A photo would be nice...

Anyway, there's many possible problems, for example:
- some cards have jumpers to switch between LINE OUT and SPEAKER OUT (amplified) - if the jumper isn't installed at all, there's no output at all
- the amplifier chip may be dead - in this case you may still hear something in the noise that's heard when the volume is pumped to the max
- sometimes the software from ESS fails to work, but UNISOUND does work

OK, can see it now - it's a BTC.

The two jumpers near the output jack (JP4) obviously toggle LINE OUT / SPEAKER OUT - have you tried moving them to the other position?

JP3 must be the connector for MUTE, VOLUME UP, VOLUME DOWN buttons - if there's some short on the card, it may act as if the MUTE button is permanently pushed.

Interesting. In my experience those ess cards are bulletproof, and 9 out of 10 times work right out of the box with whatever windows drivers they get. Even with wrong drivers. Even more interesting that you say that it is detected.

Have you tried all 3 ports? I have seen cards with mislabeled ports before (the tin piece could possibly be from a different card and the markings may not correspond)

Yes, I have tried all ports, see my initial post 🙃

More stuff I tried:
- BTC specific drivers from https://www.helpdrivers.com/sound/BTC/185x/ (turned out to be exactly the same and don't do anything special)
- vol up/down/mute jumpers
- line out/spkr out switch jumpers
- try random base addresses and IRQ/DMA combinations

Still nothing... Also dead silent when volume of the box is turned to the max.
Should I admit that it's broken?

jefklak wrote on 2025-03-31, 19:17:

Any other tips or stupid oversights on my account?

It is very, very probable that this card requires -5V, do you use a newer PSU not providing it?
If you post a photo of the back side too, we'll tell you for sure.

konc wrote on 2025-04-02, 12:37:

jefklak wrote on 2025-03-31, 19:17:

Any other tips or stupid oversights on my account?

It is very, very probable that this card requires -5V, do you use a newer PSU not providing it?
If you post a photo of the back side too, we'll tell you for sure.

It doesn't, only the very early sound blasters required -5v and some of the early clones.

I have several ESS 1868F cards and none of them need -5v its too modern for that.

Unisound works flawless with these cards .. if it doesnt it makes me think there is something wrong with the card or its hardware settings ...could be a wrong jumper or even a missing one.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-04-02, 12:44:

konc wrote on 2025-04-02, 12:37:

jefklak wrote on 2025-03-31, 19:17:

Any other tips or stupid oversights on my account?

It is very, very probable that this card requires -5V, do you use a newer PSU not providing it?
If you post a photo of the back side too, we'll tell you for sure.

It doesn't, only the very early sound blasters required -5v and some of the early clones.

I have several ESS 1868F cards and none of them need -5v its too modern for that.

No I insist, some do and I own one very similar to this that does. Anyway a photo of the back will solve it.
(Although mine wasn't completely silent but outputs really low volume, almost inaudible.)

konc wrote on 2025-04-02, 12:46:

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-04-02, 12:44:

konc wrote on 2025-04-02, 12:37:

It is very, very probable that this card requires -5V, do you use a newer PSU not providing it?
If you post a photo of the back side too, we'll tell you for sure.

It doesn't, only the very early sound blasters required -5v and some of the early clones.

I have several ESS 1868F cards and none of them need -5v its too modern for that.

No I insist, some do and I own one very similar to this that does. Anyway a photo of the back will solve this.

Thats not proof at all, mine have the -5v pin populated but it goes nowhere and does nothing since its not hooked up via any traces.

konc wrote on 2025-04-02, 12:46:

No I insist, some do and I own one very similar to this that does. Anyway a photo of the back will solve it.
(Although mine wasn't completely silent but outputs really low volume, almost inaudible.)

I have never seen an ESS card that requires -5V, and I've tested more than a hundred in the past years.
I am very interested to see high-res photos with the card you claim requires -5V.

bloodem wrote on 2025-04-02, 13:05:

konc wrote on 2025-04-02, 12:46:

No I insist, some do and I own one very similar to this that does. Anyway a photo of the back will solve it.
(Although mine wasn't completely silent but outputs really low volume, almost inaudible.)

