I'm not sure this is normal, but I have a sound system connected to my computer which only has one input. But when I occasionally listen to a podcast from my phone or when I use my laptop, I want to listen to them over the same sound system.
I bought a Bluetooth receiver so I could wirelessly connect my phone and laptop to this without having to unplug and plug things in. And then to connect both my desktop and the Bluetooth receiver to the same single-input sound system, I've had the occasion to use some janky solutions like adding a splitter and a ground-loop-isolator to the line-in plug and connecting all my inputs to it, and it worked in a weird way--I had to plug a few things in backwards sort of and the splitter would only allow audio to come from one of its three connections and go out one or both of the others.
After a while I found myself wanting hear both my computer and the Bluetooth audio at the same time in certain situations. So I plugged my Bluetooth receiver into the line-in jack of my desktop. And then I could turn the volume up on both and even turn it down for one of them.
About a year ago, the sound card on my old desktop had finally fried from plugging and unplugging 'hot' audio-cables (with live voltage) to and from the soundcard built into my motherboard. And every time I did this, it would result in a series of loud thuds, bangs and electrical humming from the sound system. I thought this would damage my sound system eventually but I didn't want to power everything down just to change things. The computer needed to be on so when I plugged things in, the audio driver would ask me what I wanted it to do with it. This made it much easier to make sure it was plugged into the correct port and that the driver acknowledged the connection. So I was hot swapping plugs on the audio card and all the sudden it went dead. Nothing. I was still getting audio from anything plugged into the front computer case jacks but any audio plugged into the motherboard was gone. I like using a surround sound system and relied on the 5.1 audio jacks on the motherboard. To continue using 5.1 audio, I had to buy an external audio card to plug into USB because I didn't have any available PCIe slots for a second audio card.
I was able to connect my computer and my Bluetooth receiver to the external sound card and then about three months ago, the line in jack on the external sound card stopped working. So I haven't been able to hear my laptop or phone over the sound system for a while now. Then my friend helped me build a new computer a few months ago and only now have I tried to connect the Bluetooth Receiver to the Line-in jack on my new computer. Something about this is making me question whether I should continue to use my Bluetooth Receiver with my new computer. I often have to unplug the power from the receiver to disconnect connections from devices I can't locate so I can connect one I want to use--there's no power button or anything like that on this receiver.
But one problem at a time.
I finally got around to wanting to hear my laptop over my sound system the same as my desktop. I sync my iPhone to my laptop so that I can make changes on-the-go, which is why I bought the GPD Pocket 3, an 8 inch laptop. And for all its abilities, the speakers just don't have the same sound quality as my sound system.
So I wanted to lookup some new music to listen to on Spotify when I realized my laptop wasn't connected and I went about resurrecting the Bluetooth Receiver from some months ago. But I couldn't get it to work for some reason. I checked my connections, it was on, it doesn't have buttons but it does have an indicator light to signify a connection, it was on. I went to my desktop and checked ,y volume. Other things were playing on my speakers just fine a few minutes ago, wait, now they're not. I really need to move the controller for my speakers away from the edge of my table by my chair because I was cleaning my room and bumped the table and somehow this turned off the sound system. Okay, tat must have been the problem, play some music on me laptop, and still nothing. I check YouTube from the desktop and audio plays fine. Now what?
I right clicked on the taskbar speaker icon and pulled up the mixer. Everything is turned up. I right click again and pull up sound settings. The right Line-in device is selected. And what's more is that audio is playing on the laptop this whole time and the sound meter on the line-in device is indicating audio input is active. It is hearing the laptop. The desktop is receiving something from my laptop, so all my connections are good. I was about to go back to my connections to see if the auxiliary cable from the Bluetooth Receiver to my desktop is shorted or something and now I know that is at least not the reason I'm not getting anything at all from my speakers. Now what?
Solution
I did some research online to see what I was forgetting. I found one troubleshooting guide that was going down the list, but this time instead of going to the speaker icon on the taskbar and right-clicking the mixer or settings, it guided me to "sounds". I don't go there that often anymore, usually the problem is with Bluetooth settings, or audio settings or the mixer. I go in there and was guided to the Playback tab of the Sounds window. I'm checking to make sure all the correct devices are turned on and selected as the default devices, and the instructions said briefly to check the line-in device, which wasn't under playback, but it didn't say anything about going to another tab in the Sounds window.
I looked at the other tabs, one of which was the Recording tab. And there was the Line-in device. It was turned on and it was selected as the default device as well. And the sound meter there was also indicating incoming audio from my laptop. I right-clicked on the device to explore it and the instructions also mentioned checking sound levels or something like that so I was looking to see if perhaps something was muted or turned all the way down. Yes you want to check for both, one does not necessarily mean the other but they have the same results and you can do both as well as one or the other.
So right-clicking on the Line-in device from the Sounds window in the Recording tab then brought up a short right-click menu, allowing me to disable or reenable the device, show or hide the device, and also properties of the device. I clicked properties and a new window came up with a General tab that really isn't seem to be much help, then there was a Listening tab, sounds like it might be more helpful and then there was a Levels tab which I was positive would have what I was looking for. It had the volume slider of the incoming audio at 85%. Okay, that's not it. There was also an Advanced tab, so I tried Listening to observe what it had and was going to go to Advanced next when under Listening, I saw checkbox to listen to the audio device and a dropdown menu to select it as the default device, and then some selections below to leave on or turn it off when on battery. I noticed "Listen to this device" at the top was not checked. I checked it and selected Apply to see if it would do anything and all of the sudden, In the Meantime by Spacehog erupted from the speakers.
Conclusion
Turns out I haven't had to deal with this for many years since I last installed Windows on my desktop. I just plug it in and turn it up and it works. I wonder what else I'm going to run into now that I have a new system. But I think it may finally be time that I buy an input multiplier or mixer or something for my sound system, or buy a new system.
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