R31 Chopy Sound Problems

[djspoof]

I purchased an IBM Thinkpad R31 from eBay... so I'm kinda stranded on technical help. Will IBM still support eBay bought Thinkpads? But, that's not what I'm really here for.

When I first started the computer it came up it started up and ran fine with Windows XP but the keyboard was in Spanish and it seemed stuck that way and had all sorts of crappy programs installed so I opted to format and install Windows XP myself. I didn't use the restore partition or the restore CD's (they didn't come with the laptop anyways). Everything works great and I got all the necessary drivers from IBM.com's weird site layout. After installing all the drivers, updating the BIOS, and even scrounging for the Intel Chipset (that WASN'T on IBM's site) everything came back and SEEMED to be installed and working perfectly... but alas, not exactly perfect. Anytime the laptop tries to make ANY sound the entire computer becomes so unstable that it will completely lock up and you can't move the mouse.. THEN it finishes playing the rest of the sound and the mouse frees up. I immediately assumed chipset drivers weren't installed or improperly installed. I tried over and over again and then installed Windows 2000, then XP again, then dual boot to play with both and see if I could fix either. No matter what I do the audio is ALWAYS choppy which makes the whole computer unstable. It uses the SoundMAX driver for AC'97. This leads me to my next questions. Obviously, I was wondering if anyone else has ever experienced anything like this before? If so, what can I do to fix it? Could this problem be because I didn't use the Thinkpad recovery CD's or the restore partition (which I'm sure no longer exists after formatting so many times). If this could be fixed with restore CD's, how can I get them if I purchased the laptop from eBay? Am I just screwed? It's real depressing, I just bought the thing... finally convinced myself to get a laptop.. and I knew I only ever wanted to deal with Thinkpads. Please help me

[SeanM]

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.ws ... MIGR-40236

[djspoof]

That is a link to wirefirm.exe for the minipci. Is that what I need? I found some other thing from IBM that helped a TON but it still chops a little bit. It isn't nearly as bad so I figured I'd just live with it. Let me try this and see what happens.

[djspoof]

Well I ran that update and it rebooted in some weird DOS mode just like it's supposed to. I looked at each item of the 3 things it tried to update and it said it found none of them. I installed an update from IBM that was real hard to find but apparently was helpful because it made it seem 90 times better, but still not perfect. At least it plays audio now. I guess I'll have to keep looking into it. Anyone else that knows anything and can help would be greatly appreciated.

[SeanM]

If you don't have a wireless card, then it won't find anything to update. Sorry, it was a halfway educated guess.

Try this tool:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... TE.html#AN

It will locate and install updates from IBM for your machine. Perhaps one of those will help.

[djspoof]

well... i figured out a new twist to this story. i used that program i reinstalled windows 2000 installed the drivers from that utility instead and it's still choppy. went back to xp and installed from that program and it's still choppy. i also noticed that when it's trying to play a sound and starts to get all choppy and weird that if i tap on the computer it helps it along the way. it makes me wonder if the laptop has been opened before and when putting it back together something isn't correctly aligned maybe has some pressure on it and it's acting funny. im afraid to rip it apart and find out though. it's an ebay laptop. shoulda never done that. is this a possiblity though?