Thinkpads Forum

after growing tired of having to tweak everything, i left linux, bit the bullet, and bought winxp -- thinking this is going to be a piece of cake -- ha! -- no sound!! -- i didn't even research this before making the move, naiively assuming that main stream computer + windows = no problemo -- little quirks, ok, but no sound? -- thats pretty major, i mean, according to winxp, i don't even have a sound card -- of course, i do, cause i can switch over to puppy linux and theres my sound -- and my searching says that this is a common problem -- anyone know of a fix??

bob

If you want something that works without tweaks on a 600E, then I would try Win2000 not XP. The 600E was not designed for XP, and it was discontinued before XP was released. But lots of people love using XP on their 600E/X machines, and I think it can work well if you are not looking for ultra fast performance.

You are right that it does seem to be a common problem with XP on the 600 series, and I am not sure why. This is not a problem that I have had on my 600X machines.

Things to check:

1. Make double-sure that you have not disabled sound using the hardware mute button (Fn + Backspace).
To fix this, you should be able to simply increase the volume by using Fn + PgUp several times. I think this will produce a beep sound even though your sound is not working, and it will resolve your problem if your sound is in fact working fine but just muted.

2. Try removing the audio device and allowing it to be rediscovered.
For some people this seems to resolve the problem, but only until their next boot. When re-installing, if you are given a choice, try manually choosing the correct location for the drivers or the correct driver type instead of letting Windows choose for you. According to one forum member, choosing the driver manually helped them resolve the issue.

3. Do you have the latest BIOS?
I don't recall where I saw this and don't seem to be able to locate a reference any longer, but at one point I believed for some reason that this audio problem may have been resolved by updating to the latest BIOS. And someone over at the Lenovo forums seems to have the same idea (see 600x sound driver problems in xp home sp3 [forums.lenovo.com]). Certainly, if you don't already have the latest BIOS, then you should update to it if you are planning on sticking with XP because the latest BIOS in all 600 series machines (600, 600E, and 600X) includes specific fixes for XP. There are two different BIOSes for the 600E, and you have to get the one that matches your machine:
Drivers and software - ThinkPad 600, 600E, 600X

Please let us know if any of these work, or if you figure out how to fix it. This is a common enough problem that it would be nice to have a concrete explanation and resolution for others in the future.

Phil.

thanks so much for your comprehensive reply, phil -- i'm out the door to spend my allotted time with my kid, but as soon as i get back, i'm on it -- i probably need a break anyway from banging my head against the wall -- it'll be a shame if i can't figure this one out -- on ubuntu there were some changes i could pass to the os that someone figured out on this forum, which would result in sound, but no good for windows -- and in puppy linux, i can manual configure the alsa program to create sound -- its a shame, cause although the 600e may be ancient to most, to me, the "new" one i bought is in beautiful condition -- once i get this sound taken care of i will be installing, or attempting, the 500mhz cpu i bought

bob

I did a google search for crystal WDM audio codec XP you will found this:

http://members.driverguide.com/driver/d ... erid=86338

IT WORKS!

That site tries to get you to buy a membership, but you can get a free membership that will allow you to download that one file.

When I get back home after the holidays I will put the file on one of my webservers to make it easier to get. I do that for a personal backup as well.

BTW in order to get it installed I had to go into Control Panel/System and delete the old codec and then run the setup file. It said it wasn't going to work, but on reboot all was well.

Here is the zip file on my cox webspace: http://members.cox.net/electrimate/Crys ... PSetup.zip

When WinXP first came out I had the same problem. I updated the BIOS and it was fine.

noahvale wrote:Here is the zip file on my cox webspace: http://members.cox.net/electrimate/Crys ... PSetup.zip

Invaluable. Thanx. We should have a central location for such useful files.

If the original poster, Bob, checks back in, I'd be curious to know if the driver file above resolves this problem for him.

Phil.