Was the amplifier chip on the card bypassed using twin jumper switches?

there is whole set of jumpers on this board, however i don't have any manual for it. So using trial and error method i noticed there are jumpers for setting base address of the card (which can't be manipulated using ESSCFG) and what would be amplifier i guess, howeber it doesn't completely cure the noise problem and i suspect it has something to do with the volume knob. When i try to turn volume up and down i hear alot of loud cracks, sometimes left/right headphone mutes, sometimes it gets very clear but also very silent.

For now i'm trying the YMF719 card, at least the SBPRO portion of it seems to be no problem for me so far, sound is great (with the 3D effects disabled). Im confused with the WSS portion however, im not sure if i get this right. I've set SBPRO at A220, I5, D1 and WSS at A530 I7 D0. Some games need the SBPRO and WSS to be at the same IRQ (BC Racers for example) otherwise, selecting Microsoft Sound System hangs the setup program, some games on the other hand like F22 Lightning 2 need this irq to be different, it detects Windows Sound System, but sound effects are muted, setting it to I5 and I7 respectively restores sound 😀

heretic wrote:

howeber it doesn't completely cure the noise problem and i suspect it has something to do with the volume knob.

Turn the knob very fast between the two extremes a couple of times (10 - 20), this will remove dust and oxidation from the mechanical part. Sound should be crackle-free then. If it is, you may want to replace the knob with a new one.

Sounds like the potentiometer on your card has oxidized; I hate those things on sound cards. They may have served some purpose back in the DOS days when mixer settings were not so easy to change but today they are a huge liability.

If you'd like to stick with a ESS card, I'd recommend a Terratec 16/96 Gold (ESS AudioDrive ES1868F).
It's low-noise and the PNP-config in DOS is one line in the autoexec.bat for initialization