Release for Toshiba Satellite P10x users: modded BIOS to try and activate Conexant sound chip

[BuXb]

Modified BIOS to try and activate the Conexant sound chips in models of the Toshiba P10x series

 

already working on three moddels {see below} with Conexant "Waikiki" CX20551 HD Audio (Vendor-ID 14F1, Device-ID 5047)

Hardware ID: HDAUDIOFUNC_01&VEN_14F1&DEV_5047&SUBSYS_1179FF31&REV_1000

Manufacturer ID: 1 | Product ID: 100

 

The reason why sound is not working on many (most?) Toshiba (and other manufacturer's) Laptops, are errors in a part of the BIOS called DSDT: when a computer is in the first phase of booting, a routine in the DSDT calls its question out there "which OS is booting this PC?" XP and Vista utter (different) answers which the DSDT can interpret; OS X, however, doesn't utter anything, because it is not meant to be run on a PC with BIOS, but on a Mac with EFI.

 

In Toshiba's implementation of the Phoenix BIOS, the command in the BIOS pretty much translates like this: "IF OS = unknwown THEN - nothing". That often creates problems with initiating ACPI driven periphery like sound (and sometimes even networking) and also fan control on BIOS level (which is required for OS X, because it is a ACPI "steered" OS).

 

So our friends from the Linux corner, who ran into the same problem with ACPI dependent drivers, circumnavigated the erroneous and/or missing entries in the BIOS' DSDT by placing them into a corrected and compiled file, and have the kernel load the required DSDT information out of that file instead from the BIOS. This approach has been made working in OS X86 just recently. I advise anybody to rather try that first before applying a modded BIOS which might render your Laptop totally unusable. So please, before continuing here, try and find a solution in mackerintel's Chameleon with DSDT override thread first! He also links to fassl's DSDT Patcher, a tool to fix your DSDT. Geiman's Instructions on getting sound to work on your P 10x are here.

________________________________________________________________________________

 

What we are doing here is turning Toshiba's Phoenix BROKEN Input Output System into what it's supposed to be, the BASIC Input Output System ..

 

There is a chance that one of these modded BIOS images gives you sound out (speakers and jack), and hopefully also fully working fan control on your specific Toshiba Satellite P10x in the Unix-based OSes like Linux and Mac OS X.

 

Acknowledgements:

 

• DSDTs corrected by various people (Justin P. Linenkohl, etc. pp.)

• research inspired by mentorek

• project directed by BugsBunny

• initial BIOS .wph compiled by Kabyl, then by me, BugsB

 

how2:

 

• Your Toshi P100-xxx or P105-xxx must be as close as possible to the modded BIOS release. If not, either Windows will not boot anymore (OS X most likely will), or in the worst case your Laptop will refuse to boot at all!

• download this original Toshiba BIOS image and burn it to CD!

• run "BIOS Installer (will reboot !)" in Windows or "Bios_DOS" from DOS. Keep the BIOS folder, because it contains the file BIOS.bak = the entire backup of your Laptop's BIOS, in contrast to the BIOSes Toshiba supplies, which are always only incremental (differential).

• right after the reboot has initialized, enter the BIOS with F2, go into the Advanced tab and set "Execute-Disable Bit Capability" to Enabled to turn the famous nx bit back on (it gets switched off from the BIOS update) which Apple's Vanilla kernels and other modded kernels require. Save the settings! Otherwise you will experience a kernel panic right when Mac OS is trying to boot.

• boot Mac OS X and check if you have sound

• if not, remove any AppleHDA.kext from the Extensions folder and install one of the AppleAzaliaAudio.kexts (in the folder kexts). For installations you can use ~pcwiz' Mac OSx86 Tools Utility or kext helper.

