Shponglefan wrote on 2026-01-19, 16:15:

Getting a replacement Yamaha sound card would be my recommendation as well.

Sound Blaster cards can be a mess to sort out with all the different models. Generally I would only look at Sound Blaster cards for Sound Blaster 16 and/or AWE32 support, and possibly Yamaha OPL FM depending on the model. I would not consider any Sound Blaster cards if the intent is to use them for MIDI playback.

It also might be possible to repair your existing Yamaha card. As long as the main IC isn't damage, everything else on the card should be replaceable.

Fair enough. ^^ But yeah, if I went for an ISA Sound Blaster, I think an earlier model like the 16 would be a safe bet. Looking at that table of best to worst, they seem to be issue free.

As to repairing my current one - I wouldn't know where to begin. I've not done any welding or soldering before. I'm not even sure if the iffy capacitor I can see is the only issue.

I think one of the big drives for getting a proper Sound Blaster Pro 2 would be for proper MIDI sound canvas support. Unfortunately, the SB16 Emulation doesn't detect or use my SC-55.

Why wouldn't you just use the Yamaha card for MIDI support? There are better options than a Sound Blaster Pro 2, especially given the price the latter go for.

Ordinarily I would. However, with these Monkey Island Ultimate Talkie Editions, they really didn't like my Yamaha. It kept causing the first one to crash whenever speech tried to play. And for the odd few games where I have to use the SB16, there are some where it only uses its own MIDI, which is inferior.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-01-19, 20:58:

Ordinarily I would. However, with these Monkey Island Ultimate Talkie Editions, they really didn't like my Yamaha. It kept causing the first one to crash whenever speech tried to play.

That's understandable. I do know there are some older games that don't work well without authentic SB cards.

And for the odd few games where I have to use the SB16, there are some where it only uses its own MIDI, which is inferior.

What do you mean "its own MIDI"? The Sound Blaster 16 doesn't have a built-in wavetable.

Shponglefan wrote on 2026-01-19, 21:07:

That's understandable. I do know there are some older games that don't work well without authentic SB cards. […]
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DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-01-19, 20:58:

Ordinarily I would. However, with these Monkey Island Ultimate Talkie Editions, they really didn't like my Yamaha. It kept causing the first one to crash whenever speech tried to play.

That's understandable. I do know there are some older games that don't work well without authentic SB cards.

And for the odd few games where I have to use the SB16, there are some where it only uses its own MIDI, which is inferior.

What do you mean "its own MIDI"? The Sound Blaster 16 doesn't have a built-in wavetable.

The SB16 Emulation from my SB Live. It has MIDI and MT32, though very basic and inferior sounding. Well, the General MIDI is generally fine.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-01-19, 21:43:

The SB16 Emulation from my SB Live. It has MIDI and MT32, though very basic and inferior sounding. Well, the General MIDI is generally fine.

Ah, I understand now, I didn't realize you meant your SB Live.

Shponglefan wrote on 2026-01-19, 21:46:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-01-19, 21:43:

The SB16 Emulation from my SB Live. It has MIDI and MT32, though very basic and inferior sounding. Well, the General MIDI is generally fine.

Ah, I understand now, I didn't realize you meant your SB Live.

Sorry, I should've been more clearer. ^^; Usually when I put SB16 in my case, I'm referring to my emulated SB16. I'll have to start putting SB16E from now on. 😀

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-01-19, 16:34:

As to repairing my current one - I wouldn't know where to begin. I've not done any welding or soldering before. I'm not even sure if the iffy capacitor I can see is the only issue.

Taking a look at the pictures of the Yamaha card, nothing looks obviously damaged. The card is a bit dusty, but the caps all look fine at first glance. Usually if a capacitor is visibly bad it will be bulging and/or leaking. These caps just look dusty.

If I was trouble shooting this card, first I would clean it, then I would examine the symptoms. Is it just not being detected? Is not playing audio? Is audio playing but distorted? Knowing what the symptoms are will narrow down what might be wrong. It's also a good idea to test it in more than one computer to rule out things like driver or software issues.

There isn't a lot to these cards so not much to really test. Possible issues could be loose pins, bad/shorted cap/resistor/transistor, bad clock crystal, bad ICs.

Shponglefan wrote on 2026-01-19, 22:52:

Taking a look at the pictures of the Yamaha card, nothing looks obviously damaged. The card is a bit dusty, but the caps all loo […]
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DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-01-19, 16:34:

As to repairing my current one - I wouldn't know where to begin. I've not done any welding or soldering before. I'm not even sure if the iffy capacitor I can see is the only issue.

Taking a look at the pictures of the Yamaha card, nothing looks obviously damaged. The card is a bit dusty, but the caps all look fine at first glance. Usually if a capacitor is visibly bad it will be bulging and/or leaking. These caps just look dusty.

If I was trouble shooting this card, first I would clean it, then I would examine the symptoms. Is it just not being detected? Is not playing audio? Is audio playing but distorted? Knowing what the symptoms are will narrow down what might be wrong. It's also a good idea to test it in more than one computer to rule out things like driver or software issues.

There isn't a lot to these cards so not much to really test. Possible issues could be loose pins, bad/shorted cap/resistor/transistor, bad clock crystal, bad ICs.

True, it is a bit dusty. Issues started Saturday evening, I think. Or Friday. Once I put my Geforce 4 back in, in place of my Riva TNT, things went weird. Music from the sound canvas didn't sound right, a second test in DirectX Diagnostics caused the system to hang, icons and menus went a weird pinkish colour, and I got BSOD on boot ups. Particularly after taking each component out and testing them one by one. And then once the Yamaha was put back in - BSOD.

