In spring 2006 I finally get my hands on X-Fi Fatal1ty card. The reason for upgrade from my Audigy2zs was mostly the pause bug, BF2 support (I started play BF2 a lot) and the X-ram thing, that provide 64MB soundbuffer that should dramaticaly reduce PCI load - hence give me some speed-up 
Or so I thought. The first nasty surprise when I actually get the card in my hand was this:
Not only the unnecessary long legs, but mainly the capacitors type - Jamicons. Jamicon cap's are bad, they are known to fail - eg. over time lost most of their specs.
At first, everything work great, except some weird noises when BF2 is loading sounds. (maybe the card did not like OGM playback when there is going writing samples to the X-ram? Or my A9R480 Sapphire Grouper mobo is up to blame?) However after like 2 months are the pause bug back.
When I say pause bug, I mean this. Using any player, play a AC3 5.1 movie while using 5.1 speakers on analog connection. Decoding filter has to be AC3 filter and it has to use 24bit output to generate enough data to trigger the failure. Now randomly pause and unpause the playback. Sooner ot later the channels start play from wrong speakers and/or there is terrible noise from all speakers comming after the unpause. This is a pause bug. I had it on Audigy (1), Audigy2zs and after two months on X-Fi as well.
It was obvious that the X-Fi is need to be recapped and the Jamicons changed to good, preferably audio caps - but NOT for all positions. The catch is, that Creative did use one capacitor type for all positions - eg. for the voltage filtering as well, as for the audio output. That is nonsense at best. Audio and computers capacitors don't mix!
So, they simply put Jamicons everywhere. Not something that I would expect from 260$ pricetag (spring 2006, mind you) product :hitwall:
Now why I started this thread.
Well, to begin with, some weeks ago (to 14. 8. 2006) I started to play Mafia - a original Czech game of the 1930 NewYork organized crime. You simply work your way up in the organization at prohibition times, drive old cars, steal, murder and finally seek salvation from the hands of cops... During play it sometimes in these briefing talking scenes is seems to starting to lost some samples. I thought that the Czech programmers engine simply could have some quirks with 64MB of sample buffer on X-Fi Fatal1ty. After all, as the game release there was not such a thing as X-Fi, right? However the more I play and the closer to the end I was, the more often it happening. And it kinda suxx to go on mission and not know the briefing, right? However as I finished the game, the problems are gone, so...
So then I started play Prey And when shortly in game in one spot appears more sounds at once (your girl scream, mechanic move, buttons, alien...), the whole computer freeze. I remember the Jamicons and quickly pull the X-Fi out and replaced the big Jamicon (originaly a 220uF 16V) with Panny FM 470uF 16V as well, as two 100uF Jamicons with 120uF Panny FM ones.
The results.
I finished whole Prey in few days of hard gaming w/o crash or any problem. I went back to Mafia and - whoa, samples aren't lost anymore again. My apology, Czech programmers. I did not trusted in yours skils... :redface: In adition, the pause bug is - GONE!
Pause bug - long story:
Later.
So I added the frontpannel later (moth or so), but in like a week, problems and pausebug are there again. Frontpannel is full of Jamicons too, and it obviously accelerated the dying of Jamicons on card or so. I pulled it out, yet the pause bug is still there. No crashing, luckily.
I would like to hear from X-Fi and perhaps also Audigy2(zs) users about their experience and possibly about their sound bugs. There is so many people on Creative forum that claim to have similar issues as me, so... I wonder in how many cases this could be avoided just by using good caps and not Jamicon crap...
