A20m weird sound issue

[aggel321]

Hello all,

I have bought an A20m and repaired it to working standard. I wanted an 'old' system to run 98SE/ME for all my ancient software I still have of the last 20+ years. Yes I am ooooold...

Now the weird problem:

98SE

I can install my Safecom wireless card and connect to LAN/WAN no problem. The Crystal sound card is recognised in Device Manager. During boot I can hear the system sound when the network card is loaded via my loudspeakers. Also volume buttons working as I can hear the up/down beeps. However when I install the IBM Crystal drivers the card has an exclamation mark in Device Manager plus the wireless card does not start properly (constantly power up/down). Throughout all time the loudspeakers are emitting a crackling sound but nothing in Windows.

ME

The soundcard is installed automatically and recognised as working properly. I can install the Safecom card without any issues and it is working properly (compared to 98SE). So no issues on the driver side. However it is the same issue as in 98SE that absolutely NO other sounds than the system beeps are audible.

Now the question. Are the system beeps produced by the sound card or some other sound system on the planar? If by the soundcard why are on other sounds/music played? Has anyone else encountered the same problem and did you get it fixed?

Any help would be appreciated.

System: A20m, New used planar, 60GB new (old stock) Hitachi HDD, Intel 10/100 Modem Combo, P3 750MHz, 256MB original IBM Hynix, DVD ROM (will be replaced with GCC-4240N), Safecom 54125 Wireless, 14.1" LCD, dead battery (to be replaced soon).

Ta, Axel

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

Now the question. Are the system beeps produced by the sound card or some other sound system on the planar?

Here's my take on this... mind you, it's based upon situational observation and not by trying to look at any schematics. The system beeps should not be coming through any type of "soundcard". By this, I mean hardware which requires some sort of driver in order to operate. Assuming that the speakers are connected properly, the system beeps can occur if there's a detected problem with the memory (missing or bad), failure of the backup (CMOS) battery causing a loss of system time or any other number of hardware problems even before DOS, nevermind Windows, is loaded.

Correcting the lack of sound under Windows can sometimes be done by double-clicking on the speaker icon in the System Tray and ensuring that the volume sliders for all input sources are mid-level or above and that they are not muted.