 

On my Toshiba P100-102, sound-out (speakers & jack) has been working in Leo 10.5.2/3/4 with any of the AppleAzaliaAudio.kexts mentioned above + any 9.2/3/4 kernel, so it seems to be kernel unspecific! (Conexant HDAUDIOFUNC_01&VEN_14F1&DEV_5047&SUBSYS_1179FF31&REV_1000)

 

The only draw-back I have found so far is that, on my P100-102, the Conexant sound (speakers and jack) is dead after waking from sleep .. .
 Please discuss experiences & solutions about that particular issue here.

________________________________________________________________________________

.. nough said, here are the links..

 

• .. for the following models with the Conexant "Waikiki" CX20551 HD Audio (Vendor-ID 14F1, Device-ID 5047):

• P100-102 PSPA3E & P-100 PSPADU-033026 BIOS 4.20 (rev. 1.01 - working on my P100-102 PSPA3E-00R00DGR)
  
• P105-S6024 BIOS 4.00 (working on wetspiz' P105-S6014) *
  
• P100-253 PSPA0E (039028FR or ST1071) 4.3 (working on whitehorse' P100-253 PSPA0E) *
  
• P105-S9337 BIOS 4.20
  
• P100-197 PSPA3E BIOS 3.80
  

• .. for the following model with the Conexant "Venice" CX20549 HD Audio (Vendor-ID 14F1, Device-ID 5045):

• P100-126 PSPAGE BIOS 4.20
  

* still errors in device tree AMW0, resulting in the two function keys FN5 and FN6 turning into two unknown devices in XP (all right in Vista because of ACPI 3.0)

 

- your model should match the modded BIOS as close as possible!

- read the readMe inside!

- before applying the BIOS, download the original Toshiba BIOS image sp100v430.zip at the bottom of this posting and burn it to CD!

 

If your model isn't listed or if applying a modded BIOS did not activate sound in OS X:

• look here to see if there is a pre-modded DSDT for your specific Toshiba Laptop (easiest: search the source code of the page). If the model type (e.g. P100-102) is not in the list, find out the exact model number of your Toshi: when it is switched off, flip it around, there is a label underneath, one line should read s.th. like PSPA3E or similar.
  If you have found your corrected DSDT.dsl, attach it to your next posting as a zip, including information about the version of the BIOS which served as the source for the dsdt + your exact Laptop model!
  .
  
• I compiled a small but complete package (14 MB) with ReadMes, screenshots, tools and scripts for Windows which should be self explanatory (sorry, there is no complete workthrough for the X-OSes), so everybody can start extracting, correcting and compiling their dsdt into a BIOS .wph, which then can be applied with the included Phoenix Win or DOS Phlash.
  

Good luck

________________________________________________________________________________

 

PS: at this point there we will no compile of BIOS 4.3 in which Toshiba corrected that Vista would not recognize the battery immediately when the AC Adapter is plugged-in, because on the other hand they broke wakeup-from-sleep in Vista (at least on my P100-102).. go figure which of the two is more important ..

 

________________________________________________________________________________

attached below you find the original untouched BIOS 4.3 from Toshiba as an ISO-Image (to please burn onto a CD before you apply the modded BIOS!)

sp100v430.zip

[sanpedro]

Ok, so I tried that installing the new BIOS and it wouldn't boot into OS X after. It just keeps resetting itself 3-4 seconds into the load. I can still boot to Windows though. When I boot into Windows it says New Hardware Found, and that it needs to install software which it can't find. I tried going back to the old BIOS and I no longer get the hardware issure, but Tiger still won't work. I've tried reinstalling to no avail. Any suggestions?

[BuXb]

After applying the BIOS update you need to enter into the BIOS with F2 a few seconds after you switched on your Toshi, go into the Advanced tab and set "Execute-Disable Bit Capability" to Enabled to turn the famous nx bit back on (it gets switched off from the BIOS update) which Apple's Vanilla kernels and other modded kernels require. Otherwise you will experience a kernel panic right when Mac OS is trying to boot ..

