I have a 9880 which has recently started boot without knowledge of the Sound Card.... sometimes. About 5% of cold boots have sound now.

It may be a different audio process, but the system POST beep always occurs.

When the system boots without Sound, their is no HD Audio Driver loaded at all (not failed, just simply not there). When it boots with Sound, windows detects it, automatically installs driver and it works just fine.

I've rebuilt the Windows XP OS multiple times thinking it was software and all the hoopla with the Realtek, but at this point I think there is something very wrong happening with the firmware/BIOS or hardware chipset itself.

Any thoughts?

Sorry, I don't presently have the firmware/BIOS rev (laptop is being borrowed and in another state), but I know I have a version that has the Fn + F2 fan mode change available if that helps.

Some background:
The system overheated and fried the motherboard in the first year, which was repaired by Sager. Since then, outside of Bluetooth never working I haven't had a real issue until this.
As a side issue, I swear the Wifi enable/disable keypress used to toggle between Off/Amber/Green at some point -- mine just does Off/Green now.

Thanks,

Re-install chip-set driver?

cheers ...

Done this multiple times and on multiple clean OS installs. The Microsoft HD Audio driver in System Components is loaded and I've tried multiple versions of it from the various KBs for Windows XP SP1 through 3.

The problem doesn't lie in the OS, I'm pretty certain -- it's almost as if the system, to speak in desktop terms, on most boots has "removed" the sound card and on a rare few it has been reinserted. It works perfect on those few, rare cold boots.

The randomness is the killer, if the drivers were corrupt/incorrect it should be 100% failure until a change occurred to resolve the issue.

That makes sense. And no chance to get the comp back to Sager (or reseller) to look into this?

What about just using with external sound card, like an USB one?

cheers ...

Not under support anymore, and the cost of shipping the beast almost makes it not worthwhile -- let alone what they might charge me. They have ignored my support inquiry so far, I will probably try to hit that up again.

External sound is a direction I'm looking.

Thanks for responses.

Since the audio does work, the problem is motherboard related. It is better to send the computer in for non-warranty service. Sager can check other problems such as the wifi and updating the BIOS/firmware. Did you try e-mailing tech support at techsupport@sagernotebook.com or calling them at 800-741-2219?

Yes, no answer yet. It's about time I harass them again I suppose. (2 weeks no answer)

I realize sending it in is an option, but it's not worth the shipping and repair bill to me.

I was really hoping someone would say something like, "Oh this BIOS rev fixes that!" or find out theres another "secret" keypress like for the fans.. but I reviewed this whole forum and didn't see another post like this so my hopes are dwindling.

I am afraid that at this stage, it is likely hardware related, as you suspected from the start.

cheers ...