Andy’s Blog

UPDATE: Since this page was written, IBM / Lenovo have released a bunch of updates – most of which work better than the XP driver hacks I employed. Best route now is to install their System Update tool and let it do all the leg work for you 

 

Due to demand, I’ve decided to post a page detailing the process that I followed in order to get sound working on my IBM Lenovo N100 laptop under Vista.  Please note, I was using Vista Ultimate, and you mileage may vary.

It turns out Vista did not initialise the HD audio device – and what it did, it used the wrong driver, which meant the actual sound driver refused to install: So the first step was installing this driver.

Now on my machine, Vista had already installed a multimedia device (but it was a digital / optical out only) – I had to replace the driver on this with a suitable match from the actual IBM drivers. To do this, open Device Manager, and use the Upgrade / Update Driver option.

You need a number of files (specifically the HD Audio drivers and the “main” Audio drivers) which IBM were rather slow at providing (I actually cheated and extracted them from an Image of the original OS that my laptop shipped with ) – from the DRIVERS folder that was on the root of the drive (folders were called AUDIO and OTHER3). It’s a pity IBM didn’t supply them on a CD.
You should be able to find them on the IBM support site, under Windows XP however. I will NOT provide them, as I don’t want my ass kicked by IBM.

Anyway, extract the drivers into a couple of folders, then point Vista at it. You should find that Vista detects the drivers, gives you a popup warning but correctly installs them. Vista will then continue to detect the “real” sound card, and you will need to point this at the folders too.

And finally, you have sound!

 

I have also been asked about a few other devices on the N100 under Vista…

Card Reader: Worked fine, no drivers needed.
Built in camera: Appears to have been detected, no drivers needed. Haven’t tested this though, so don’t ask.
Finger Print Scanner: Tricky one. Don’t even bother at the minute, as it’s not supported under any software on Vista. Yet.

 

NOTE: These steps are rough – this is not intended to walk a non-technical person through the process. If you have never installed a driver manually before, you may want to get an expert to do this process for you… 

 

IMPORTANT

Before asking me any questions, please read the comments on this post: http://www.neillans.co.uk/?p=163

If you have any questions, either drop me an email, or add a comment to the above post. You cannot post comments to this article (and yes, this has been done on purpose).