I have never seen an ESS card that requires -5V, and I've tested more than a hundred in the past years.
I am very interested to see high-res photos with the card you claim requires -5V.

That's the card I own and have tested myself (now that I see it again I admit it's not that similar to the OP's, but still an ES1868F)

There is another thread about the same card here which confirms it need -5V.
If this is not enough, first post contains a link to a photo of the back side which shows pin #5 connected:

I'm not rushing any conclusions since OP hasn't replied yet and we don't know what his card looks like on the back side or what PSU he's using. Only that, based on his response, this can be a possibility since such a card does exist.

I'd say the TEA2025 might be bad. I had to remove mine entirely and jumper the pads to use the internal amplifier from the chip, although mine was a cheap card that had no jumpers to switch between speaker and line mode.

PcBytes wrote on 2025-04-02, 15:09:

I'd say the TEA2025 might be bad. I had to remove mine entirely and jumper the pads to use the internal amplifier from the chip, although mine was a cheap card that had no jumpers to switch between speaker and line mode.

I find that unlikely since there should definitely be output at least in one of the jumper positions.

However you never know, I've seen some really questionable things in the output sections of some of these cards, the worst of which was use of an output jack that shorted both signal pins to ground when disconnected, I'm sure the amplifier just loved a short circuit load.

If it was my card I would confirm the - voltage as mentioned. If that was ok I'd probably start poking around the output amplifier and see if there is any signal on it's input (an old headphone works well enough), as there should be signal there disregarding if the jumpers are set to speaker/line out.

I suppose it would also be possible that if the card was set to line out and got a voltage spike through that port that whatever op amp (if any) is between the ess and the TEA could have gotten damaged (or the ess's output itself), another reason to test for signal before the TEA

konc wrote on 2025-04-02, 14:28:

That's the card I own and have tested myself (now that I see it again I admit it's not that similar to the OP's […]
Show full quote

That's the card I own and have tested myself (now that I see it again I admit it's not that similar to the OP's

There is another thread about the same card here which confirms it need -5V.
If this is not enough, first post contains a link to a photo of the back side which shows pin #5 connected:

I'm not rushing any conclusions since OP hasn't replied yet and we don't know what his card looks like on the back side or what PSU he's using. Only that, based on his response, this can be a possibility since such a card does exist.

Thank you, I stand corrected. I’ve never had/tested such a card myself, quite interesting!

I also have the same card konc has, and can confirm the -5v is connected

Grzyb wrote on 2025-03-31, 19:37:

Anyway, there's many possible problems, for example: - some cards have jumpers to switch between LINE OUT and SPEAKER OUT (ampli […]
Show full quote

Anyway, there's many possible problems, for example:
- some cards have jumpers to switch between LINE OUT and SPEAKER OUT (amplified) - if the jumper isn't installed at all, there's no output at all
- the amplifier chip may be dead - in this case you may still hear something in the noise that's heard when the volume is pumped to the max
- sometimes the software from ESS fails to work, but UNISOUND does work

Or setting the mixer volume correctly?

nfraser01 wrote on 2025-04-02, 20:02:

Or setting the mixer volume correctly?

It seems set correctly:

jefklak wrote on 2025-03-31, 19:17:

- mixer settings: set all to max. Nothing.

...but it wouldn't hurt to try two independent programs for that, eg. ESSVOL and UNISOUND.

Anyway, at this point I'm more inclined to believe that the hardware is broken.

Apologies for the delay, here's a photo of the back of the card. Hope this will trigger some kind of hint...

jefklak wrote on 2025-04-16, 13:30:

Apologies for the delay, here's a photo of the back of the card. Hope this will trigger some kind of hint...

One thing is certain, it doesn't need -5V. So as others have said, something is broken.

Things become even crazier. Now I'm suddenly able to get out some sound!! So jumpers are OK, so are the drivers.
But after 30 seconds the sound starts to drop off, then completely disappears. When I listen with headphones, you can hear a slight crack when I trigger something (e.g. a gun in a game).

I have no idea why it sometimes works but mostly does not. Oh well. I'll get another card 🙁