Lexicon Alpha/soundcard issue

[Normski00]

Got a Lexicon Alpha, but when I plug the USB in, any sound that is already playing goes off.  As soon as it's unplugged the sound comes back on.  I've tried disabling the onboard sound as well as the card alternately, but no luck.  Needless to say, I've not been able to record anything!  Running Win 7 64 bit on my works PC, trying to record through Cubase LE5, SONAR Home Studio or Audacity, none work, can't get an input signal.  can anyone out there help??

[MikeRivers]

How much do you know about getting audio to work under Windows? This might all be redundant, but just to check?

Do you have the current driver for it, and did the installation go smoothly?

When it's connected, does it appear in the Windows Device Manager under Sound, Video and Game Controllers?

Are you selecting the ASIO driver in the DAW programs that you've tried?

Can you find it and select it as the Windows Default Audio Device (Windows Control Panel|Sounds & Audio Devices?)? And when you do that, do Windows Media players like Media Player or even YouTube play audio?

Do you have it connected correctly, with the gains set properly, and the Monitor Mix knob set correctly? If it's fully counterclockwise (direct) you should hear whatever is connected to the input. But you won't hear any playback from the computer. When it's fully clockwise (playback), you should hear playback from your DAW, but you won't hear the input unless you turn on Input Monitoring in the DAW. It's a bit tricky if you've never used an interface with a control and monitoring setup like that.

Did you buy it new, or is was this "a good price from eBay?"  It's been around for six or seven years now so if it's been used by someone else, it might be broken.

[Normski00]

Thnks for reply.  Have tried these things, no luck. Bought new from a reputable UK dealer, so hope its not broken!  Didn't mention that the PC already has a sound card in it, would that be a conflct?