Recording in stereo on a laptop

[Guest Bob Carter]

My laptop has a dual mic/line-in socket (according to the manual!). When I record from a cassette player into Wavepad (or other similar editors for that matter), I have to select the input source to "mic" in order to get a signal, and then of course the input is mono (despite the fact I am using a stereo jack). If I select "line in" as the input source, there is no input signal registered. How can I persuade the computer to "see" this socket as a stereo line in rather than a mono mic input (it should be possible since the manual assures me this socket is meant to accept CD inputs etc).