 

Also I experienced that sometimes there is some missing link between the darwin bootloader and the EFI part which has been branded into the Mac OS HFS partition when using the chain0 or tboot method, which also results in a temporary kp (kernel panic). I have always been able to resolve this by choosing the EFI entry in my Grub's menu.lst:

 

title Mac OS x86 EFI (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/boot_v8

From there on (after booting via this method once), booting via tboot --> Darwin --> EFI works fine again (which is a few seconds faster than the path via boot_v8).

 

BTW, there is NO reason at all why NOT to use Grub as a bootloader if you boot more than one OS; Grub (I use Grub4DOS) is beyond just being perfect, it is superb ..

 

Greetz,

Bug

 

EDIT: I will boot my XP later on and see if I can track back the "missing hardware issue" with my P100-102. Make sure you have applied the latest chipset driver for our Toshi from Intel (currrently 9.0.0.1008). For Vista simply choose Vista* in the drop down menu, because some of the entries in the list don't work (same might apply for XP)

[BuXb]

I can still boot to Windows though. When I boot into Windows it says New Hardware Found, and that it needs to install software which it can't find.

[EDIT]: Kabyl just sent me the corrected BIOS, and I can confirm this bug to be resolved and all function keys working again as usual in XP (+ in Vista as it did before already). Well and naturally, sound also still works in both of my installs of Leo and Tiger. The link towards the bottom of the start posting has been changed, it now leads to the new rev. 1.01. So please apply the new version.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Unfortunately I must confirm that in XP (not in Vista though) there are now two unknown devices in the device manager, in Connection View under "Microsoft ACPI Compliant Embedded Controller":

 

 

with the device IDs ACPI\PNP0C32\1 and ACPI\PNP0C32\2.

 

With the original BIOS the "Microsoft ACPI Compliant Embedded Controller" (device ID ACPI\PNP0C09\4&38462492&0) was a single entry without any subentries:

 

 

One entry which is gone in device manager compared with the original BIOS is one of the two "Microsoft Windows Management Interfaces for ACPI", device id PNP0C14\O :censored2: ..

 

PNP0C14\1 is still working, PNP0C14\O has wrongly been split into PNP0C32\1 and PNP0C32\2 in the modded DSDT. PNP0C32 is NOT the "Microsoft Windows Management Interface for ACPI", but the "Direct Application Launch Button", and an XP driver for that is not contained in our distros. PNP0C14\O is responsible for some of the hotkeys, so if you now try e.g. FN+F5 (switch displays) it won't work anymore.

 

In Vista there are drivers for the "Direct Application Launch Button", as you can see here:

 

 

so in Vista both devices ACPI\PNP0C32\1 and ..\2 are each recognized correctly as "Direct Application Launch Button".

 

For Vista Toshiba coded a different app for managing the function keys, called "Value added package". It does its job correctly even after the update with the modded BIOS, with all function keys working properly. This app relies on Vista dlls and does neither install nor work in XP.

 

There is a XP-driver from Toshiba for the "Direct Application Launch Buttons", but it is for another Toshiba Laptop with four programmable application launch buttons, whereas our P100 only have two programmable buttons. Toshiba's hotkey button utility for Vista doesn't mind that and simply ignores the two non-existing buttons.

 

So what obviously happened is that parts of the modded DSDT come from another Toshiba Laptop with four programmable buttons. So all that has to be done is to reestablish the entry for PNP0C14\O in the DSDT, where these two bogus buttons have been added.

 

I have already informed both, Kabyl and Justin, about this. This looks fixable to me, because according to what I understand neither the "Microsoft Windows Management Interfaces for ACPI" nor the "Direct Application Launch Buttons" should have anything to do with the sound-related errors in the DSDT, so I dare to say that this is just due to some unintentional "overmodding" at the wrong place.

[maranbrazil]

bugs, it didn't work for me

 

my laptop model is p105-6004 with conexant 5047 sound card.

 

i've installed the hacked bios with sucess, then i boot in leopard with no sound (jack and speakers), i've tried to remove AppleHDA kext such the instructions but still no sound.

