Windows 7 Audio Problem Update #1

A while ago I wrote about the strange audio problems I’d been having with my Toshiba Satellite laptop running Windows 7. My hope was the issue would be corrected in the final Windows 7 release, but I recently came across a thread in the Toshiba forums which say otherwise.

Apparently, the issue is only present on Toshiba A215 models running 64bit Windows 7 with 4GB of memory. Toshiba is aware of the issue, although it is unknown as to if or when there will be a patch/update released to correct this. As a workaround, they are recommending users either downgrade their memory to 3GB or place their computer in hibernate instead of standby.

While I find this issue incredibly annoying, I’m not sure I want to bumped down my memory. My laptop has two 2 GB DIMMS, so unless I go out and purchase a 1GB stick of memory, I’m actually downgrading to 2GBs.   I’m not sure this is something I could live with given I routinely run virtual machines on my laptop and need as much memory as possible.

The hibernation work around is also out for me since I experience a hard lock a few minutes after coming out of hibernation.  The issue has been reported across other devices and doesn’t seem to be related to the standby issue.  According to Microsoft, it’s a known issue of bad drivers.  I have yet to test this, but plan on loading all the latest Windows 7 drivers for my laptop today to see if it makes a difference.

I guess the good news is the problem has been identified and there are other users experiencing the exact same issue, so hopefully they’ll release an update.

UPDATE 1/12/09: Just a quick follow-up on the Windows 7 hibernation issues I was experiencing.  I was able to correct these by downloading and installing all the latest Windows 7 drivers for my laptop.  Thankfully, I’m now able to use the hibernation work-around to get by the annoying standby audio/video issues.