computer I wanted to use it on was, of course, not able to go online, I could not download and install the drivers automatically.

The device came in a little box with a label on it that read, "16254 PUSBLANXAD01[J133] PC USB Network Adapter."  The UPC product number on the box was 8-77083-03542-3 (or 877083035423).  The device itself had a label that said, "Model:  AD-LAN01."  Both stickers said, "Made in China."

Buy.com had a review that I didn't see before buying, in which the buyer said that s/he had the same problem -- no driver CD.  That Buy.com webpage said the item was made by eForCity.  I went to the eForCity webpage.  It had no link for driver downloads.  There were several reviews.  Some said they had no problem; some said it didn't work.  I wondered whether it mattered if you used it on Windows XP or Vista.  I plugged it into a WinXP machine and tried that.  Windows recognized it as a "USB Network Controller," but the Found New Hardware Wizard said, "The wizard could not find the software on your computer for USB Network Controller."  I chose the option of connecting and searching for the software on the Internet -- using the existing ethernet connection on that computer to do so.  A minute later, it said, "Cannot Install This Hardware.  The hardware was not installed because the wizard cannot find the necessary software."  I verified that my online connection was working OK, tried again, and got the same thing.

Some of these reviews said something about downloading drivers from other websites.  Good way to get a virus.  I tried a search for AD-LAN01 instead of the previous search for PUSBLANXAD01.  That turned up only a couple of hits, one of which was a thread on which the person said they had tried downloading drivers and still had no luck, and another of which was a driver download page for some kind of graphics device that was apparently also called the AD-LAN01.  I tried a search for the UPC.  This gave me a post from someone who said the CD did come with theirs, but it was nonreadable and they had to reinstall the driver weekly.  So, OK, toss it in the parts box and maybe someday I'll find a computer that it works on.  Junk.  Should have bought a brand-name product.  And that was my next step.