Thinkpads Forum

Hi Folks

just joined here to ask this question. I picked up a freecycled Thinkpad 560 which I'm using for some old DOS music programs. The thing is all the technical info I can find on it seems to suggest that is has 16-bit audio. However one program tells me "sorry your soundcard does not support 16bit audio" and another one which works sounds very much like 8-bit. As for SBPro cards I believe they only have 8bit audio but can't be sure exactly what is in the machine. Can anyone confirm if I'm right or if there's some setting or driver I need to get 16bit sound?

Going by this:

http://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/thinkpadspecs.html

You have either a Cirrus Logic CS4237(560X, 560Z) or ESS ES1688 (560/560E) chipset in that unit. Try looking for DOS drivers if you are using DOS Apps for sound.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 60522.html for DOS drivers (560, 650E)

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... RYRAK.html for DOS drivers (560X, 560Z)

thanks for the link. I did try the installer for the 560 but it requires Windows to install and from the notes it seems to only update audio for win3.1. I'm really not sure how to check for drivers in DOS or if there is such a thing. I found a config tool for the ESS chip but it seems to only change DMA and IRQ settings etc.

I found some technical info on the ESS soundchip in question and it does appear to support 16bit sound.

There is a DOS component installed if you are running Win 3.1. So when you boot in DOS there should be some info displayed on bootup showing the card being setup with the correct address, IRQ, DMA etc. Without the proper initialization who knows what the sound app thinks your card is.

try this:

ftp://64.166.249.2/drivers/audio/ess/1678dos.exe
from this website: http://www.chemusa.com/9750_05.htm

If you have enough memory...you might try Windows 2000. But if you are running only DOS programs that don't have the right drivers you may be out of luck.

thanks for the replies. I tried the ESS tool which enables me to set the IRQ, DMA etc for the soundcard but I already had the blaster environment set in the autoexec.bat and it shows up correctly in the music software. I've tried different settings and the only ones which work produce 8-bit sound. I do have win98 installed but the DOS/Win3.1 audio drivers don't work (it says it's unable to find certain files).

I was under the impression that DOS programs access the hardware directly without the use of drivers and that it was all dependent on the program in question being coded correctly, but I don't know much about these things. I dont' know what else to try other than to conclude the soundcard isn't capable of 16bit sound. (Incidentally I tried the DOS music program from within Win98 but the quality was the same)