 

any sugestion ?

 

PS: Sorry for the english, i'm from Brazil

[BuXb]

hi maranbrazil

 

please try the new BIOS rev. 1.01 which Kabyl just supplied. If you still have no working sound:

 

1) try the function key combination FN+ESC which will turn sound on and off. Please watch and tell me if that has any effect on the volume icon in the menu bar. Maybe that function key combination will even give you sound?

 

2) look how SCREEM got his going right here ..

 

3) please copy Taruga's HDAEnabler.kext into the Extension folder (see attachment), verify you do NOT have any AlcInject.kext in there, run the command script (also attached - it works in Leo & Tiger), wait till it is finished (couple of minutes), reboot and tell me if you have sound (HDAEnabler has been reported to even enable Azalia sound ..)

 

4) have you tried all 4 supplied Azalia kexts?

 

5) Have you also applied the IOPCIFamily.kext to the XT folder?

 

6) which WLAN card does your P105-6004 have - also the Intel 3945, or an Atheros, e.g. from Gigabyte? Is WLAN working? Do you have Jalouvi's experimental Intel 3945 kext in your XT folder?

The reason I am asking is that I swapped my Intel 3945 with an original Apple Atheros 5006 EXS miniPCIe WLAn card, means I altered s.th. in my Laptop.

(you could try booting with WLAN switched on or off and see if that makes any difference in sound, but that is just a vague chance, but who knows ..)

Repair___set_perms.zip

HDAEnabler.kext.zip

[mentorek]

please try the new BIOS rev. 1.01 which Kabyl just supplied.

 

I've updated. XP is oke now.

 

If you still have no working sound:

 

1) try the function key combination FN+ESC which will turn sound on and off. Please watch and tell me if that has any effect on the volume icon in the menu bar. Maybe that function key combination will even give you sound?

 

Volume icon changes with Fn+Esc combo. Also OSD of OSX is showing up.

 

2) look how SCREEM got his going right here ..

 

Tried with no results.

 

3) please copy Taruga's HDAEnabler.kext into the Extension folder (see attachment), verify you do NOT have any AlcInject.kext in there, run the command script (also attached - it works in Leo & Tiger), wait till it is finished (couple of minutes), reboot and tell me if you have sound (HDAEnabler has been reported to even enable Azalia sound ..)

 

4) have you tried all 4 supplied Azalia kexts?

 

I've tried HDAEnabler.kext. In System Profiler it shows more info. In AudioMIDI Utility I cannot change Master volume. Only Left/Right and 3 mute checkboxes. It happens with all Azalia kexts and with HDAEnabler also.

 

 

5) Have you also applied the IOPCIFamily.kext to the XT folder?

Yes, I did.

 

6) which WLAN card does your P105-6004 have - also the Intel 3945, or an Atheros, e.g. from Gigabyte? Is WLAN working? Do you have Jalouvi's experimental Intel 3945 kext in your XT folder?

The reason I am asking is that I swapped my Intel 3945 with an original Apple Atheros 5006 EXS miniPCIe WLAn card, means I altered s.th. in my Laptop.

(you could try booting with WLAN switched on or off and see if that makes any difference in sound, but that is just a vague chance, but who knows ..)

 

Gigabyte's Atheros 5006. I'll remove it and will see if that would work. BTW. The switch of WiFi does not have any effect under OSX. At least with my machine.

[BuXb]

hoi mentorek,

 

thanks for the update, so you have really done all you could ..

BTW. The switch of WiFi does not have any effect under OSX. At least with my machine.

same thing here, it doesn't matter. One would have to tape that one pin, but I never bothered, that's too fiddely finetuning for me ..

 

So I have informed 11 other Toshiba P10x users about this - hardly anybody reacted, and none of those who tried this got their sound to work - only me ???

 

This is really unbelievable ..

