VOGONS


First post, by Deksor

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Hello everyone !
I've got this card laying around for a while, but since I got it, I always wondered if it had something special seeing how big it is (okay there are sound cards munch bigger than this, but eh, they always tend to be special when they are long ^^). It even has some sockets for ... Ram ? Why ? I know that it can be used in order to store sound banks, but I don't know if it's the case here.

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Also at a first glance it looks nice except for the jacks, but then you see this :

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Rust ... Rust on half the pins of this chip. But this isn't the worst thing here ... It's on the back

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See this hole that have been completely eaten by corrosion ? Well it's right underneath the rusted chip, so I can't know where it goes in order to bridge it without taking that chip off that card

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Same problem here except that there is even more holes (the chip is smaller though)

So yeah ... I didn't test that card, but seing how bad it looks I don't think it will work at all. I wanted to know if it was worth the hassle to repair this or if that was completely useless because this card has nothing special.

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Reply 2 of 6, by shock__

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No idea what may have happened there ... but this looks pretty bad.
Might be salvageable with a ton of effort and/or potentially a replacement chip.

Do you know anyone who could unsolder the rusty chip? If you can take a closer look at the underside and the condition of the pads it might be easier to approximate the damage.
Where are you located?

Current Project: new GUS PnP compatible soundcard

[Z?]

Reply 3 of 6, by JackH

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Intresting card, different version found here https://retrosoundcards.wordpress.com/categor … allant-sc-8000/ Yours too have Dream chip?, at least you have SOJ ram sockets for something. I'd say its worth to repair or sell someone who can.

Other version http://www.electromyne.de/Sound-Cards-Gallant … et-Crystal.html

Heatgun could be bad for the chip. Thou I've seen someone removing bad ram chips from gpu or ddr ram, but this is about a rare soundcard? I would't risk it. I am not that expert in soldering, so you just need to wait someone expirienced to give advice.

Last edited by JackH on 2017-01-10, 22:32. Edited 4 times in total.

Reply 4 of 6, by Deksor

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I'm from France. But I'd like to know if that card is worth anything, because I don't think that I'll take the time to try repair something THAT damaged that don't have anything special.

The person who sold me this (including many other parts) for cheap stored his parts in a garage I think. Most of them are just dirty but some parts were also rusty. I think that this card have been damaged by beeing stored for too long in a cold/wet place which would explain why most rust went under the chips (most of the chips are more or less rusty but it doesn't look as bad as the one in the middle that I'm showing you) Hopefully most of the cards I got with this one doesn't look nearly as bad as this one (or if they are, they don't have anything special). I've had found some OPTi cards too that time, and I think that OPTi cards have sometimes the same CompuMedia chip (or one that ressemble to this one. At least, it's not the first time I'm seeing the name "compumedia" on a chip on a sound card)

At the end of the card there is a "Dream SAM9233" chip which might be interesting, but again informations seems to be hard to find ... What this chip is capable of ?

Also I have to mention that while I do know how to solder, I've never desoldered a chip that has pins that DO NOT go through the board. And I don't have the equipement either. Could a heat gun work ? I fear that it would be too strong for the circuit board and will ruin the complete card ...

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Reply 5 of 6, by elianda

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Here you go: ftp://retronn.de/docs/pc_hardware/wavetables/dream/
The SAM9233 is the same as the CS9233
The corresponding effects processor (optional) is the CS8905.

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Reply 6 of 6, by Deksor

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And so what does it sound like ? That's what I'm looking the most 😁

I'm a noob in terms of sound cards post sbpro2/prior pci cards. I know that some are special, that they may have upgrade sockets for something, but I don't really know how this "effect processor" acts on how the card sounds like I've got an SB16(CT2700) that has the same square socket but here again I don't really know for what it's used for. Effect processor too I guess isn't it ?

So yeah I think I'll try to repair that card, but like I said, how could-I remove properly that chip without damaging the card ? (and without frying the one I might found on a donnor card removing it the same way) Won't rust make it needing more heat in order to melt some of the tin ?

Edit : oh sorry, I didn't see your editing JackH

Also, I just checked the reference of the rusted chip ... Looks like it's unique to these "gallant" sound cards because it lead me to some more gallant sc-6000 sound card and that's it ...so I'll need to "clean" it. Unfortunately, rust might have entered the inside of the chip (not really sure about that though)

Trying to identify old hardware ? Visit The retro web - Project's thread The Retro Web project - a stason.org/TH99 alternative