PCG-C1MHP Yamaha sound chip dead after SP2?

[pchow_uk]

There I was, happy as a clam, chugging along on SP1 and I thought... hmmm maybe I'll install XP_SP2 this weekend...

Read the bumph on updating the BIOS and so Ghosted my machine (just in case), applied the BIOS update... so far so good. Installed SP2 without problems... Rebooted a few times for various reasons and worked on the machine for half a day without a hitch.

Then last night I did my usual hibernation and it froze while saying it was preparing to hibernate. Had to power cycle the machine and now the external USB port replicator didn't work. Also the machine now hangs every time it is shut down (at the point where XP says it is "Windows is shutting down...", after "saving settings"). With a bit of messing around, plugging various USB things into the ports, the replicator started working again but the sound chip has died! Everything reports ok in Device Manager but no sound. The mixer works though. If I turn on the microphone and play with the volume controls I can hear it though headphones. Using Media Player (or any other player) to play any kind of media (video, wav, mp3, CD audio) either causes the programs to hang or to just play the file with no sound.

In the end I used Ghost to revert to my working SP1 build but the sound is still broken and the machine still hangs when shutting down. So I got more drastic and re-applied the BIOS update - no good. So I took the ultimate step and reverted the BIOS to the previous version - still no good! I then rubbed out the whole installation and did a recovery disc install - argh! Still no good!!!

Could installing SP2 have mashed the Yamaha chip in some way? Before I got rid of it I noticed that there was a new MS WDM legacy sound driver that appeared to clash with the Yamaha device driver. Listening carefully on headphones, I could hear the machine play a tiny fragment of the shut down music as it closed down but was cut off.

Whatever happened in that initial hibernation crash seems to have mashed the sound chip firmware as the VAIO sound that used to play over the animated logo at power-on doesn't play any more.

I disabled the Yamaha sound device in the Device Manager and now the machine starts, runs and shuts down normally but I have lost all sound capability

Any ideas - apart from a USB sound module?

[kee-lo_]

Hi Paul, glad to see you back, not under these circumstances though

The C1MHP is such a great machine too - handy and VERY portable.

The only thing I can suggest is deleting those legacy drivers, also have a look on VAIO-Link for a new Yamaha driver.

As you still hear some sound I feel this is more of a software thing than hardware really (I hope anyway :smileypraying:)

I think a lot of other C users will be avoiding SP2 now

[kee-lo_]

Sorry Pete, don't know why I was calling you Paul LOL

[pchow_uk]

Cheers for the reply.

I dunno what's happened but I don't think it's OS software as I rubbed out the machine and did a clean build from the recovery CDs. Vaio-link tells you to install the updated Yamaha drivers to cure a sound problem with SP2 but it's the same driver update as was posted a long time ago to fix the problem that appeared after installing SP1 (the recovery CDs contain XP without SP1).

Any way, I tried installing the updated drivers again on the SP0 base install and it didn't help. The new WDM legacy driver that seemed to be part of the problem was only installed by SP2.

I'm thinking that something in the crash caused a semi-permanent register on the chipset to be flipped and put it into some mode that doesn't work with the Sony BIOS. After all, the BIOS is the only thing in control of the machine when it powers on and plays the animated VAIO logo music...

Anyone know if there is a CMOS battery jumper that can be set to erase the BIOS config and (hopefully) reset any semi-permanent settings held? I might try opening the thing up to see if there is a coin cell I can disconnect to erase the settings...

The Yamaha control interface seems to work though. If I delete the device and restart XP, it detects the chipset and installs the drivers ok - it just doesn't work afterwards!

[kee-lo_]

That Yamaha driver for the C1 is the same as the one issued for the GRX series back in September 2002, I remember downloading that the first few days I got the machine.

All I can suggest is you try disabling that legacy driver in device manager. I have no idea how it got there though, and the fact it stays when you reinstall Windows is shocking.

[pchow_uk]

Nope, the legacy driver doesn't appear any more. It was something SP2 installed but I'm now on SP0 and it's not there any more.

Took the C1 apart and found the coin cell connector. Disconnected it for 5 mins and reconnected. Put the thing back together and powered on. The CMOS was all reset - had to set the clock and everything but still no sound

I've logged a e-support call but as it's out of warranty by almost a year I don't know if they'll reply. If you phone them it costs £12.50 to open a case. I wouldn't mind paying for a new motherboard though as these little C1's are unique - I don't think there is anything on the market this small at the moment. And certainly nothing with a hardware MPEG-2 compressor and AV input! The trend now seems to be towards ever more massive laptops and I need something that will fit in my camera bag.

[kee-lo_]

Thats sad Pete sorry to hear it's not working as planned.

Hopefully you can get it repaired for a decent price.