You tested in windows ?

No, I haven't. But, considering that this soundcard was developed before the era of Windows 95, it should work in DOS.

I'll try the Windows route.

Attached is a pic of the sound card that I've mentioned in this post.
The area that I've circled in red becomes very hot when the PC is turned on (so hot that I cannot hold my finger on it for very long).

What could be the cause? Could it be a blown capacitor? How can you tell if a capacitor is blown?

jesolo wrote:

How can you tell if a capacitor is blown? What must I look out for?
I have a sound card that is not working (refer this post - Aztech Sound Galaxy Waverider 32+ not working)
The DOS utilities aren't picking up the card and I'm fearing that somewhere, something has blown. I'm new to this but, I'm hoping it might be a capacitor as it seems relatively easy to replace?

To reply to your question on my Pentium topic and to keep my topic clean, I'll answer you here!!

There are some pictures around Google that show blow caps and the way they usually look, but in old hardware they can only have "dried" and loose their capacitance and never look like a blown cap, because they are not blown, just dry, and that means they reached the end of their lives!

There are some capacitive checkers and there are some multimeters that have the capability of checking capacitance on a circuit, and tomorrow I'll post a picture of the one I use on my job, that is excellent!
The only drawback is that the capacitor need to be out of the circuit in order to make a good readout, and if you went that route (of removing the caps to test them) and don't just replace them right away, (joking mode ON) you are a cheap ass because all the capacitors on that sound card should cost less than a menu on McDonald's !!!!!! (joking mode OFF)

The hot components on the card are the Amplifier components and they should be hot, not sure if they should always be hot, but they at least should be when reproducing sound!

Hope this helps

I have the manual and the original floppies of this same card. The manual was scanned, but not yet made into a proper PDF.

OK, here is the manual. hope it helps.

I got this card only last year, and never tried it. The drivers in the package are just the usual ones found on the internet.

NiPPonD3nZ0 wrote:

The hot components on the card are the Amplifier components and they should be hot, not sure if they should always be hot, but they at least should be when reproducing sound!

The TDA1517 is the amplifier, the 7805 or 7905 (on the left) is a voltage regulator, and it could very well be blown if it's always hot. But maybe not.

gerwin wrote:

OK, here is the manual. hope it helps.

I got this card only last year, and never tried it. The drivers in the package are just the usual ones found on the internet.

Thank you for this. Always useful to have a manual.
If you ever want to part with your card, let me know 😀

Even so, if the regulator is fried, is also simple to change. The 7805 is a fairly usual component!

oerk wrote:

NiPPonD3nZ0 wrote:

The hot components on the card are the Amplifier components and they should be hot, not sure if they should always be hot, but they at least should be when reproducing sound!

The TDA1517 is the amplifier, the 7805 or 7905 (on the left) is a voltage regulator, and it could very well be blown if it's always hot. But maybe not.

What is strange is that the voltage regulator is very hot while the sound card is not producing any sound (I can't even get it to produce sound because, the PC is not picking up the card).

I could try to replace the voltage regulator first and then see what happens. If there is no change, then I can swop out all the capacitors. If that doesn't work, then one of the chips are probably fried which then leaves me with a card that I can use for spare parts (to try and remove any of the chipsets is going to be too cumbersome for me).

Unfortunately, I received the card via the post wrapped in bubble wrap and not in an anti static bag. That being said, I've previously received sound cards this way and they are still working.

You could check if the voltage regulator is outputting the correct voltage. Do you have a multimeter?

No, but a buddy of mine has. However, considering the general availability, it's probably easier to just replace it.

Move the JMPCFG Jumper from 1-2 EPPROM Setting to the 2-3 Software setting. Hopefully this will solve your problem. I have a similar Waverider PRO 32 which is the non plus version and I briefly remember "Sound Card not detected" when the cards JMPCFG jumper is set to EPPROM setting.

That was my initial thought too and I tried it. Unfortunately, no luck.

The capacitor analyzer I have on my job that works a charm, but expensive to buy just to test your sound card 😀

http://www.peakelec.co.uk/acatalog/jz_esr70.html