Originally Posted By abacus
I recommend you get a combined audio/midi USB interface for your laptop as most standard inbuilt chips are naff.
You interface will need Midi In, Out, Audio In, Out (In addition to any microphone input) and the ability to add (Or is included) an additional power supply, as while most interfaces should run on USB2, laptop USB2s are not usually the best in supplying power, which means they are not always recognised by the OS.
Once you have the above (They do not need to cost a fortune to get you going) just connect your instrument Midi & Audio to the interface, and make sure Cakewalk is using the interface for Midi & Audio. (Your laptop speakers will be muted in this configuration hence the reason you need to connect the audio output of the interface to your instrument, as well as the Midi cables)
I also recommend you upgrade to Win10 (It’s free) unless you have a particular piece of software that will not work with Win10. (Support for Win 7 is no more and many software manufactures are also dropping support for it)
Have fun

Bill

Thanks Bill...maybe sometime in the future, I'd go the Windows 10 route sans the Cakewalk...granted this time it's my Windows 7 that's causing issues, but from my time playing with CW for about a day, it's just too complicated for me...it puzzles why so many people recommending it and saying it's easy to use. I did try Studio One for maybe an hour and my impression is, it's definitely easier (somebody also recommended FL Studio and Squeak recommended MixCraft which in a quick glance they seem to be easier and serves what I need without too much of the unnecessary extras). As for now, I decided to just go back to occasional (actual) playing music on my Tyros 3. No computers, no Daw. Thanks again for your input.