By my knowledge, thats probably a capacitor fault. They can be replaced fairly easily, but you will need some practice first if not skilled.

SB16s are common and cheap so when you do not have the equipment / skills to fix it I would recommend buying a replacement.

Well. It is like one og those things that I would really like to able to fix my self.
If it can be done. Then I would like to do it.
Easy to buy a replacement yes. Nothing like having one I fixed my self.
If you follow my way of thinking. 😉

Well if I were you, rather than starting to swap out components at random, I would start tracing what is causing the noise, for example with an oscilloscope.

Sometimes the fault is obvious and could be seen as bad solder joint under a microscope.

Is the noise correlated with heat or does it reappear once you reboot? If it's heat-related, get a can of freeze spray and start spraying all components, one by one. Should be easy to find the culprit 😉

The left-right channel imbalance may be caused by the same thing. If it's not, you'll need an oscilloscope to trace the signals from line-out -> DAC -> DSP. For audio-spectrum signals, Visual Analyzer is a very good software scope.

Thanks for all replies. Yet that good at electronica i am not.
Think i will try one more shot at it, by testing line out.
If the sound is clear, then it must be the amplifier right?
Then it is just a matter of replacing caps as i understand it.
If so, I will hunt down schematics for the amplifier om the card.
Yes. Its getting really hot. Especially around the Jacks and caps behind them.

Does it have any tantlum capacitors?
They are know to short circuit

smeezekitty wrote:

Does it have any tantlum capacitors?
They are know to short circuit

Nope. 😀
Yet, I have tested it one last time, and the cap's around the amplifier chip (as far as I understand the way the card is constructed), are getting really hot.
The chip is called eighter TEA2025b or TEA20258 (damn low light). And some post's on various forums are talking about Creative cutting short on the use of the right capasitors. Correct me if I am wrong about the amp-chip.
Acording to sources and jumpersetting manual regarding my card, there is no way to turn of the amplifier. Some SB16Value have this option though.
What I got out of this "last" test, are that line-out delivers a really clean and good sound. No distortion and other wierd sounds.
So.... Eighter it's the voltage regulator, that are giving up by this point, or it is the caps' that are giving up.

What I need now, is some info on wich caps that are related to the amplifier chip. Something wich I have not been able to find anywere.

EDIT:
Picture of what I believe to be the amp' circuit, without knowing for shure.

TEA2025B is definitely an amp chip
Is it the capacitors or the chip itself getting hot?
Keep in mind the voltage regulators up top will get quite warm

The capacitors must be replaced on these old soundblasters before putting them to use. They are 20+ years old, and Creative always used poor quality capacitors to begin with. They also used the wrong values on the cards. There's a thread over at BadCaps with a list of which caps need to be replaced with different values.

Looks like the legs on the amplifier chip have corroded, most likely due to leakage from the bad electrolytic capacitors nearby. Definitely remove both the chip and the capacitors, clean the area very thoroughly (otherwise the electrolyte will continue to eat through the card and ruin it completely) and install fresh capacitors. You might even need a new amplifier chip in case the leads on the old one fall apart when disturbed.

Try cleaning it first with IPA alcohol.
And replace the leaky caps.
Find bad caps with a can of freeze to cool them down and see when the noise is worse.
Replacing the card makes no sense those caps are just as old.

133MHz wrote:

Looks like the legs on the amplifier chip have corroded, most likely due to leakage from the bad electrolytic capacitors nearby. Definitely remove both the chip and the capacitors, clean the area very thoroughly (otherwise the electrolyte will continue to eat through the card and ruin it completely) and install fresh capacitors. You might even need a new amplifier chip in case the leads on the old one fall apart when disturbed.

Looking at the chip under light, the legs does not look corroded. Guess it is my phone's camera, wich are to blame for it. 🤣

JaNoZ wrote:

Try cleaning it first with IPA alcohol. And replace the leaky caps. Find bad caps with a can of freeze to cool them down and see […]
Show full quote

Try cleaning it first with IPA alcohol.
And replace the leaky caps.
Find bad caps with a can of freeze to cool them down and see when the noise is worse.
Replacing the card makes no sense those caps are just as old.

Hmm... Have an old tv, that works. Just old and too heavy (widescreen tube). The caps inside it are good, as the tv is working 100%
This will be my source to getting things as cheap as possible. The tv can't possible have all the cap's I need. That's ok enough.

Gave this project up. I am not that good at soldering as it is right now. This project have to be solved when I am better at it.
(I managed to replace 8 out of 13 caps though)

Anyway.
I think that it is the whole amplifier circuit wich are dead. The amplifier chip it self, are getting reallly hot.
And because the chip is painfully hot to touch, just 30 seconds after it gets power, then it must be really bad.

brostenen wrote:

I think that it is the whole amplifier circuit wich are dead. The amplifier chip it self, are getting reallly hot.
And because the chip is painfully hot to touch, just 30 seconds after it gets power, then it must be really bad.

Either that or it is something else. It might just get hot because it is amplifying high frequency noise which comes from someplace else.
(I recall recommending not to start changing the caps unless you are sure it is the reason for noise).

Was there noise also on the line out connector or only on the amplified out connector?

If the amp chip is broken, feel free to remove it, the line output should still be operational. I'd have to double check this though, but my cards are packed away right now.

Only noise on the amplifier output as I wrote at some point. 😉
Lineout is clean.

My CT2230 had the same issue... it was nobody's fault but mine... I hooked up something sketchy to the line-in and fried the amp... it got pretty hot because there's a noticable brown ring on the PCB... the card still works but the amp went from noisy to ridiculous 🤣

TheMAN wrote:

My CT2230 had the same issue... it was nobody's fault but mine... I hooked up something sketchy to the line-in and fried the amp... it got pretty hot because there's a noticable brown ring on the PCB... the card still works but the amp went from noisy to ridiculous 🤣

Thanks. 😀
I could be the amplifier-chip it self, as this is one of the components that rapidly gets hot.
I am not quite shure on wich component that are getting hot first, or if it is one or more components that are heating the rest up.
Though it is for shure, that the amplifierchip is getting so hot, that I might be able to fry some egg's on it.
Just a matter of minutes before it hurts on the finger, when I place it on top of the chip.
Hmmmm.... Might take the card down from the wall, and give it a shot of returning it to a working state in stead of a decoration.