Take a multimeter and check continuity between pin 20 and 24 to empty SMD pads where a resistor might be soldered in. If you find continuity, try bridging that empty connection, it could be a path for the audio.

thank you but unfortunately, I am not that technically skilled to do that 🙁

would this mean though that the card doesnt work with all wavetable cards ? SB16 I have works with it perfectly.

The system clearly sees something on port 330 as when I select different port in say setup.exe for duke it tells me no mpu401 found.

Omarkoman wrote on 2023-08-31, 01:47:

would this mean though that the card doesnt work with all wavetable cards ? SB16 I have works with it perfectly.

The system clearly sees something on port 330 as when I select different port in say setup.exe for duke it tells me no mpu401 found.

Yes, if the physical audio channels are severed because there's nothing bridging the pads in their path, you won't get audio, even if it might be detected. It would be unusual in your case because the card came populated with a wavetable header, but it's something that needs to be ruled out. Next I would check for an electrolytic capacitor as the issue.

See this post here, for example.

hm ok that looks complex. is it possible the S2 card needs to be installed the other way around? is there possibility of damaging it ? Sounds too simple solution and wouldnt make sense for it to stick up vs down but ... thought I'll ask.

Omarkoman wrote on 2023-08-31, 04:45:

hm ok that looks complex. is it possible the S2 card needs to be installed the other way around? is there possibility of damaging it ? Sounds too simple solution and wouldnt make sense for it to stick up vs down but ... thought I'll ask.

That is risky and inadvisable. The way to check the proper orientation is to do a continuity test on the soundcard between the two rows of wavetable header pins and a ground point (the card bracket, for example -- one row of the wavetable header is all ground pins). To be certain, you do the same thing with the actual wavetable board and then you connect it ground row to ground row and signals row to signals row.

why would the company put a wavetable header if its not compatible ? the layout should be same on all cards.

has anyone with this chip card actually managed to get a wavetable header working ? is there some common problem ? or is it just this card?

Omarkoman wrote on 2023-08-31, 06:26:

has anyone with this chip card actually managed to get a wavetable header working ? is there some common problem ? or is it just this card?

There's no problems with that chipset and wavetable headers, it's generally well regarded. That card looks to be a super cheap implementation of it though, so I suspect that either you have some sort of resource conflict, or the card is faulty.

Have you tried giving it all a good clean? I.e. the pins in the wavetable header and the ISA contacts

The card is in super clean condition so cant be contact. I tried to reseat the s2 few times.

Card works perfectly with fm and digital, no noise like sb16 had so I like it and want to use it.

I might just find another iteration of the same chipset. Or just put awe64 in… really wanted this though.

If there was resource conflict the game software would give errors i assume.

Note that ESS only made the main chip, the actual cards were manufactured by a bunch of different companies. Not all of them are of the same quality. Some are heavily integrated and have cut down certain features as a cost saving measure.

If you're looking for a high quality ESS card, Terratec produced some of the best ones back in the day.

fair enough, just surprised why would they put the header there if it doesnt work ...

II don't mean to hijack the thread but u just bought a wavetable card (ewave) and I think I may have inadvertently blown it up so be very careful. I have emailed the guy who makes them so hopefully he can repair it. So don't make the same mistake I did. I hope you sort out your problem.
First pic is the way it should be around. But too late now 🙁

Oh wow… how am i supposed to know which way it should go?

look at the card and see if there is silkscreen numbers indicating pin 1. on the picture above i lcearly see the numbered pins 25 and 26 so pin 1 is obviously the opposite side of that. Its hard to mess up. looking at the specific card I can clearly see the number 1 on one side of the connector. So 1 pin goes in 1 hole.

Yeah I thought the way I installed it first was the logical orientation. Hence magic smoke. Bad times.

ok guys, I checked the sound card, no markings at all that would specify which pin is 1 or what ... there is no burning marks on the S2 so I am hoping its ok.

I think its just the card, perhaps a cheap design that works only with some wavetable daughterboards. Also note, when I turn up the AuxB volume to 10, I get LOT of static noise, even if it would work, it would not be usable as its extremely annoying.

I have ordered another card (exactly same one that Phil had in his YT video) so lets hope that one works perfectly.

You shouldn't have too much trouble finding a card that works.
I have three different 1868f cards and they all work with the
serdaco wavetable boards that I have.

warmachine wrote on 2023-09-01, 01:15:

I have three different 1868f cards and they all work with the
serdaco wavetable boards that I have.

Just to check, when the serdaco card is installed on the soundcard, they are always in pointing down direction ?