Doubleplusbummed

UPDATE:  I fiddled with it some more last night and now it is recording again.  Device Manager still calls it an "unknown device" that has no driver, but as long as it is recording OK I don't care!  Thanks for all the help and suggestions.


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I finally had some time this weekend to do some recording.  I've planned and practiced three, yep, count 'em, 3 parody songs.  I even borrowed some gear from the church so I could get some better sound.  Now all of a sudden, my computer won't record.  The front input is just silence and the rear input yields only noise and random popping noises.

Device manager shows a yellow question mark with "unknown device on HD Audio Bus" so I tried to re-install the driver automatically.  No go.  Went to ASUS website and downloaded another copy.  It installed an audio codec successfully but barfed on the actual device driver.  So still no-go.  Output is fine, however.

Ideas?  Did some component in the audio system get cooked?  I'd had good luck with ASUS stuff going back to the mid-'90s but then one motherboard's USB system cooked (literally) and then another ASUS board started acting intermittently flaky and the shop said it had a bad capacitor.  This current one is about a year old and isn't otherwise giving me trouble so I'm not yet convinced it's an actual hardware problem.  I'm much more inclined to blame it on Windows, 'cuz, well, it's Windows.  XP with all the service packs and updates, to be more specific.

Hopefully one of ya is a tech hero that can help me out, because I know you're all just dying to hear my version of Simon & Garfunkel's Mrs. Robinson Ms. Napolitano!

Obama & Medvedev - Reward for pic!

There are several iterations of the "Handshake Pic" between Prezzez Obama and Medvedev floating around the internet (which, btw, is a series of tubes). Most of these pics are ordinary, some are full of that detestable super-smiley-fake-sincerity, while a choice few are begging to have a snarky caption applied to them. But somewhere this morning I saw one where the two were leaned in very close to each other, as though whispering, and Medvedev had an unmistakable frown. Dunno if 'Bama got the sushi breath, or if maybe he gleeked on Med or what, but it was a funny pic.

Can't remember where I saw it. I've traversed my browser history and can't find it. Searched Google Images and zilch. I want that pic. I want it bad! I will reward handsomely the one who points me toward this pic of The Won.



Reward is negotiable, but be assured - it will be handsome. Which means it will probably include a framed portrait of me. Just get me that pic!