Hi, i am a linux newbie, recently installed Mandrake 10.0 on my HP Pavilion zv5000t series notebook. This laptop originally came with WinXP home edition and I am able to dual boot. But I want to work more with the linux.

Everything looks fine except for some problems:

1. My Agere Systems AC'97 modem is not working. When i ran MCC, and checked the hardware, i saw that it was picked up under "unknown devices/others," in that the bus was PCI, and the location was detected as 0:14:6. (I will add that under windows, the port is COM3 and the location of this modem was PCI bus 0,device 20 ,function 6.) So in mandrake it's 14 and in windows it's 20, what does that mean? The module is unknown, but the media class was communication_modem. When i tried to use the KPPP dialer, it kept saying the modem was busy. Then i tried to query the modem, still said it was busy.
I have an ethernet card on this laptop which the mandrake has definitely picked up. But, i don't know how i can see the other computer on my home network whose OS is WinXP home. Currently, i have disabled the ethernet connection in linux. But on XP it works fine.

2.My sound card, SoundMAX integrated digital audio is not working also. The driver under windows is smwdm.sys. It has been detected by mandrake in that, the bus was PCI and in location 0:14:5. Like the modem, in windows the location of this soundcard was PCI bus 0, device 20, function 5. So again, the 14, 20 problem. I can play dvds and cds but of course in silent mode.(Subtitles are just not enough for those dvds!) And if i try to play a .mp3 or a .wav file, i get this message:

On Totem Media/Movie player, I get
This is an Audo only file and there is no audio output available.

If i try to use Audacity i get :
There was an error initializing the audio i/o layer. You will not be able to play or record audio.

KAudioCreator:
No encoder has been selected. Please select an encoder in the configuration.

For Kmix i get a sound icon with a big X on it in the toolbar.

This is for KDE 3.2 . I logged in Gnome too and basically the same problem.

3.And finally, my USB flash drive...it's being picked up as "removable" on the mount, but when i try to access removable, it's saying i have 0 files in it. I see all the files in my memory stick on windows.

So that's my problem...i really want to enjoy using mandrake linux but it bugs me when these things are not working, it feels handicapped.

I have tried looking for linux drivers for the sound card and modem, but i'm not sure if that's what i need to do since mandrake is picking it up in a way.

Also, one tiny bitty observation..after i partitioned my HD and installed mandrake10.0, when i connect to the internet from windows, the modem speakers no longer works...not that it's a major problem since i can still connect to the internet. Just an observation. Sound works fine in windows.

So, sorry for the long message but i was trying to be as descriptive as possible.
My laptop runs on an Intel Celeron 2.8Ghz processor.

Thanks for any help or advice!!!!

this may or not help
I have sound max audio chip on my mobo and after coming out of XP and sometimes when coming from a cold start, it doesn't work under LInux, I have to reboot the machine, on the 2nd boot the audio works fine.

I presume this is a hardware thing as this happens under Fedora, RedHat, SuSE and Mandrake.

Thanks but that did not work...any more ideas anyone?

Did you ever get answer to your problem with the HP 5100? I have a HP 5240 with the same problems you describe? I loaded the Alsa drivers, but they do not work. I downloaded the slmodem from Smart Media, but have not compiled it yet as it looks complicated and I wanted to get the sound card work first.

If you ever got a solution, I'd be grateful if you posted it!

Thanks, LD