No sound with "SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio"

[Roland Semmebraesl]

Using a Thinkpad Z60m, executed vanilla installation from an OEM CD of
Vista Business 32 Bit (this was no upgrade installation!!).

This machine usually running XP. From this I know that sound device is
"SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio"
AnalogDevices

Drivers there work smoothly.

Any ideas how I get this thing to work?

Thanks in advance

rob*

 

[Roland Semmebraesl]

Using a Thinkpad Z60m, executed vanilla installation from an OEM CD of
Vista Business 32 Bit (this was no upgrade installation!!).

This machine usually running XP. From this I know that sound device is
"SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio"
AnalogDevices

Drivers there work smoothly.

Any ideas how I get this thing to work?

Thanks in advance

rob*

Fogot to mention:
Instead of a working SoundMAX device Vista tells me, that there is a
digital output device (SPDIF) mapped when looking into sound aplet under
system control.

The speaker itself has a small red arrow pointing down saying that a
High Definition Audio-Device is not connected.

 

[William Anderson]

Hey there Roland,

According to IBMs support website, the audio driver for the Z60m should be a
native driver for Vista. BUT! If you're having that kind of a problem, you
can try the XP driver from here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-62855

I'm going to preface this by saying that this is not a vista supported
driver, and of course if it blows up the machine, don't kill me. But I've
had to use XP drivers to get hardware working before.

Also, if the installer crashes, you might have to run it in compatibility
mode for XPSP2. Usually that's a problem with the installer itself and not
the driver.

Let me know how it goes.

Best Regards,

Will

 

[Roland Semmebraesl]

Hello Will,

thanks for reply.

Having (had... mumble maybe I still do have, but don't knowing, yet)
that BUT! *:x

Ok I did what you did suggest. Loaded the old soundMAX drivers for
2000/XP. Seems to work. At least sound is there, now. After first login
I got: "No ADI codec driver is installed"

Googled somewhat. Another guy had similar result with his Thinkpad X41.
He went into Device Manager, opened up the SoundMax Integrated Audio
device and let Windows search for an updated driver online. The check at
my Z60m opposed to the mentioned poster told me, that drivers are up to
date.

I rebooted the system - tried relogin. Viola no error message anymore.

For those reading this and want the source of the X41 post:
http://sbreck.blogspot.com/2007/01/vista-setup-on-x41-tablet.html

<Some MS bashing>
This is poor what Microsoft is doing. They provide an upsizing tool and
it says no problem at all. It is poor from IBM/Lenovo, too to state out,
that sound device is supported by Vista itself
(source: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-61506.html)

I am really angry about MS and their Hotline. During the phone call they
cutted the line with a strange voice message from their inhouse
telephone system while I was speaking with the service guy. Very
unpolite. Looking at their website I found if sending them an e-mail for
getting help for their own crappy Vista product, this costs 72 Euro (at
the moment around 130 USD). This is nearly the price of a Vista Business
OEM Licence. Hey folks @MS this is a great business strategy you are
following. I hope that customers will throw your products completely out
of their business over time. I predict you will following the Novell
way. This is no correct business behaviour. If you sell a product - if
OEM or not does not matter - and it does not fully function, and
customers having significant troubles with it, then you have to provide
free help to your customers. Otherwise you may not get money for this.
<Some MS bashing/>

Anyways. Until now I did not find unwanted side effects. But I did not
activate this VistaBusiness licence, yet. I will not doing so for some
time. Found here: http://www.winpage.info/pages/Vista/tipps.php?printpage=1
that it is possible to renew the testing period up to 120 days. For this
you have to open up a command window as administrator and running there
the command:

slmgr.vbs -rearm

The writer of this post says, that this procedure can be repeated three
times.