I wouldn't rely solely on Windows 98 for diagnosing a card. It could easily just be a driver issue, hardware conflict, or some other OS instability.

I would test the card in pure DOS and preferably on more than one computer.

Shponglefan wrote on 2026-01-20, 00:51:

I wouldn't rely solely on Windows 98 for diagnosing a card. It could easily just be a driver issue, hardware conflict, or some other OS instability.

I would test the card in pure DOS and preferably on more than one computer.

Okay. I mean, the driver I've been using has been the same one for it all this time and it's been rock solid. I can test it in my test build though. I'll look at doing that sometime in the week. And test in DOS.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-01-20, 01:07:

Okay. I mean, the driver I've been using has been the same one for it all this time and it's been rock solid. I can test it in my test build though. I'll look at doing that sometime in the week. And test in DOS.

You mentioned you were making other hardware changes (swapping graphics cards). It's possible hardware resources got re-assigned and resulted in a hardware conflict.

Windows 98 can be a mess of instability when it comes to any hardware changes. I once had a Windows 98 install so unstable that even plugging in a mouse would cause the system to freeze up.

This is where a more thorough diagnosis will help narrow down the problem. Good luck!

Shponglefan wrote on 2026-01-20, 01:20:

You mentioned you were making other hardware changes (swapping graphics cards). It's possible hardware resources got re-assigned […]
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DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-01-20, 01:07:

Okay. I mean, the driver I've been using has been the same one for it all this time and it's been rock solid. I can test it in my test build though. I'll look at doing that sometime in the week. And test in DOS.

You mentioned you were making other hardware changes (swapping graphics cards). It's possible hardware resources got re-assigned and resulted in a hardware conflict.

Windows 98 can be a mess of instability when it comes to any hardware changes. I once had a Windows 98 install so unstable that even plugging in a mouse would cause the system to freeze up.

This is where a more thorough diagnosis will help narrow down the problem. Good luck!

Wow. I knew Windows 98 could be quite unstable, but didn't realise it could be that bad! 😮 Hmm. I did think at first it could be a resource issue, but everything appeared to be fine with the way things had been assigned. It's a pity my main system doesn't have any onboard graphics. I could take everything out and just have the sound card in. I believe my test rig does have onboard graphics though.

Shponglefan wrote on 2026-01-20, 01:20:

You mentioned you were making other hardware changes (swapping graphics cards). It's possible hardware resources got re-assigned […]
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DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-01-20, 01:07:

Okay. I mean, the driver I've been using has been the same one for it all this time and it's been rock solid. I can test it in my test build though. I'll look at doing that sometime in the week. And test in DOS.

You mentioned you were making other hardware changes (swapping graphics cards). It's possible hardware resources got re-assigned and resulted in a hardware conflict.

Windows 98 can be a mess of instability when it comes to any hardware changes. I once had a Windows 98 install so unstable that even plugging in a mouse would cause the system to freeze up.

This is where a more thorough diagnosis will help narrow down the problem. Good luck!

Huh. Whaddaya know... The card is working perfectly fine in my test build. Even after the drivers have been installed. 😮 I'm glad I decided to keep hold of it for a bit longer just in case. And thank you for advising me to do some more testing. So I guess there is some resource issue after all, on my main rig.

I've definitely had a lot of snafus with drivers in Windows 98 as well. It's most likely that something copied an older DLL on top of another or a set of DLLs where only one got rolled back, deleted, or updated on top of another pair of incompatible versions. This is where the term "DLL hell" came from.

Card's back in my main PC, juggled the resources around, the drivers are reinstalled, and no BSOD so far. However, going into DxDiag and doing an audio test, the General MIDI through the sound canvas sounds totally wrong again. If I stop it and try to play it again, nothing happens. It stops responding.

Glad to hear the card was still working! That saves having to buy a replacement.

Insofar as still having issues in your existing setup, I find the easiest solution is often a clean re-install of Windows 98.

When I'm setting up my own Windows 98 installs, I make a list of all drivers and patches to be installed, which versions, and in which order. That way if I have a stable initial install, I can just redo the same steps on a fresh install and get back to that point.

Shponglefan wrote on 2026-01-20, 22:25:

Glad to hear the card was still working! That saves having to buy a replacement.

Insofar as still having issues in your existing setup, I find the easiest solution is often a clean re-install of Windows 98.

When I'm setting up my own Windows 98 installs, I make a list of all drivers and patches to be installed, which versions, and in which order. That way if I have a stable initial install, I can just redo the same steps on a fresh install and get back to that point.

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I should've made an image backup of the HDD. Haven't done one for a while. The last thing I tried was having my GPU and Yamaha in and after some restarting, installing of the drivers, running ScanDisk, which it found and fixed some errors, and ensuring the resources are set correctly, it looked and sounded stable. The audio tests passed, too. So the next stage is putting the SB Live back in and making sure everything plays nicely together. If not, then I may have to reinstall Windows again.

Okay, I think the issue is sorted. It was because of me being stupid, as usual. ^^; I was setting IRQ and DMA to different ports for each card, but not A and P. So they were still sharing A220 and P330, which explains why the sound canvas tests were acting weird. Everything seems to be okay for the time being. Hopefully.

I probably will get myself a SB Pro 2 at some point though. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis seems to lock up in a similar way to the Monkey Island Ultimate Talkie Editions where I'm no longer able to move the mouse. Could be the mouse driver that's to blame there, but I think it might be that the old classic LucasArts games don't like that Yamaha very much. And using the SB16E instead means I can't use the sound canvas for the MIDI. Even by daisy-chaining the SB to the Yamaha.