Hello all, I've got a SB16 CT1750 ISA card that im using in a Win98SE machine (Dell XPS T500) with some odd audio symptoms that have appeared in the last couple of days. Volume is suddenly very quiet and distorted, but primarily on wave/CD audio only. FM seems largely unaffected, which I find odd because as far as I know, the caps on these cards that usually go first are in the amplifier section and thus will affect all outputs in the mixer equally. Perhaps there are caps just after the DSP that can go bad? There might have been some shenanigans with drivers, because I recently installed the mobo's onboard audio (Yamaha DX-XG) so I could also use that for 3D audio, and because I didnt immediately go back to the SB16 I'm not sure if the distortion issue started with that driver being installed or if it failed some time after. I've gone to great lengths to reinstall drivers, try different ones, disable things, etc but nothing seems to work. Here's a list of what I've already tried/checked:

- Jumpers for the amplifier are set properly (amp on). Line output mode into a external amplifier (properly impedance matched) is similarly quiet and distorted.
- Volume wheel seems to be functioning properly and as expected
- Resources are properly assigned in Windows. No conflicts. I've tried moving base/irq/dma on jumper settings and setting Windows accordingly but nada
- Disabled Yamaha driver + uninstalled + moved to whacky addresses
- Tried using DOS drivers in DOS mode. Same results. SETMIXER can be used to bump output gain up to 4x which makes the audio louder but clips and distorts extra hard.
- Cleaned and added deoxit to the ISA/3.5mm connections and volume pot. Card itself is very clean and I doubt its a connection issue of any kind.

PC specs: P3 500mhz, 128mb ram, Intel 440BX AGPset, Win98SE w latest unofficial SP3 and latest KernelEx dlls

Unfortunately I do not have a working alternative PC at the moment to try the card in. A close look at the card reveals very little (to me anyway), I can't see any leaking stuff or bulging components and everything is very clean, I know the card is from a low mileage pc and its been working perfectly for weeks on end... I've attached pics in case anyone else can spot something. Its just strange to me that FM output seems completely unaffected. I hope it doesn't mean my DSP is dead or something! I hope some of the wise wizards on here can provide some insight into this issue because I'm stumped. Caps do seem the most likely to me, but I don't want to replace them all immediately if its just some goofy software issue.

This is my first post on Vogons, so my apologies if I didn't include any expected info. Thanks everyone!