Record mixer won't show inputs

HP Pavilion Elite e9250t
windows 7 home premium 64bit
focusrite saffire pro 24 dsp
Siig firewire card

Windows 7 record mixer only shows my saffire mic input and has set this as the default device. I have put checkmarks in the "show disabled devices" and the "show disconnected devices" boxes. The configure, set default, properties and apply boxes are greyed out. All the saffire inputs and outputs show up in my daw(PG music realband) and playback works perfectly. Windows 7 shows "device working properly and has the saffire set as the default sound device. I have the latest focusrite win 7 driver installed. I have read other posts on this forum with the same issue and drivers were mentioned. Can someone with technical expertise confirm that drivers are causing my problem? The onboard realtek audio also only showed a mic.I have disabled the realtek in bios. I would also like to see stereo mix & my PCs' dvd/cd in the record window list.Can someone help? Thanks...Bobby

I have a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40, but I only use that for my recording interface with Sonar. My Saffire Pro 40 does not work as a PC "sound card".

The PC's CD/DVD will not show up as a "recording" device, as that is digital audio and is automatically detected by the PC's sound card. If you have the System Mixer you can record what the CD/DVD drive is playing. Otherwise you must "rip" the songs to the hard drive.

The Saffire does not have the system mixer since it's not designed for that function. The PC sound card MAY have it, but not all have them and if HP's drivers do not have that you can try a generic RealTek driver. As you have now have the RealTek disabled in the BIOS it is not available.

If you want the "system mixer" function (SoundBlaster calls it "what you hear") and the RealTek does not provide that you will have to install a separate sound card that is Win 7 compatible and does offer that function.

Thank you fireberd. I have a better understanding now. I only have experience with a creative soundcard and a much older computer and operating system. So, if for example I wanted to record in audacity from a line input,(right now it will only see a mic input), I would have to re-enable my onboard realtek, download their newest drivers and see if they support this function (showing a line input in the win7 record mixer window), or install a pci soundcard with this support. At the time I disabled the realtek, I did not know I could run two sound devices on the PC. Not important, I will leave things as they are now, and know I have the option. Thanks again....Bobby Y