I happen to have the exact same card (almost the same box even).

I just tested it with an MT-32 and can confirm that MPU-401 output on the joystick port does work.

One difference is I am using UNISOUND in DOS rather than the Yamaha drivers. I've included a snapshot of my AUTOEXEC.BAT settings below.

Thanks for testing that out Shponglefan, that’s super helpful, and good to see an example of this card behaving as it should. I’ve just now tested the card with UNISOUND and I think this confirms my suspicions - exact same behaviour as with the Yamaha drivers, so probably a hardware defect/fault with my card (unless I’m overlooking something else). I also just now tested with Tiido's SETYMF utility and got the same result. Unfortunate, but good to know I’m not going crazy. Back to the drawing board I guess.

There's a 470 ohm resistor in-line with the MIDI TX signal from the chip, it may be broken. The signal comes from pin 50 of the YMF71x chip, nicely in the opposite corner from teh pin1 dot so easy to access and measure against, assuming you have a multimeter etc.

In worst case that signal is actually damaged from past and in that case only chip replacement will help...

Ah, that’s great, thanks Tiido! I’ve found the pin (which looks ok) and the resistor (which also looks ok) so I will test that when I get my hands on a multimeter.

Martli wrote on 2024-02-03, 10:04:

I bought this Axra "Yamaha 3d sound" card which uses the Yamaha YMF719E-S chip. The card is in immaculate condition and came with the box and everything (see pictures attached). The driver CD comes packed with a Premiere "something about you" music video and the card apparently has an 'I-phone' connector 10 years before the iPhone even came out, talk about future proofing... anyway I digress.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_iPhone

So, I had a problem like yours with a similar Yamaha card. It turns out that I had a small amount of water damage that ruined a via on the board so that the midi signal wasn't reaching from the main chip on the card to the resistor that Tiido mentioned. I added a bodge wire from the midi tx pin on the chip directly to the resistor and now it works again. I have no idea if you'll find the same problem on your card, but it's at least something else to check. Here's a pic of my very ugly bodge fix. 😀

As you can see, the midi tx pin on the main chip is thankfully right on the edge at pin 50, so it's easy to find and work with. When you get a multimeter, make sure to also check for continuity between pin 50 and that resistor.

Something else to consider as well... in my experience it seems like the most common chip pins that will come loose from a board are the ones on the edges, so even before you get your hands on a multimeter you might just want to see if that pin is loose. Be very gentle and just give it a light poke with something small and see if it moves.

Anyway, good luck.

danieljm wrote on 2024-02-06, 02:42:

So, I had a problem like yours with a similar Yamaha card. It turns out that I had a small amount of water damage that ruined a […]
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So, I had a problem like yours with a similar Yamaha card. It turns out that I had a small amount of water damage that ruined a via on the board so that the midi signal wasn't reaching from the main chip on the card to the resistor that Tiido mentioned. I added a bodge wire from the midi tx pin on the chip directly to the resistor and now it works again. I have no idea if you'll find the same problem on your card, but it's at least something else to check. Here's a pic of my very ugly bodge fix. 😀

YMF bodge.jpeg

As you can see, the midi tx pin on the main chip is thankfully right on the edge at pin 50, so it's easy to find and work with. When you get a multimeter, make sure to also check for continuity between pin 50 and that resistor.

Something else to consider as well... in my experience it seems like the most common chip pins that will come loose from a board are the ones on the edges, so even before you get your hands on a multimeter you might just want to see if that pin is loose. Be very gentle and just give it a light poke with something small and see if it moves.

Anyway, good luck.

No way! Thanks for sharing that, it’s nice to know I’m not alone. This looks totally doable, even for someone like me who can’t solder (assuming I’ve got the same issue of course). I’ll report back once I have a crack at it.

If it turns out you need to do soldering, I think I should caution you about doing it on a chip with very fine pins like that. If you don't have any experience it can be very easy to make a mess of it and you might not be able to recover. I would really recommend doing some practice first. If you've got anything else that is broken and can be sacrificed, just try to get a feel of what it'll be like. And remember that flux is your friend. 😀

Not jus a friend but absolute necessity, without flux you do soldering in hard/masochist mode 🤣

Absolutely, plan is to get a motherboard or two from my local recycler

Good stuff. I'll definitely be curious to know what you find out when you get that multimeter. Keep us in the loop!