Strange problem with SoundMAX. Tried everything,help please!

[Nolwendil]

Hi there, fellow ThinkPad users! I use IBM Thinkpad T42 with WinXP Pro. I think I found several threads with a simmilar problem on various forums including this one, but the problem was never solved.

So, here we go: I started having problems with my SoundMAX integrated soud card. The problem is bit strange, so please take the time to read through. It would be wonderful if you could help me.

Windows doesn't know about the sound card, there are no Playback/recording devices in Sounds and audio devices in control panel, everything is gray there. When I try to play music/video file in KMP, WMP, VLC, sounds from flash videos in a browser, or generally in the MS Windows enviroment, I get no sound, while the video is working fine.

Now the weird thing: Foobar can play my music just as nothing happened through Direct Sound, probabbly because it communicates directly with the HW. But DS settings in other players don't help. Also, Thinkpad volume/mute buttons, the green on-screen volume display, the speakers and headphones jack work fine, but I know that only thanks to Foobar.

In device mannager, everything looks OK, it says that the device is working propperly, no conflicts in resources.
The only thing that indicates there is some problem (besides no sound in Windows) is when I go to Device Mannager > Sound, video and game controllers > SoundMAX Integrated digital audio > a panel opens, there I go to the "Propperties" tab, expand Audio Devices and double-click SoundMAX Integrated digial audio. =>

Now there is a sentence: "Status: Driver is enabled but has not been started".

I tried re-installing the drivers several times, enabling and disabling the device in Device mannager, nothing helped.

I hope I wrote everything I could about my issue. As I mentioned before, I did a lot of googling on this issue, but never found anything useful.
Help me if you can, please.

[USSS]

You may need to enable the SoundMAX Agent Service (SMAgent.exe) in Windows Services (Start > Administrative Tools > Services).

When you open the Services window, scroll down the list to SoundMAX Agent Service and double-click on it. Under the "General" tab, make sure the "Startup Type" is set to "Automatic". Also, under "Service Status", if the "Start" button is available, you can manually start the service there. Close out all windows and reboot.

The only other thing I can think of that might be causing your issue is a driver conflict between Foobar and SoundMAX.

[Mike Blake]

Here's a fix that has worked for a number of people:

http://www.tymes.net/swenum/fix-swenum0.htm

It doesn't explain the fix though; you can get info on that here:

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/1066496675

[USSS]

^^^
Probably the more plausible solution...thanks, Mike.

[Mike Blake]

Thanks, USSS.

By the way, Nolwendil, you said "I did a lot of
googling on this issue, but never found anything useful."

But as you see, I did get hits relevant to the issue.
My "secret" was to use the most unique phrase involved
in the problem. In this case, the error message "Status:
Driver is enabled but has not been started."

From that I got two dozen hits, including another
suggestion I haven't mentioned yet: it can also be
an IRQ conflict between the sound card and
another device not being flagged by Windows.

[Nolwendil]

I don't think foobar and SoundMAX are in conflict, since foobar is the only SW that I can get the sound from.

Anyway, There is no sound-related service in my windows services that isn't already running and there is no SoundMAX service. So this solution is no-go for me. If there should be such service, I don't know how to add it.

The other solution doesn't seem to work either, since I have Plug and Play software device enumerator installed and running properly.

I can't really think of any other solution but reinstalling Windows. But I'm afraid that the problem might come back, because I think it happened after Microsoft Update automatically restarted my T42 after the updates were installed.

Thank you for your help so far. Can you think of anythink else, please?

[USSS]

Before you go through the trouble of re-installing Windows XP, try running System File Checker service. Start > Run > sfc /scannow.

Having said that, I don't know if this will work unless you have access to a Windows XP installation disk. System File Checker reviews your Windows system file manifest and replaces files that are missing or corrupted. However, you may already have copies of these files on your T42 in your Windows folder. If so, the missing or corrupted files will be extracted and placed in the proper locations.

The big question, of course, is whether recovering any of your Windows XP system files will even fix the SoundMAX issue. It's worth a try, though.

If System File Checker doesn't work for you, check this thread: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=30239 on other Windows XP recovery techniques.

[Nolwendil]

OK, thanks guys, I'll try and hopefully get some success.

