This is just so frustrating and I have no clue on how to solve it

What are the specs of the rest of the system?

What OS and what updates have you installed?

Do you have the chipset drivers installed?

Do you have the latest BIOS for the motherboard?

The original install CD should be available on vogonsdrivers.com

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-04-14, 01:44:

What are the specs of the rest of the system? […]
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What are the specs of the rest of the system?

What OS and what updates have you installed?

Do you have the chipset drivers installed?

Do you have the latest BIOS for the motherboard?

The original install CD should be available on vogonsdrivers.com

Specs are in this thread: Just built a Pentium 2 system in 2021

OS is Windows 98SE

Yes, i have the chipset drivers

No, I do not have the latest BIOS

And I just got done testing the card in another PC, a Pentium 4 and the system froze completely on xp installing the included drivers. So maybe there is something wrong with the card?

Yeah, probably something wrong with that card.

Look at it under a magnifying glass and make sure no chips have pins bent and touching each other.

Might also want to try cleaning the edge connector with a pencil eraser to remove the oxidation... Or deoxit if you have that.

The only thing out of the ordinary I see is what looks like a tumor growing out of the silvery looking part on the card. one of the capacitors was bent but bending it back up straight didn't fix the issue.

retrogamerguy1997 wrote on 2021-04-14, 12:08:

The only thing out of the ordinary I see is what looks like a tumor growing out of the silvery looking part on the card. one of the capacitors was bent but bending it back up straight didn't fix the issue.

That "silvery part" is the crystal oscillator and the "tumour" is just a solder blob that I assume is grounding the case.

That capacitor that was bent could still be fine, though it might also just be dry and not doing anything anymore.
Worst case it was shorted and just caused the computer not to boot, though a slight current spike might have burnt out the short, causing the computer to boot the next time.

Just some possibilities 😀

weedeewee wrote on 2021-04-14, 13:57:

That capacitor that was bent could still be fine, though it might also just be dry and not doing anything anymore.
Worst case it was shorted and just caused the computer not to boot, though a slight current spike might have burnt out the short, causing the computer to boot the next time.

Just some possibilities 😀

I don't know anything about circuitry and electric stuff. It never stopped the computer from booting, just that it hangs when windows is installing the drivers. no matter which drivers I use or even switching computers.

I just really need to know if the card is dead or not, and if so what are my options

have you tried a linux live dist ? in multiple computers ?
If that hangs on the soundcard... well... I'ld guess it's broken.

weedeewee wrote on 2021-04-15, 11:12:

have you tried a linux live dist ? in multiple computers ?
If that hangs on the soundcard... well... I'ld guess it's broken.

I don't know what linux distro would support the card and work on a pentium 2?

okay i tested the card in the pentium 2 with a ubuntu 8.04 cd and hung on the boot splash and cd drive activity stopped.

at this point I'm wondering if maybe the eeprom on the card is broken, has bad data, or the card is just borked.

if that's the case, then I might as well start looking for other cards on ebay. There's a listing for the AOPEN AW744L II but I don't know what the "no GSP" in the title means. It's a tiny bit more than I want to spend on a sound card, but philscomputerlab says it's a good card. then again, it depends on the motherboard chipset (my motherboard has the 440BX).

Well there is this site https://www.ixbt.com/multimedia/live-to-live51.shtml in russian and this one https://damsbo.com/Soundblaster/sbmod.htm
You might give it a crack.

I think you can't make it any worse 😀

weedeewee wrote on 2021-04-15, 12:04:

Well there is this site https://www.ixbt.com/multimedia/live-to-live51.shtml in russian and this one https://damsbo.com/Soundblaster/sbmod.htm
You might give it a crack.

I think you can't make it any worse 😀

I don't know anything about soldering nor do i have the equipment.

There is mention of using a wpcrset program... which means no (un)soldering required. Though it seems as if it wasn't tested. YMMV.
good luck.

https://www.damsbo.com/Soundblaster/wpcrs120.zip

edit: meh nevermind

retrogamerguy1997 wrote on 2021-04-15, 11:54:

if that's the case, then I might as well start looking for other cards on ebay. There's a listing for the AOPEN AW744L II but I don't know what the "no GSP" in the title means. It's a tiny bit more than I want to spend on a sound card, but philscomputerlab says it's a good card. then again, it depends on the motherboard chipset (my motherboard has the 440BX).

I bought one of these from the same seller, and it's very much worth it. There are drivers to try with different chipsets if you have issues with the main ones:

https://www.philscomputerlab.com/yamaha-ymf74 … sound-card.html

The "no GSP" just means that listing doesn't use ebay's Global Shipping Program. He usually offers listings with an alternate shipping option for those who prefer it, but he only has the one listing up currently.

Okay, just ordered the card and now it's a matter of waiting.