Ceasar

Doing further research...this black screen problem only occurs when I record to the MP3 format. I have found I have no problem recording to WAV or AIF formats. Another thing I didn't mention is that I have a Logitech USB microphone. I go into Control Panel/Sound&AudioDevices/Voice. I have 3 options for Voice Recording; Soundmax, Modem 1, and AK5370. (The AK5370 is my mike. If I disconnect it, AK5370 is not available) I think AK5370 may be a chip set...there's nothing to install, no drivers, no CD...just simply plug and play. AK5370 is the only option that will record my voice. The SoundMax can not be used as an input device for this microphone...RecordPad doesn't appear to recognize it. I may be clutching at straws here. Maybe if I had a microphone that recognized the Soundmax card I would not have a problem with MP3 files. I don't really "mind" WAV or AIF files except for the size. If I count to 10, a MP3 file will be about 75K but the WAV file will be 500K. I'd much prefer to use MP3 for this fact alone.

I open up RecordPad. I press Record. I hear a beep sound (I had the option to hear a sound when starting to record) then the screen blanks on me. The entire screen goes black. There's no start bar, no desktop. The only think I see is a a black screen with a square white cursor indicating my mouse. I then have to Alt-Tab and this returns me to RecordPad. It's a little disconserting to have the screen blank out on me. I've turned the beeping off when starting to record. That makes no difference. My machine is a Dell Inspiron, 1 gig ram, lots of gigs left on the hard drive. My OS is XP, service packs up to date.