[TJCams]

Hi all, have my daughters IBM Thinkpad laptop. There is no sound coming out of the speakers. When I go to device manager, the "multimedia audio controller" has a yellow box with ! in it. How do I go about fixing this?

Thanks in advance!

 

[DSgamby]

Try updating the drivers.

If that doesn't work. Delete it and then search for new hardware.

 

[recneps77]

In my experience, lenovo's been good about having every possible driver available on their website.

Have a look there, inputting the exact model, and download everything related to sound. After updating/installing each of them, does it still show an error?

 

[EricReesor]

Windows XP or upgraded OS?

If it is one of the older IBM T series and windows has black listed the driver sounds like the OS was upgraded. The windows xp drivers for some of the audio chip sets are not MS Vista and 7 certified and you have to force their usage. It is possible that the driver is being excluded by the OS at boot if you are using either Vista or 7.

If you are using either Vista or 7 first try disabling the certification checks at boot. You can do this by entering the windows boot loader with f8 just after the bios boot and before the os loads. You have to be quick and sometimes it takes several tries. Then use the option to not do driver security checks.

I have to do this every once and a while with a belkin wifi N card that does not have a so called "certified" driver.
If your audio chipset is an older ac97 chip from analogue devices that has all sorts of laptop specific settings that worked with XP but are now not completely updated to Vista or 7 this might just be the case.

I looked into putting 7 on my t42 and found that I would have to force the OS to use the old IBM XP driver if I wanted the laptop audio to function completely as it was built.

Update: The Lenovo site now has updated driver packages for just about everything including the ubiquitous ad1981a audio! It will work with Windows 7. Cudos to Lenovo for keeping things going on the really good old hardware. I have stuck a 160gig drive and 1.5 gig of ram in my T42 and because it has 2meg of L2 cache it is not that much slower than some newer hardware. In fact it is better than some new cheapo Win7 based netbooks! Now that the pcmcia audigy2 zs super card from creative is fully supported with asio drivers for windows 7, I am very tempted to get an oem of Windows 7 for this laptop....just completely forget using IE and stick with a real web browser and I should be fine.
I guess that Microsoft and Lenovo are starting to realise that some people are getting really sick and tired of the upgrade treadmill and having to ditch good gear every 4-5 years.
Here´s to the government of BC for giving away all this great gear last year for next to nothing at their surplus warehouses..I got this t42 and a docking station for less than a hundred bucks!

 

[ScaryBob]

The first think I would do is to uninstall the device (right click, uninstall, remove drivers) and reboot. Then let Windows find new drivers for it. If that doesn't work or you want the complete package, look on the IBM site or the audio chipset maker's site for drivers.

 

[Tezster]

We exclusively use Lenovo Thinkpads at my workplace - it's a simple matter to find the driver you're looking for via Lenovo's driver download page, then download and install it. It's one of the easier support sites to navigate through, as it doesn't force you to dig through layers of unrelated links or popups.

99% of the time, you don't even need to uninstall or otherwise remove the existing driver to be replaced.

FYI using the 4-digit alphanumeric model type code is your best bet to find the exact machine that matches the one you have.

 

[TJCams]

I have downloaded drivers from the lenovo site for the machine in question (it is a 2388 series), rebooted, and still nothing. The laptop is running XP.

Any other suggestions/ideas?

I can't uninstall the device (and then re-install it), as it is not showing as being present to begin with.

 

[recneps77]

So the listing with the yellow ! box is gone now?

It may have installed the driver and moved it to the appropriate section instead of where it was listed before.

If that's the case, the driver may be functioning, but you need additional installs, such as the high definition audio codec. (Don't think this point applies for vista or 7 as I believe it's included in the OS)