To completely recap X-Fi you need:
X-Fi Fata1ity
-------------
Remove and short 16x 22uF 16V Jamicon decoupling caps - C23, C50, C76, C77, C28, C55, C85, C83, C61, C32, C62, C26, C67, C36, C34 and C68. http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/165/xfiopampscouplingcapsgoan9.jpg
1x Samxon GC 1000uF 6.3V (d8) Big Pope
2x Samxon GD 470uF 6.3V (d6.3) Big Pope
17x Panny FM 150uF 6.3V (d5) P12917-ND Digi-key
1x Panny FM 100uF 10V (d5) P12919-ND Digi-key
2x Panny FM 68uF 16V (d5) P12921-ND Digi-key
4x Panny FM 47uF 25V (d5) P12923-ND Digi-key
6x Black Gate N 4.7uF 50V (d5) - d6.3 can fit Sonic craft
2x Black Gate C 4.7uF 50V (d5) - d6.3 can fit Sonic craft
(you can ship the Black Gates and only remove the original caps off the card, if you are not plan to use the 10pin Creative connector and the AUX-IN connector near it)
Audigy 2zs
----------
3x 100uF 16V d6.3 (Jamicon) - P12922-ND
5x 47uf 16V d5 (Teapo) - P11196-ND
35x 22uF 16V d4 (Jamicon) - P11213-ND
5x 10uF 16V d4 (Jamicon) - P11212-ND
11x 4.7uF 50V d4 (Jamicon) - P10315-ND
3x 1uF 50V d4 (Wincap) - P10312-ND
(digi-key.com product numbers used)
Or so I thought. The first nasty surprise when I actually get the card in my hand was this:An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Not only the unnecessary long legs, but mainly the capacitors type - Jamicons. Jamicon cap's are bad, they are known to fail - eg. over time lost most of their specs.
At first, everything work great, except some weird noises when BF2 is loading sounds. (maybe the card did not like OGM playback when there is going writing samples to the X-ram? Or my A9R480 Sapphire Grouper mobo is up to blame?) However after like 2 months are the pause bug back.
When I say pause bug, I mean this. Using any player, play a AC3 5.1 movie while using 5.1 speakers on analog connection. Decoding filter has to be AC3 filter and it has to use 24bit output to generate enough data to trigger the failure. Now randomly pause and unpause the playback. Sooner ot later the channels start play from wrong speakers and/or there is terrible noise from all speakers comming after the unpause. This is a pause bug. I had it on Audigy (1), Audigy2zs and after two months on X-Fi as well.
It was obvious that the X-Fi is need to be recapped and the Jamicons changed to good, preferably audio caps - but NOT for all positions. The catch is, that Creative did use one capacitor type for all positions - eg. for the voltage filtering as well, as for the audio output. That is nonsense at best. Audio and computers capacitors don't mix!
So, they simply put Jamicons everywhere. Not something that I would expect from 260$ pricetag (spring 2006, mind you) product :hitwall:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Now why I started this thread.
Well, to begin with, some weeks ago (to 14. 8. 2006) I started to play Mafia - a original Czech game of the 1930 NewYork organized crime. You simply work your way up in the organization at prohibition times, drive old cars, steal, murder and finally seek salvation from the hands of cops... During play it sometimes in these briefing talking scenes is seems to starting to lost some samples. I thought that the Czech programmers engine simply could have some quirks with 64MB of sample buffer on X-Fi Fatal1ty. After all, as the game release there was not such a thing as X-Fi, right? However the more I play and the closer to the end I was, the more often it happening. And it kinda suxx to go on mission and not know the briefing, right? However as I finished the game, the problems are gone, so...
So then I started play Prey
And when shortly in game in one spot appears more sounds at once (your girl scream, mechanic move, buttons, alien...), the whole computer freeze. I remember the Jamicons and quickly pull the X-Fi out and replaced the big Jamicon (originaly a 220uF 16V) with Panny FM 470uF 16V as well, as two 100uF Jamicons with 120uF Panny FM ones.The results.
I finished whole Prey in few days of hard gaming w/o crash or any problem. I went back to Mafia and - whoa, samples aren't lost anymore again. My apology, Czech programmers. I did not trusted in yours skils... :redface: In adition, the pause bug is - GONE!
Pause bug - long story:
Later.
So I added the frontpannel later (moth or so), but in like a week, problems and pausebug are there again. Frontpannel is full of Jamicons too, and it obviously accelerated the dying of Jamicons on card or so. I pulled it out, yet the pause bug is still there. No crashing, luckily.
I would like to hear from X-Fi and perhaps also Audigy2(zs) users about their experience and possibly about their sound bugs. There is so many people on Creative forum that claim to have similar issues as me, so... I wonder in how many cases this could be avoided just by using good caps and not Jamicon crap...
