Stereo Mix for t61p?

[Mark_Lenovo Former Administrator]

drtigerlilly,

Thanks for taking the time to collect the links.  

We will look into the situation this coming week.

Thanks again...

[Mark_Lenovo Former Administrator]

drtigerlilly,

You are right that there seems to be a fair amount of discussion around the different forums on this issue.

I've responded to your other thread, and we will investigate the issue this coming week.   I say this, as I personally don't know the whole history of how and why things are they way they are today.

Best regards,

Mark

[eecon]

My own opinion is that Dell is run by an American (Mr. Dell) who can probably afford to say "to heck with the RIAA" while Lenovo is a Chinese company that probably wisely chose to be a bit more diplomatic regarding US-China trade and copyright issues, etc.

I am hoping it all works out in the long run for Lenovo and it's regular customer base.

[drtigerlilly]

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singularity2006 wrote:
I'd really love to upgrade my wifi nic too.... the performance of the Intel AGN4965 isn't all that great.  I'd like to swap it out with an Atheros chipset but cannot find much info on whether or not it has been white listed for these machines or not (the BIOS lock feature on install of non-certified wifi equipment is just... so bizarre.  stupid FCC).

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The Thinkpad wireless that is normally offered at configuration is an atheros card. I don't know how its placed on the board, if you can actually change it, but if that is possible, considering that Lenovo sells an atheros option i don't see why it shouldn't work. Or you could probably actually source it from them...

still something to check out i guess?

Message Edited by drtigerlilly on 03-25-2008 06:03 PM

[rec630]

> the pcmcia controller on some t6x & x6x models are incompatible with popular pcmcia soundcards

 While doing research for a purchase, I just discovered about  this missing function which I have used on previous PCs.  Hopefully we'll hear some good news.  In the meantime as a workaround, how does one iidentify the incompatible pcmcia T6x models?

[drtigerlilly]

right click on my computer, from the start menu, select properties, select the hardware tab then go to device manager. Under pcmcia controllers it tells you the pcmcia controller that is in your machine.

You will have to check the support documentation for the soundcard you're looking to buy, if they have cards there are known issues with.

such as Creative's SoundBlaster Audigy 2ZS

Message Edited by drtigerlilly on 03-26-2008 09:18 AM

[revduane]

I have been corresponding with a couple of people from Lenovo via e-mail.  I have basically been stonewalled and told that this is not a "broken system" issue, so I shouldn't expect a response any time soon, but they will add it to the list of issues.

That said, have you managed to find out anything, Mark?  I would really like to find a way to get this issue resolved without having to resort to trying to convince my boss to drop another $70 or $80 on another sound card for a computer I just convinced her to drop $1500 on in the first place.

Thank you,

Duane Smith

[drtigerlilly]

it might be an additional $70-80 for you, but for the xseries notebooks its looking closer to a $200 addition.

Since our machines don't  have the express card slot & aren't compatible with the Creative PCMCIA Audigy 2 zs, the next pcmcia card i've found is the Echo Indigo IO PCMCIA card, and it remains to be seen if it shares similar incompatibilites are the creative w/ the ricoh controller. I'm still researching and will report my findings.

[revduane]

Actually, drtigerlilly, I'm not totally sure on the price of the card.  For a while, I had an e-mail conversation going between my vendor and 2 folks in the food chain at Lenovo about this mess.  About the time I asked the Lenovo folks what kind of sound card they would recommend for this thing to correct the issues, they quit talking to me completely.  The conversation had been going on for a few days, and they had asked if I needed recommendations as to what sound card to get.  When I broke down and asked for the "recommendation", I suddenly got no more responses.

I will say one thing for this little experience.  I've learned exactly how "good" the support and customer satisfaction concern levels are at Lenovo.  Maybe next time I should listen to the senior network admin when he tells me to order an HP instead of a Lenovo. 

[Mark_Lenovo Former Administrator]

All,

Thanks for you patience as this was investigated through engineering.  The official answer provided is as follows:

"The '61 series systems do not have any way to provide the same loopback function or

"Stereo Mix" that previous systems have provided. This is by design of the hardware.

There cannot be any driver update to enable this function as the hardware layer does

not support it."

I do not have any more information as to why this feature was not carried forward as a requirement in the development of the '61 series ThinkPads, as many members have noted the capability on prior systems in the forum discussion around this issue.   I am not aware of any specific reason for the omission.

Message Edited by Mark_Lenovo on 04-18-2008 08:33 AM