Device mannager says that there is no device in conflict, but I don't know how trustworthy this information is. I also don't know why would any conflict show up just now without me doing anything. On the other hand I don't know of a reason why should thhis happen anyway, so I'm gonna try everything to solve the problem.

[Mike Blake]

Googling the error, I can't believe how long this has been
going on. Here's a quote from a frustated user on the
PCReview site in the UK with what eventually helped him,
from back in 2003:

I had exactly the same problem as you, and after several hours and trying lots of possible solutions I tried something else and worked.

I tried:
- the "Plug and Play Enumerator"
- the boot.ini thing (remove /fastdetect)
- of course reinstalling drivers lots of times
- even reinstall my OS (win2000)

nothing worked. Then I remembered I heard once that Windows XP Service Pack 2 damaged the Audio in my dad's laptop, so I gave it a try and did the same thing. I had Win2000 with no Service Pack, then I installed Service Pack 4, restarted. Audio still didn't work, then I uninstalled my audio devices and restarted. This time I installed the drivers again and good news! my audio was back!

So I would say that after trying all that stuff that I tried before think about the service packs because they fix among other things, hardware compatibility issues.

OK, it's not very clear there what to do in other cases,
perhaps rollback to the previous service pack, or update
to the next before reinstalling the device drivers. But it
worked for him after the other fixes failed.

[Mike Blake]

The poster I quoted from PCReview said he tried the
boot.ini fix and it didn't work for him. But I didn't know
what that fix was. Having stumbled across it elsewhere,
I wanted to get it on record in case Nolwendil wants to
give it a shot...

Here's the solution that worked for me:

I went into the boot.ini file and add the /BOOTLOG option. After
rebooting I looked and the NTBTLOG.txt file and saw the following:

Did not load driver Audio Codecs
Did not load driver Legacy Audio Drivers
Did not load driver Media Control Devices
Did not load driver Legacy Video Capture Devices
Did not load driver Video Codecs
Did not load driver Creative SB Live! Basic (WDM)
Did not load driver Creative Game Port

That gave me the clue that the problem really is that my sound drivers
really weren't loading even though the driver status "Driver is enabled
but not started" gives you the impression that they did load. A more
percise message might have been "The device has a driver associated
with it, but the driver did not load".

NOTE: If you are not getting the same results from this first test then
the solution that follows is probably not going to work for you.

I then went back into boot.ini and removed the /fastdetect option. I
left the /bootlog option still inplace. After rebooting I once again
looked at the NTBTLOG.txt file and noticed that the drivers that use to
not load, were now loading again. I think the sound card was still not
working at this time. (I really didn't check)

I then uninstalled the sound card drivers and rebooted. The driver
automatically re-installed. I went into the Device Manager and low and
behold my sound card was no longer saying "Driver is enabled but has not
been started" but rather "driver is enabled and functioning properly".
I tried my sound card and it was once again working.

My speculation is that the /fastdetect boot option leaves the system in
some kind of state which is not repaired by a driver uninstall and
re-install. Who would have thunk it! I certainly don't know how my
system got into that state in the first place. It took a long time to
come up with this solution. Hope this is the solution your looking
for! From my research on the internet, I'm under the impression that
many people are experiencing this same problem.

That was from user "T Rut" on the LockerGnome site:
http://tinyurl.com/6u4e28

[Nolwendil]

Nothing mentioned above applied to me, because there is no problem witm my Plug&Play enumerator. The boot.ini fix didn't work either. So I'm reinstalling Windows. I thank all of you for your help.

[rmukium]

Try uninstalling the Thinkpad Keyboard Customization Utility. Worked for me.

[jchris]

My SoundMax problems seemed to have been solved by the solution presented by [quote="USSS"]

You may need to enable the SoundMAX Agent Service (SMAgent.exe) in Windows Services (Start > Administrative Tools > Services).

When you open the Services window, scroll down the list to SoundMAX Agent Service and double-click on it. Under the "General" tab, make sure the "Startup Type" is set to "Automatic". Also, under "Service Status", if the "Start" button is available, you can manually start the service there. Close out all windows and reboot.

Thanks!!! for the solution to a frustrating problem.