To completely recap X-Fi you need:
X-Fi Fata1ity
-------------
Remove and short 16x 22uF 16V Jamicon decoupling caps - C23, C50, C76, C77, C28, C55, C85, C83, C61, C32, C62, C26, C67, C36, C34 and C68. http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/165/xfiopampscouplingcapsgoan9.jpg
1x Samxon GC 1000uF 6.3V (d8) Big Pope
2x Samxon GD 470uF 6.3V (d6.3) Big Pope
17x Panny FM 150uF 6.3V (d5) P12917-ND Digi-key
1x Panny FM 100uF 10V (d5) P12919-ND Digi-key
2x Panny FM 68uF 16V (d5) P12921-ND Digi-key
4x Panny FM 47uF 25V (d5) P12923-ND Digi-key
6x Black Gate N 4.7uF 50V (d5) - d6.3 can fit Sonic craft
2x Black Gate C 4.7uF 50V (d5) - d6.3 can fit Sonic craft
(you can ship the Black Gates and only remove the original caps off the card, if you are not plan to use the 10pin Creative connector and the AUX-IN connector near it)
Audigy 2zs
----------
3x 100uF 16V d6.3 (Jamicon) - P12922-ND
5x 47uf 16V d5 (Teapo) - P11196-ND
35x 22uF 16V d4 (Jamicon) - P11213-ND
5x 10uF 16V d4 (Jamicon) - P11212-ND
11x 4.7uF 50V d4 (Jamicon) - P10315-ND
3x 1uF 50V d4 (Wincap) - P10312-ND
(digi-key.com product numbers used)
This is a picture of X-Fi Fatal1ty by user Raggingbone that continue to have crashes and stuff with the card:
No wonder when the Jamicon for main X-Fi chip is alredy leaking!
(X-Fi Fatal1ty Sanyo Os-con SEPC 820uF 2,5V for main chip voltage filtering used)
This attempt not helped me to get rid of the pause bug - eg. pausing and unpausing movie with any player, using AC3 filter 24bit output cause switched channels or terrible noise after unpause.
Damn.
Bridging the polymer with 10uF SMD ceramic helped a bit more, but it is still like 50/50 chance to get a pause bug there. Panny FM 470uF with 4,7uF ceramic helped me much more before, damn.
Next try - 1000uF Samxon GC bridged with 4.7uF CMD ceramic (Tayo Yuden).
Nah, next try - try to study how to voltage regulation for the main X-Fi chip is done in the first place
So, the volage regulation for the main X-Fi chip is made by TI PS54352 chip.
http://www.ti.com/lit/gpn/tps54352
The recommended use is this:
From this is quite obvious, that Creative design is very bellow specs one and for example - the imput filtering elyte capacity should be at least 100uF and as close to the chip a 10uF (at least) ceramics low-ESR cap. The Creative imput filtering elyte are 22uF Jamicon (!) and I did not yet measure the ceramic one, but I fear it is not "at least" 10uF as it should be.
Measured 15uF. I should desolder it, I think I measure something else with it also...
Same for the output. I see bulk capacity there, a 330uF elyt, 100uF another low esr cap and 0,1uF ceramics. Creative used a 220uF Jamicon witch is not low ESR cap in any way, shape or form...
So now it is clear, why I get the best results with mediocre 470uF Panny FM 16V cap (mediocre because using 16V cap on 1.25V a "bit" soften it's specs) with bridged 4,7uF ceramics are best and why the ultra-low-ESR polymer was not a great there.
My fault. Now I also going to replace the imput filtering "bulk" capacity - by Creative 22uF 16V Jamicon - by me a 150uF 6.3V Nichicon HE :dev: Yet the usage of 470uF Panny FM bridged with 0,1uF ceramic cap is not so great also. I still having the "pause bug"...
Considering what might cause the "pause bug" I do wonder, how well Creative followed up the DAC recommended connections:
http://www.cirrus.com/en/pubs/proDatasheet/CS4382_F1.pdf
PS. I just replaced the there output opamps from the old useless (they was used even in Audigy (1) !!!) MC4558C ( http://www.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/pdf/194796/STMICROELECTRONICS/MC4558CD.html ) to the praised LM4562 ( http://www.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/pdf/156190/NSC/LM4562.html ) opamps. It was kinda easy, however the changes are minimal. You cannot hear any difference in mp3 bellow 320kBi, that is for sure. When we talking about DTS 768kBi, well, ten there finally is some difference But not so major. It is obvious that complete recap of the Jamicon crap caps has to be done as well, as the audiojacks has to be gold-plated for the subwoofer connection, the whole subwoofer has to be recapped and possibly modified also, so there is a notable difference.
