sound recording on dell laptop

["John O Laoi" <brianolaoi@gmail.com>]

I am using etch on a Dell  Precision  M65 laptop, which has an internal microphone.
How do I get the sound recording function to work?

I have run alsaconf.
When I try to record, I use the graphical sound recorder
with "record from input" set to "capture" and "record as" set to WAV.
I have turned up the recording volume in the capture tab in  "volume control".

When I click on "record", it says that it is recording, but when I try to "play" the
 interface indicates that it is playing, but there is no sound.
The sound card is working well for other apps.

John