At a rough guess it sounds like a problem with gain staging.

You've turned the gain on the mic input up so high that it's distorting. You've done that in an effort to get enough level into the line input.
So what you need to do is turn the gain down on the mic input and increase the gain of where ever the line input goes into.
As you're using the line input on the mobo is it actually selected for record?
Have you looked at where the line input mixer control's gain is set to?

Bob.

"What would be causing this?"

Ummm, too much whiskey?

Open the volume control on your computer. Go to the Options menu and then click on Advanced.

Next, go back to the Options menu in the Volume control dialog and select Properties. Then select Recording and click on OK. You should now be looking at the dialog for recording. Now, depending on your sound card, you hopefully will see a button in the Microphone column labeled Advanced. Click on that and you will see a box that lets you boost the incoming sensitivity by +20dB. Try checking that, adjust your incoming levels, and see if you don't get a better result.

Perhaps I shouldn't say anything given my own bad habit of bursting into print without first carfeully reading what I'm replying to but...

HappyFriar:
He has a mixer with a preamp. That means he has around 50dB of gain. Most mixers have gain, true technically a mixer doesn't however what we mostly call a mixer has lots of gain on its mic inputs.

JM:
He has an external mixer connected to the line input, nothing connected to the PC's mic input. He should follow your instructions but turn up the Line Input, at least that's how it appears on my XP system. Turning down the gain on his mixer before doing that might be wise too :)

Bob.

You don't say what sort of mic and mixer you are using so it is hard to be sure where your problem might be, but I'm going to guess that you're using a mic that requires phantom power and your mixer is not providing it.

Mark

That was my guess as well. Try a mic that uses a battery.

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Thanks Bob; you're right. The phantom power suggested by other sounds like a much more likely cause of the problem.

If there were no phantom power applied to a condenser microphone, then it is unlikely that any signal would be produced.

You're right, no signal would be produced, but yelling into some condensor mics can produce transient bias (microphonics) that will show up as a badly distorted image at the sound board. I have seen this more with cheap mics, but also with some higher-priced Countrymans and A-Ts when phantom was missing for whatever reason.

Try a mic that uses a battery.

Before you buy another mic .. check your mixer. Many mixers *can* supply phantom power .. there usually is a switch somewhere .. sometimes it is on the rear panel (out of sight).

You *can* leave it on all the time. Applying phantom power to a dynamic mic will not hurt it.