Ask the Nartional Semiconductor for there sample pieces of the LM4562MA in the SOIC NARROW version for free there:
http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM4562.html
And you can replace the there 4558 "things" used for the output channels :dev: There is also another opamps for mic in, line in and some more down there... So maybe a 6 opamps is not a bad idea.
PS2. parts list for SB0460 - X-FI Fatal1ty:
http://rapidshare.com/files/90009691/X-Fi_Fatal1ty_parts.txt
parts list for SB0550 - X-FI Elite Pro:
http://rapidshare.com/files/90009544/X-Fi_Elite_Pro_parts.txt
...a good start
A few interesting (but not mine, Bichi's work) X-Fi mod pictures:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
No wonder when the Jamicon for main X-Fi chip is alredy leaking!
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
(X-Fi Fatal1ty Sanyo Os-con SEPC 820uF 2,5V for main chip voltage filtering used)
This attempt not helped me to get rid of the pause bug - eg. pausing and unpausing movie with any player, using AC3 filter 24bit output cause switched channels or terrible noise after unpause.
Damn.
Bridging the polymer with 10uF SMD ceramic helped a bit more, but it is still like 50/50 chance to get a pause bug there. Panny FM 470uF with 4,7uF ceramic helped me much more before, damn.
Next try - 1000uF Samxon GC bridged with 4.7uF CMD ceramic (Tayo Yuden).
Nah, next try - try to study how to voltage regulation for the main X-Fi chip is done in the first place
So, the volage regulation for the main X-Fi chip is made by TI PS54352 chip.
http://www.ti.com/lit/gpn/tps54352
The recommended use is this:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
From this is quite obvious, that Creative design is very bellow specs one and for example - the imput filtering elyte capacity should be at least 100uF and as close to the chip a 10uF (at least) ceramics low-ESR cap. The Creative imput filtering elyte are 22uF Jamicon (!) and I did not yet measure the ceramic one, but I fear it is not "at least" 10uF as it should be.
Measured 15uF. I should desolder it, I think I measure something else with it also...
Same for the output. I see bulk capacity there, a 330uF elyt, 100uF another low esr cap and 0,1uF ceramics. Creative used a 220uF Jamicon witch is not low ESR cap in any way, shape or form...
So now it is clear, why I get the best results with mediocre 470uF Panny FM 16V cap (mediocre because using 16V cap on 1.25V a "bit" soften it's specs) with bridged 4,7uF ceramics are best and why the ultra-low-ESR polymer was not a great there.
My fault. Now I also going to replace the imput filtering "bulk" capacity - by Creative 22uF 16V Jamicon - by me a 150uF 6.3V Nichicon HE :dev: Yet the usage of 470uF Panny FM bridged with 0,1uF ceramic cap is not so great also. I still having the "pause bug"...
Considering what might cause the "pause bug" I do wonder, how well Creative followed up the DAC recommended connections:
http://www.cirrus.com/en/pubs/proDatasheet/CS4382_F1.pdf
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
PS. I just replaced the there output opamps from the old useless (they was used even in Audigy (1) !!!) MC4558C ( http://www.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/pdf/194796/STMICROELECTRONICS/MC4558CD.html ) to the praised LM4562 ( http://www.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/pdf/156190/NSC/LM4562.html ) opamps. It was kinda easy, however the changes are minimal. You cannot hear any difference in mp3 bellow 320kBi, that is for sure. When we talking about DTS 768kBi, well, ten there finally is some difference
But not so major. It is obvious that complete recap of the Jamicon crap caps has to be done as well, as the audiojacks has to be gold-plated for the subwoofer connection, the whole subwoofer has to be recapped and possibly modified also, so there is a notable difference.Ask the Nartional Semiconductor for there sample pieces of the LM4562MA in the SOIC NARROW version for free there:
http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM4562.html
And you can replace the there 4558 "things" used for the output channels :dev: There is also another opamps for mic in, line in and some more down there... So maybe a 6 opamps is not a bad idea.
PS2. parts list for SB0460 - X-FI Fatal1ty:
http://rapidshare.com/files/90009691/X-Fi_Fatal1ty_parts.txt
parts list for SB0550 - X-FI Elite Pro:
http://rapidshare.com/files/90009544/X-Fi_Elite_Pro_parts.txt
...a good start
A few interesting (but not mine, Bichi's work) X-Fi mod pictures:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Middle stage of my experiments - Panny FC 22uF 25V used, before simple wires are used:
Panny FC 22uF 25V instad of Jamicons 22uF 16V - not bad :xd: Finally the Opamps exchange produce hearing difference. W/O caps exchange = no difference! But only wires are better - give better audio details :dev:
(and noticably stronger bass line, witch is somewhat extreme sometimes...)
