Recording sounds using "Line In"

WinXP Home SP2 - I have an older Compaq tower here and the owner says that signals/audio/whatever going thru the blue "Line In" jack on the rear of the PC are prone to have static. The mobo uses RealTek AC97 audio and has the blue "Line In" jack, the green "Spkr Out" jack, and the pink "Microphone" jack - all standard stuff. The pink jack and green jack work as they should, no problems. But I cannot seem to get anything to input thru the blue "Line In" jack. I've tried plugging a mic into it and recording from it, no dice. I configured the recording settings to use "Line In" instead of the mic (see screen shot below) but no dice.... any ideas on how I can test this "Line In" blue jack for static?

Thanks!!!

 

I think anything going in the line in needs some sort of pre-amp, so a mic on its own wont work, try a jack to jack connection from an MP3 player or similar.

Q

 

As sad as this may seem, I don't have an MP3 player handy, or a 'Walkman'-type CD player, or anything else that might qualify... Yes, I'm lame LOL Thanks for the suggestion tho'.... it makes sense. I'll try to get my hands on something in the next day or so and see if I can get this thing figgggggered out...
:-D

Thanks again!

[dlb]

(I have a mic here that uses batteries, but it didn't do anything)