Thinkpads Forum

I have a 600X 2645 8EU running XP SP2. I have tried to install two USB audio 'cards' and can't do it. If I disable the internal Crystal audio, and if I cold boot with the USB card inserted, then I have about a 50% chance I won't get nasty clicks, pops and scratches in the sound (that's the M-Audio unit; The Turtle Beach is always nasty). Even if the sound is clean, I get a hiccup every minute or so - unacceptable.

I have loaded the latest BIOS and run the automatic driver updates from the IBM/Lenovo site. I have loaded the latest drivers from the USB cards - M-Audio Transit and the Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro. I have loaded all the WIN XP service goodies using WindowsUpdate.

So, is this a solvable problem? I could go back to WIN 2000 if it would help.

Thanks - Chuck

A good question here is why disable the crystal audio and use USB. Crystal audio is listed as among the best, short of some very expensive professional equipment.

Unless you need something special like S/Pdif in/out or something which the thinkpad does not offer

If I am not mistaken, the 600X does not have USB 2.0. You probably will not get good USB sound from USB 1.1. You will probably get much better results using a cardbus PC sound card.

That's just my thoughts on the issue. I personally have not tried either the USB or PC card sound solutions.

wa8yxm wrote:A good question here is why disable the crystal audio and use USB. Crystal audio is listed as among the best, short of some very expensive professional equipment.

I cannot speak for the OP, but regardless of the quality of the crystal audio chips, I have found that the audio out jack on all my 600/770 series machines introduces a bit of unnecessary noise (770E, 770Z, 600X, and undocked or installed in a SelectaDock III). Depending on what one wants to do with the sound, the only way to get a clean audio line out from these machines is to use an additional card I think.

Phil.

Well, I agree that even the Crystal card is not as good as a digital out like a USB connection. What I have done is remove XP and install Win2000. Now the two USB 'cards' work just fine. However, now I can't get my wireless card to work - guess I'll start another thread (:

I have the same problem, trying to get my M-Audio Transit to work with my 600x (2645-8EG) w/Windows XP. All kinds of pops, clicks etc... I'd really like to have it solved, since the computer will be used for our audio system for playback and speech recording... btw, the supplement files had a line like this: version 1.10, (New) Support for USB Audio noise issue.
Applied the CStateFlags.reg but it didn't help anything.

Edit: Solved
The XP I had didn't have any service pack installed. Now, after installing SP2, the cracks and pops seem to have disappeared. Awesome!
I'm using the ITET40WW BIOS and basic drivers that came with XP.