So, my mods on X-Fi so far are:
Main chip
C177 - 220uF 16V Jamicon, main chip voltage (1.2V) filtering:
470uF 16V Panny FM d8 - good, but still pause big
3300uF 10V Samxon RS d10 - card did not work at all (!!!)
1000uF 6.3V Samxon GC - good, pause bug reduced
C172 - 22uF 16V Jamicon, main chip regultor voltage imput (5V) filtering -> 150uF 6.3V Nichicon HE
DAC - Cirrus Logic CS4382 - http://www.cirrus.com/en/pubs/proDatasheet/CS4382_F1.pdf
C16 - 100uF 16V Jamicon, DAC voltage (3.3V) filtering -> 470uF 6.3V Samxon GD d6.3
C107 - 47uF 16V Jamicon, DAC voltage (3.3V) filtering -> 47uF 25V Panny FM d5
C91 - 10uF 16V Jamicon, DAC voltage (5?V) filtering -> 150uF 6.3V Nichicon HE d5
C119 - 10uF 16V Jamicon, DAC voltage (5?V) filtering -> 150uF 6.3V Nichicon HE d5
Opamps
C46 - 100uF 16V Jamicon, opamps voltage (5V) filtering -> 470uF 6.3V Samxon GD d6.3
Unknown - at back of the card
Cxx - 47uF 16V Jamicon -> 47uF 25V Panny FM d5
C186 - 47uF 16V Jamicon -> 47uF 25V Panny FM d5
C205 - 22uF 16V Jamicon -> 22uF 25V Panny FC d5
New opamps LM4562 (old are NJM4556)
http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM4562.html
Voltage regulator 1.2V (CA20K1 - main chip) - PS54352
http://www.ti.com/lit/gpn/tps54352
input (5V) cap filter - C172, output cap filter - C177
Voltage regulator 3.3V (???) - AMS1117
http://www.ortodoxism.ro/datasheets/AdvancedMonolithicSystems/mXuxzrt.pdf
Voltage regulator 5V (opamps + DAC VA) - UA78M05C
http://www.ortodoxism.ro/datasheets2/3/0629sokqprs63qahgjp82zof95wy.pdf
input (12V) cap filter -
all the 22uF 16V Jamicons shorted as recommended:
Too radical? As intermediate step you can try replace these Jamicons with Panny FC 22uF 25V caps - and hear the difference. In fact, there is almost no difference after opamps exchange, but huge after caps exchange WITH already exchanged opamps...!
So far I did:
Exchanged 4 opamps to the LM4562 ones
Removed 16 pcs of coupling caps C23, C50, C76, C77, C28, C55, C85, C83, C61, C32, C62, C26, C67, C36, C34 and C68 and shorted them all with wire to get rid of the cursed Jamicons and improve the quality of sound output
Replaced C177 to Samxon GC 1000uF 6.3V
Replaced C172 to Nichicon HE 150uF 6.3V
Replaced C16 to Samxon GD 470uF 6.3V
Replaced C46 to Samxon GD 470uF 6.3V
Replaced C91 to Nichicon HE 150uF 6.3V
Replaced C119 to Nichicon HE 150uF 6.3V
Replaced C107 to Panasonic FM 47uF 25V
Replaced C186 to Panasonic FM 47uF 25V
Replaced Cxxx to Panasonic FM 47uF 25V
Interesting X-Fi Elite Pro mods:
X-Fi Fatal1ty 12V opamps mod:
Most important picture ever - X-Fi and voltages
Hard work, but there we go:
In picture it looks this way - green are caps that has audio on them with stereo output, WinAMP playing...
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Panny FC 22uF 25V instad of Jamicons 22uF 16V - not bad :xd: Finally the Opamps exchange produce hearing difference. W/O caps exchange = no difference! But only wires are better - give better audio details :dev:
(and noticably stronger bass line, witch is somewhat extreme sometimes...)