[mentorek]

hoi mentorek,

 

thanks for the update, so you have really done all you could ..

same thing here, it doesn't matter. One would have to tape that one pin, but I never bothered, that's too fiddely finetuning for me ..

 

So I have informed 11 other Toshiba P10x users about this - hardly anybody reacted, and none of those who tried this got their sound to work - only me ???

 

This is really unbelievable ..

 

There is one thing left. Maybe two actually.

1. I will install Vista and will see if the settings persist for sound (after reboot).

2. BugsBunny will send me the codec dump from linux and/or HDAudio.kext and I would compare them both.

 

With linux dump I suggest Ubuntu 8.04 because I have the livecd at home.

To get dump with HDAudio.kext:

 

 # kextload -t -v 6 HDAudio.kext

 

This would probably print a dump to system.log

 

I think this is the only thing that could make the differences visible.

 

Cheers,

mentorek

[maranbrazil]

bugs, no results with any Azalia kext in th package.

 

i've tried to boot with wireless on / off (intel 3945) but no results (jalavoui drivers with no effect)

 

i've tried to install the new version of hacked bios, but still no sound.

 

i've tried to install HDAEnabler kext but still no sound.

 

and my USB ports never worked with Mac os.

 

I think there is no hope to my laptop

[BuXb]

we'll get this going together! So let's move on.

 

What mentorek suggested to do with the HDAudio.kext is a very good idea:

• download HDAudio.kext.zip and unpack HDAudio.kext to the root level of your Mac OS Volumeh
  
• downwload Conexant script.zip, unpack it and run the script (simply double click the Conexant script command file)
  

After this you should have a folder "Conexant" on the root of your Mac OS Volume with three files in it: S.txt, DT.txt, and system.log.

Please zip the directory Conexant and attach the Conexant.zip to a new posting here (I have already done so).

 

I will start working again tomorrow, and there is lots of new stuff I need to learn and get along with, so I might not get to supply the Linux dump before late tomorrow nite or even the day after tomorrow. But please already provide your information in the meantime, 'cause Kabyl would not be able to proceed without the dumps anyway . . .

 

mentorek, did takinig your WiFi out or installing and booting into Vista change anything? I experienced myself that a new OS can revive things in the BIOS or on the MoBo or who knows exactly where ..

 

Cheers,

Bugs

 

EDIT: here is my lspci-output (from pcwiz' OS x86 tool):

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub [8086:27a0] (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express PCI Express Root Port [8086:27a1] (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller [8086:27d8] (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 [8086:27d0] (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 [8086:27d2] (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 [8086:27d4] (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:27c8] (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:27c9] (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:27ca] (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:27cb] (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:27cc] (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:27b9] (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller [8086:27c4] (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller [8086:27da] (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation G70 [GeForce Go 7600] [10de:0398] (rev a1)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5006EG 802.11 b/g Wireless PCI Express Adapter [168c:001c] (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82573L Gigabit Ethernet Controller [8086:109a]
0a:04.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller [104c:8039]
0a:04.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller [104c:803a]
0a:04.2 Mass storage controller [0180]: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD) [104c:803b]
0a:04.3 SD Host controller [0805]: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller [104c:803c]

 

PS: for those with USB-probs, please look here ..

Conexant.zip

Conexant_script.zip

[geiman]

thought I'd post my findings, though they aren't very helpful. I've been tinkering all day now, trying various things discussed here and nothing so far has worked. I can get my audio recognized, and it seems as though it should work but no matter what nothing comes out of speakers or jack. Besides audio and my USB not working, which is very agitating, my laptop works perfectly. By the way, my laptop is model p105-s6064.

[geiman]

quick update: I can't get sound to work in linux either, which tells me I have no chance in OS X. Hopefully we can get this working, let me know if there is anything else I can try, I will test whatever you guys develop.

[BuXb]

@ geiman, maranbrazil & sanpedro: would you please do this here? This is the only path to follow right now

[geiman]

Bugs, I did as you said, but I do not end up with three files in the conexant folder, only the system.log shows up.

