ThinkPad 755C - Audio

[theterminator93]

Recently acquired quite a steal of a deal on a 755C on feebay; nearly mint condition and a handful of accessories all in a high-end IBM carry case.

I installed a copy of Windows 95 on it and am in the process of getting the various hardware components set up. Once that has me stumped is the sound card. Windows 95 doesn't recognize it if I do a hardware scan and I can't seem to locate drivers for it online.

Anyone have some tips so I can get sound working?

[RealBlackStuff]

http://ps-2.kev009.com/pcpartnerinfo/ctstips/d042.htm

[theterminator93]

Thanks for the link RBS.

I had, in fact, run across that article a couple days ago. The links to the downloads of the utility diskettes were dead but I was able to track them down on an enthusiast's FTP server. I did install them but they do not appear to have drivers, per-se, but rather a set of utilities to set options of the hardware.

I continued digging just now and was able to locate an version of the IBM PC driver matrix page referenced as containing drivers for these legacy systems on archive.org (http://web.archive.org/web/200202120002 ... E|9545|7BE); from there I was able to find the required driver file .exe name I was looking for (aftps140.exe) on another enthusiast's server (http://john.ccac.rwth-aachen.de:8000/ft ... s/mobiles/).

Now I have sound.

[goldeneagle]

Out of curiosity, are you using the hard drive your 755C came with, or another one? I've been working on my 755C the last few days. Glad you got your audio working - looked around and somewhere it mentioned devices in config.sys, which I believe included Windows 95. My current problem is getting a CF card over 512MB to work in my machine so I can install 95 (and NT and etc).

[theterminator93]

It's the original 360 MB (IIRC) disk. I acquired it with a factory 3.1 install and wiped it for 95 after taking an image of the original install.

[goldeneagle]

It's the original 360 MB (IIRC) disk. I acquired it with a factory 3.1 install and wiped it for 95 after taking an image of the original install.

I don't suppose you would be able to allow me to download the image of the factory install? Do you know if it came with the demo program as well? I actually have a semi-original install for the 360CE and both original installs for the 701 series. Still trying to find these for the 755's.

[theterminator93]

I'll put it up on my web server this afternoon and PM you a link. I can't recall what "stuff" was on it (I know it had MS Office), but it did have a few ThinkPad related items in a separate program group in Program Manager. I'm not sure how intact the original install is since the computer came to me from the original owners - a utility company in New England - and things were obviously added to it.

[goldeneagle]

Thank you. If you're also interested, I have preloads of the 701C/CS (both DX2 and DX4). I actually pasted a dropbox link in another thread several months back. I don't remember where my 360CE came from, but it had the same situation - other stuff was added to it.

[mimarsinan]

I recently got my hands on a 755C.

Any chance you might PM me the link for its drive image as well?

Also, the system has two memory modules, but neither seem to work - they're found under the floppy.

I tried inserting an 8 MB module from my 701C and it didn't work - is that to be expected?

[mimarsinan]

I've also got a question about the hard drive.

Getting it out of the caddy was quite a challenge, the plastic had almost fused in over time.

After that, I connected it to the same IDE to USB adapter I used in connecting my 701C hard drives, so I can transfer large files over.

Unfortunately, while the drive spun up, the drive never showed up in the Disk Manager. I also had an uncanny feeling that of the two sides available in my USB adapter to connect the IDE HDD, I was using a different one for this 755C HDD, compared to the 701C HDD's. The pins would not fit on the other side where I thought I had connected the other IDE drives.

When I inserted the drive back into the 755C, I had quite a scare. It wouldn't boot. I ran a drive test through the BIOS which went fine, but then the PC wouldn't even boot from a floppy. I kept getting error 201 in the BIOS!

Disappointed that I had ruined a fine antique, I let the machine sit for a couple days. Then imagine my surprise today when it worked fine!

All of the HDD data had been lost, but I have been able to install PC-DOS 6.3, then Windows 3.1, and its audio/video/utility/pc card drivers successfully.

I love the keyboard and the display on the device for sure! This thing runs circles around the 701C, which from what I understand is due to the CPU L2 cache.

Any thoughts on what might have gone wrong with the USB adapter though? Is it dying or something? Could I really have connected it to the wrong side of the USB adapter?

I would love to image the 755C with its factory setup too, so I'd love to get this figured out at some point.

[mimarsinan]

BTW here's the instructions I used (pretty much as-is, apart from substituting my USB adapter to transfer the ZIP file) for imaging my 701C:

www.os2museum.com/wp/thinkpad-701-resto ... -cf-media/

The boot floppy contains a DOS EXE which contains some `magic sauce` that makes the extracted, regular PKZIP format archive contents receive OS/2 extended attributes - so its a true dual-boot image.

[solidpro]

Just to revive the biggest point missing in this thread. You use the same installer as Windows 3.11 but you have to install it twice, with a reboot inbetween for the sound to work in Windows 95.