So, my mods on X-Fi so far are:
Main chip
C177 - 220uF 16V Jamicon, main chip voltage (1.2V) filtering:
470uF 16V Panny FM d8 - good, but still pause big
3300uF 10V Samxon RS d10 - card did not work at all (!!!)
1000uF 6.3V Samxon GC - good, pause bug reduced
C172 - 22uF 16V Jamicon, main chip regultor voltage imput (5V) filtering -> 150uF 6.3V Nichicon HE
DAC - Cirrus Logic CS4382 - http://www.cirrus.com/en/pubs/proDatasheet/CS4382_F1.pdf
C16 - 100uF 16V Jamicon, DAC voltage (3.3V) filtering -> 470uF 6.3V Samxon GD d6.3
C107 - 47uF 16V Jamicon, DAC voltage (3.3V) filtering -> 47uF 25V Panny FM d5
C91 - 10uF 16V Jamicon, DAC voltage (5?V) filtering -> 150uF 6.3V Nichicon HE d5
C119 - 10uF 16V Jamicon, DAC voltage (5?V) filtering -> 150uF 6.3V Nichicon HE d5
Opamps
C46 - 100uF 16V Jamicon, opamps voltage (5V) filtering -> 470uF 6.3V Samxon GD d6.3
Unknown - at back of the card
Cxx - 47uF 16V Jamicon -> 47uF 25V Panny FM d5
C186 - 47uF 16V Jamicon -> 47uF 25V Panny FM d5
C205 - 22uF 16V Jamicon -> 22uF 25V Panny FC d5
New opamps LM4562 (old are NJM4556)
http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM4562.html
Voltage regulator 1.2V (CA20K1 - main chip) - PS54352
http://www.ti.com/lit/gpn/tps54352
input (5V) cap filter - C172, output cap filter - C177
Voltage regulator 3.3V (???) - AMS1117
http://www.ortodoxism.ro/datasheets/AdvancedMonolithicSystems/mXuxzrt.pdf
Voltage regulator 5V (opamps + DAC VA) - UA78M05C
http://www.ortodoxism.ro/datasheets2/3/0629sokqprs63qahgjp82zof95wy.pdf
input (12V) cap filter -
all the 22uF 16V Jamicons shorted as recommended:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Too radical? As intermediate step you can try replace these Jamicons with Panny FC 22uF 25V caps - and hear the difference. In fact, there is almost no difference after opamps exchange, but huge after caps exchange WITH already exchanged opamps...!
So far I did:
Exchanged 4 opamps to the LM4562 ones
Removed 16 pcs of coupling caps C23, C50, C76, C77, C28, C55, C85, C83, C61, C32, C62, C26, C67, C36, C34 and C68 and shorted them all with wire to get rid of the cursed Jamicons and improve the quality of sound output
Replaced C177 to Samxon GC 1000uF 6.3V
Replaced C172 to Nichicon HE 150uF 6.3V
Replaced C16 to Samxon GD 470uF 6.3V
Replaced C46 to Samxon GD 470uF 6.3V
Replaced C91 to Nichicon HE 150uF 6.3V
Replaced C119 to Nichicon HE 150uF 6.3V
Replaced C107 to Panasonic FM 47uF 25V
Replaced C186 to Panasonic FM 47uF 25V
Replaced Cxxx to Panasonic FM 47uF 25V
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Interesting X-Fi Elite Pro mods:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
X-Fi Fatal1ty 12V opamps mod:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Most important picture ever - X-Fi and voltages
Hard work, but there we go:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
In picture it looks this way - green are caps that has audio on them with stereo output, WinAMP playing...
