T22 Audio Only via Headphone Jack, Not Laptop Speakers

[kc27]

Hello All

I've read the previous posts on Thinkpad T22 laptops that do not play audio via the laptop speakers, and was wondering if anyone had found a solution to this problem.

I've tried clean installs of Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional. After both installations, I navigated to Device Manager and checked "Sound, video and game controllers". No problems were listed. I updated the driver via driveragent.com, and still no sound out of the laptop speakers. I did check the Lenovo site for drivers, for the T22 no IBM or 3rd party driver is listed. Instead the chart indicates the audio driver used on this machine is the one that is included with Windows.

The volume and mute buttons on the laptop are functional, and show the volume setting when pressed.

Has anyone figured out how to get sound out of the T22's speakers?

[RealBlackStuff]

Does it beep when you boot up?
Or take both RAM modules out, and then try to boot.
It should beep 1-3-3-1.
If you still don't hear anything, you need to take the keyboard bezel off, to verify that you have any speakers inside the laptop at all!

[kc27]

I removed the memory, and didn't hear any beeps. If I use headphones, I hear the beeps.

It does have speakers, and they do look functional. I took the cover off and took a look at them tonight. I was hoping to find a dirty connection or something simple like that.

I'm guessing something is toast on the motherboard.

[rkawakami]

If you have actually removed the speaker assembly from the motherboard, then you should see four copper pads on the motherboard. See J6 in this scan:

http://www.kawakami-ca.com/ibm_t2x/t22_ ... legend.jpg

Clean the pads and related contacts on the speaker module with isopropyl alcohol. You can test the speakers if you have an ohmmeter but as I don't have a T2x speaker available at the moment, I can't tell you exactly how to connect the leads. You can try this: with the meter in the low ohms scale, connect the red lead of the meter to one terminal of the speaker and then touch the black lead to the other three terminals one at a time and see if you get a reading on the meter. Along with a measurement of 4-16 ohms, you may also be able to hear a "thump" or "crackle" coming from the speaker. Move the red lead to the next terminal and then touch the black lead to the next two. After those tests, move the red lead to the next (third) terminal and then touch the black lead to the fourth terminal. You shouldn't have to "reverse" directions with the black lead and hit the first and second terminals when the red lead is on the third or fourth as the speaker should not be polarity sensitive. After doing all of this, you should have had at least two combinations which produced a low ohms reading and possibly some noise from the speaker. If so, then the speaker is good and your problem is on the motherboard.

Make sure that when the speaker module is screwed down in place, that the metal contacts are touching the pads on the motherboard. If this still does not produce any sounds from the speakers, then I'd say that most likely your problem is in the actual headphone jack. There's two "switches" built into the jack which will cut off the speakers when the headphones are plugged in. If these switches are already out of position without a headphone jack plugged in, that will disconnect the speakers. If that's the case, then you could try replacing the entire jack assembly (18 pins have to be unsoldered from the motherboard) with a known good one, or what's usually easier, replacing the whole motherboard. There may also be a way to effectively short out those switches (i.e., make them permanently route the audio to the speakers) by jumpering the connections of the headphone jack but that means that the speakers will always be enabled. It could also be possible that there is some other control signal on the motherboard which is muting the speakers, but that might take some investigating and you still may end up having the replace the motherboard.

[RealBlackStuff]

If you need another speakerset, I can send you one for postage cost. PM me if necessary.

[kc27]

Thanks for the testing instructions. When I had the speakers out, I cleaned the contacts and looked at the speakers for any problems. I can give it another shot tonight to perform the testing you suggested. One other thing I did last night is download and run the PC Doctor software. The results for the sound card were "failed".

Other than the lack of sound, the laptop works fine. It was wasn't being used and was just collecting dust. I had wiped the hard drive and installed XP Home, and was going to give it away to be used as a web surfing/word processing laptop.

As far as I can tell, besides the sound problem, it has got a broken palm bezel (broken along one of the sides, so the keyboard kind of "floats" in that area , needs a battery, and I guess maybe a motherboard, too (or speakers).

If it does come down to replacing the motherboard, do you have any idea what a used motherboard in working condition typically costs?

RealBlackStuff, thanks for the offer of the speakers. I will see how the testing turns out.

[RealBlackStuff]

On eBay for ~ $40-55.
Also try the Marketforum, what you get there is definitely working.

[kc27]

Is it possible that working audio requires more than just the drivers provided with Windows? I had wiped the T22's hard drive clean and reinstalled Windows XP Home, service pack 3. I had no sound from the headphone jack or the speakers. I checked Device Manager everything looked good.

I then installed Lenovo's ThinkVantage update software, and installed a some software including the software that makes the volume and mute keys on the T22 keyboard functional. Once I did that, the head phones were again functional.

So now I am wondering if the laptop's speakers are not functional with Windows installation alone (contrary to the Lenovo website) , and that getting them to work is dependent on installing drivers or software from a T22 system restore disk.

Does this sound off-base or am I possibly on the right track?

[rkawakami]

You should be able to at least get beeps out of the system when the system boots without any memory. No drivers (or operating system for that matter) is required to get that.

[kc27]

I can hear the beeps if I use headphones. I guess I am back to the problem either being bad speakers, bad head phone jack, or a bad motherboard.

[rave]

You may want to look at your headphone connector, in there is a little switch that turns off the laptop speakers and connects it to the headphones. I have had this switch stick on me and prevent the speakers from working.

[kc27]

Updating an old thread in case it helps someone else. A motherboard swap fixed the audio problem.