emusonacid! legacy

My main problem now is that the VST chanel mixer isn't getting any signal.

When I speak into the mic , the signal shows up in the right chanel which confuses me cause the mi is actually plugged into the left chanel.

In the manual it said that if there is no sound, create a new strip from a physical source but after click on New Strip the dialog that comes up has physical in grey so I can't do anything with it.

In DSP Mixer the first chanel says MONO I/O Card in L and has a send that says ASIO IN 1/2 HOST. Currently the MIDI sequence I programmed is playing back on two chanels 3 and 4. Chanel 3's input says WAVE L/R .

If I click on the word Inputs at the upper right hand side of the screen just above the TV and click on host in the TV then click on Outputs, I/O Card out 1/2 has a green line going to MON.

All the others have an orange line going to MIX Under Output assignment if I click on Host there are no lines going anywhere.

I read that if I go to File>Preferences>General and click "auto save" that I could make Cubasis save every 5 minutes. If I go under file there is no preferences option!

When I click Track REcord Enable the manual says a little Mic should appear. I don't see that.

Now the tech support people want to know if I've got the latest BIOS and drivers. When I asked the motherboard manufacturer, they sent me a link with a bunch of stuff on it. But I don't know what I'm looking at. How would I know if I already have what they're showing me or not? I contacted the motherboard manufacturer again asking the same question but they haven't gotten back to me.

Has anyone ever had to do this before? I've got Windows XP
Gongchime