[lord_lucifer]

At work we have a IBM ThinkCentre(StinkCentre) Model 8215D1U
We installed our Corporate Win 2000 and SP4
I updated the bios and got the lastest drivers from IBM.com

When I play a CD the playback sound is terrible. There's distortion, cracks and pops. Terrible sound.
I check to ensure that "Enable digital audio CD for this CD-ROM Device" is checked.
I look for the old fashion audio cable from CD-ROM to sound card doesn't exist.
I put in another sound card disable the mobo sound card and the playback sound is still as bad.
I take the audio cable from the CD-ROM and plug into the new sound card and disable digital audio
Sound comes out crystal clear.

So I know it's not the CD-ROM and I know it's not the sound card.
What is it?

IBM tells me to put the original Software back onto the machine. Not possible since we use a standard platform. Also not possible because IBM didn't bother giving us a recovery CD. The recovery portion was on the HD which was blown away when we installed our own windows.

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did you try turning down hardware acceleration and sample rate conversion under Advanced Audio properties in the SOUND and AUDIO control panel applet, Sound playback > advanced properties?

[gerryf]

did you try turning down hardware acceleration and sample rate conversion under Advanced Audio properties in the SOUND and AUDIO control panel applet, Sound playback > advanced properties?

[lord_lucifer]

I've discovered the problem.
In device manager the secondary IDE Channel (where the CD-ROM is plugged into)
Under Advanced Settings I ensured that Transfer Mode was set to DMA if available.
It was originally set to PIO Only.

Once I made that change the sound came out crystal clear.

Thanks for you help.