[mentorek]

...

PS: IOUSBFamily.kext for Leo 10.5.2/3/4 (recompiled by ARMAGEDDON) ..

 

Below are my ioreg dump and system.log part (after loading HDAudio.kext with options I've provided). This looks like codec dump from linux so we could compare working and not working chipsets to see the diff's if any.

I'll try to install Vista in a moment. I hope I'll be able to install any kind of Bootmanager afterwards to use both Vista and OSX.

 

What I find strange is that in my IOPCIFamily dump file there are other values than in Bugs' S.txt file. Maybe not even worth to mention but still some difference.

I'll get back to you later.

 

BTW. What is this IOUSBFamily.kext suppose to provide?

 

Cheers,

mentorek

HDAudio_dump.txt

IOPCIFamily_output.txt

ioreg_dump.txt

[geiman]

here is my dump, however it only has the system.log, not the other two, they would never show up for some reason.

 

Also, I called Toshiba to see if they even knew about this problem, and the lady talked to her supervisor who said they only support windows os's, of course, but they are working on the problem and will let me know when it is fixed. Whether that is true or not I'm not sure, but it was worth a shot.

 

Anyways, here is my upload.

conexant.zip

[maranbrazil]

here is my dump.

 

Anyone here is using kalyway 10.5.2 Dvd version ?

 

I've installed this version, but it don't boot, after the installer is completed, my system can't find any OS and boot up from DVD, and the Mac os boot up (from my hd ).

if i set the windows partition to active, i can't boot in mac os x (i've tried to use chain0 tutorial, but with no results).

when i installed tiger, i boot with darwin, but now it doesn't work.

i've tried to install Chameleon, but when boots it says "boot0 error"

 

any idea ?

 

PS: My USB ports are working now (disable the USB keyboard and mouse emulation)

 

PS: Sorry for my BAD english, i'm from Brazil

 

Conexant.zip

[geiman]

I had the same problem with the Kalyway 10.5.2 dvd, I was able to boot by pressing F12 to enter multi-boot menu, selecting to boot from cd (with kalyway dvd in drive!), and then letting it count down and boot from the hard drive on its own. This allowed me to boot into leopard perfectly. I actually found this out by accident! Hope this helps!

[maranbrazil]

geiman, but you can boot up in windows normally ? or just boot in mac osx ?

[geiman]

Oh sorry, didn't realized you needed that too. Every other os x dvd I've tried installs the boot loader correctly, and it also recognizes windows and adds it to the boot loader. However, if you still want to use that same disc, I've had luck with either osl2000 boot manager, or Grub. Grub is probably the easiest since its free, but if you can find a copy of osl2000, it works good too. I'm pretty sure you can install the OS X boot loader also, and then add windows manually, but I can't think of how you do it off the top of my head.

[maranbrazil]

geiman, i will download the leo4all v3 iso.

 

thks for help

[geiman]

the iAtkos discs are also pretty good, in my opinion. I am using iAtkos r3, and after install, I do not need to install anything extra to get any part of my laptop working, minus wifi and of course sound. And it seems to be the fastest one I've tried yet, and I have tried many.

[geiman]

I just have a quick question for bugs, or whoever has any insight as to the exact problem with our bios's; Why exactly is it that windows can activate whatever is needed to have sound, but Linux/OS X cannot?

[mentorek]

I just have a quick question for bugs, or whoever has any insight as to the exact problem with our bios's; Why exactly is it that windows can activate whatever is needed to have sound, but Linux/OS X cannot?

 

Toshiba Satellite P100 series has a buggy DSDT in BIOS. This table holds all the information about the hardware, how and when to initialize it. What information has to be provided for certain OS's and how it should be provided.

In Linux there is a patch for the kernel that allows you to load corrected DSDT when starting up the system or "say" to BIOS that the system is not Linux (or something like that). The latter is widely used now.