Sound card compatibility question

[Phil]

I have a T420 ThinkPad that displays the following message;

"requested input audio format is not supported on device"

Since my Raspberry pi does support the CODEC in question, I think the 
error message means that the T420 sound hardware is not up to the task. 
Is this correct or does it mean that the device connected to the laptop 
is not supported?

-- 

Regards,
Phil