retro games 100 wrote:I got another Opti 82C929A sound card.
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http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Dop-eDMechk/TRHrhoRvMDI/AAAAAAAAAj4/zgXl7Wwrt0Y/s800/OptiOPL4.J […]
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I got another Opti 82C929A sound card.
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I just dug this card up again. Oh no, it doesn't work any more. Also, the PCB looks warped. I guess the attic got too hot, and the heat bent the PCB. When I run the driver install, it says it can't find the card. I've tried cleaning the contacts and I tried it in a couple of mobos. 🙁 Why do sound cards die? What's the most likely reason? ESD? Bad capacitors?
Has anyone noticed that old RAM is fairly reliable? I mean, you can drop the stuff, and if you throw a load of sticks in to a box, and fish out a few to use later on, and in the process of doing this, scrape 'em against each other as you look for the stick(s) you want, and they still work - usually. I'm wondering if chips on old hardware such as this ISA sound card has similar "resilience" to ESD, because the chips look "old and chunky", like the chips found on old sticks of RAM. OTOH, more modern RAM looks slim, and I'm wondering if this "slimness" forms less of a protective barrier to the "silicon logic" inside, and consequently is more prone to ESD.
(BTW, I know the chips on this sound card isn't RAM. I just used RAM as an example.)