I have installed Mandrake 9.1 on a HP Pavilion 7945 together with MS-Windows ME.

Have set the BIOS option for Plug and Play OS to "NO".

The weird, and also annoying thing, is that whenever I have had a session on linux, the sound is gone. I do not have sound in Linux either.

I am using KDE 3.1 and are aware of it defaulting to muted sound. That has been taken care of, and I do see a no-crossed loudspeaker, and the volume is set to something in the 50-ies.

What actually happens is that when I log on, my BIOS settings are being changed. The "On-board Audio Options" - "Audio Codec" is being set to "Disabled".

To get the sound back I have to enter the BIOS and set this back to "Enabled".

Sometimes the "On-board Audio Options" is not visible in the BIOS. Then I have to enter MS-Windows, restart and go back into BIOS to get the named options visible!.

I have done some investigations, and have discovered that the change is done after I log on with my user name (where I also choose KDE).

Has anyone had similar problems and can anyone help?

Well, turn Plug and Play OS to "Yes," for one thing.

Don't know if that will help, but linux does support pnp.

Erm, I think that BIOS option refers to Windows Plug 'n' Play, not features of the linux kernel, so I'd leave it off as constantly recommended by all install guides.

I think that altering a BIOS setting is tied to kernel sound modules, the user cant directly alter hard/firmware settings, so there might be an option to disable this feature in the loaded module.

Those install guides are for previous version of the linux kernel.

Full plug and play support is a fairly recent addition, but it works well now.

And there is no "Windows Plug & Play" per se; it's an "open" standard. Designed by Microsoft for Microsoft, yes, but it needs to be open so that hardware makers can meet it. So linux meets the same standard now.

Well, my computer works a lot better with Plug And Play OS set to "yes" in the bios, at any rate.

Thanks for the interest,

but sorry guys. I have tried this both ways conserning the PnP option. The same thing happens anyway.