Code:
C177 (1.23V) - 220uF 16V Jamicon -> 1000uF 6.3V Samxon GC
C16 (0.7V) - 100uF 16V Jamicon -> 470uF 6.3V Samxon GD
C46 (5V) - 100uF 16V Jamicon -> 470uF 6.3V Samxon GD
C107 (4.7V) - 47uF 16V Jamicon -> 150uF 6.3V Panny FM
C186 (5V) - 47uF 16V Jamicon -> 47uF 25V Panny FM
C205 (0V) - 47uF 16V Jamicon -> 47uF 25V Panny FM
C20 (2.47V) - 22uF 16V Jamicon -> 150uF 6.3V Panny FM
C33 (3.3V) - 22uF 16V Jamicon -> 150uF 6.3V Panny FM
C56 (-5V) - 22uF 16V Jamicon -> 150uF 6.3V Panny FM
C72 (-5V) - 22uF 16V Jamicon -> 150uF 6.3V Panny FM
C74 (12V) - 22uF 25V Jamicon -> 68uF 16V Panny FM
C75 (-12V) - 22uF 25V Jamicon -> 68uF 16V Panny FM
C101 (5V) - 22uF 16V Jamicon -> 150uF 6.3V Panny FM
C114 (5V) - 22uF 16V Jamicon -> 150uF 6.3V Panny FM
C124 (3.3V) - 22uF 16V Jamicon -> 150uF 6.3V Panny FM
C172 (5V) - 22uF 16V Jamicon -> 150uF 6.3V Panny FM
C206 (0V) - 22uF 16V Jamicon -> 47uF 25V Panny FM
C209 (0V) - 22uF 25V Jamicon -> 47uF 25V Panny FM
C27 (5V) - 10uF 16V Jamicon -> 150uF 6.3V Panny FM
C43 (8.8V) - 10uF 16V Jamicon -> 100uF 10V Panny FM
C91 (5V) - 10uF 16V Jamicon -> 150uF 6.3V Panny FM
C108 (2.16V) - 10uF 16V Jamicon -> 150uF 6.3V Panny FM
C115 (2.4V) - 10uF 16V Jamicon -> 150uF 6.3V Panny FM
C119 (3.3V) - 10uF 16V Jamicon -> 150uF 6.3V Panny FM
C123 (2.3V) - 10uF 16V Jamicon -> 150uF 6.3V Panny FM
C136 (5V) - 10uF 16V Jamicon -> 150uF 6.3V Panny FM
C151 (3.3V) - 10uF 16V Jamicon -> 150uF 6.3V Panny FM
C18 (2.4V aud) - 4.7uF 16V Jamicon BIPOLAR -> Black Gate N 4.7uF 50V
C19 (0V aud) - 4.7uF 16V Jamicon BIPOLAR -> Black Gate N 4.7uF 50V
C21 (2.39 aud) - 4.7uF 16V Jamicon BIPOLAR -> Black Gate N 4.7uF 50V
C22 (2.47) - 4.7uF 16V Jamicon BIPOLAR -> Black Gate N 4.7uF 50V
C48 (2.26V) - 4.7uF 16V Jamicon BIPOLAR -> Black Gate N 4.7uF 50V
C49 (2.26V) - 4.7uF 16V Jamicon BIPOLAR -> Black Gate N 4.7uF 50V
C102 (2.4V aud) - 4.7uF 50V Jamicon -> Black Gate C 4.7uF 50V
C104 (2.4V aud) - 4.7uF 50V Jamicon -> Black Gate C 4.7uF 50V
Remove and short 16x 22uF 16V Jamicon decoupling caps - C23, C50, C76, C77, C28, C55, C85, C83, C61, C32, C62, C26, C67, C36, C34 and C68. It is possible to remove all the marked with green audio caps C18, C19, C21, C22, C48, C49, C102 and C104 if you did not use the AUX IN analog 2 channel CD in and the 10 pins Creative connector, for witch the 6 pcs of the bipolar caps are used to separate the AC3 6 channels signal (5.1).
35 caps total
-------------
1x Samxon GC 1000uF 6.3V (d8)
2x Samxon GD 470uF 6.3V (d6.3)
1x Panny FM 100uF 10V (d5) P12919-ND
4x Panny FM 47uF 25V (d5) P12923-ND
2x Panny FM 68uF 16V (d5) P12921-ND
17x Panny FM 150uF 6.3V (d5) P12917-ND
6x Black Gate N 4.7uF 50V (d5) - d6.3 can fit
2x Black Gate C 4.7uF 50V (d5) - d6.3 can fitWhy not use tantalum caps
http://www.hindawi.com/GetPDF.aspx?doi=10.1080/08827510212341
Read conclusion about noise in tantalum cap
The most important sources of fluctuation consist in regenerative microbreaks, fluctuation of polarisation and mechanical strain. The frequency dependence of noise spectral density in mHz region gives information on slow irreversible processes of tantalum pentoxide crystal-isation and oxide reduction. The self-healing process can improve sample quality due to leak-age current and noise reduction. :redface:
Or there:
Low Noise Balanced Microphone Preamp
I also recommend against the use of tantalum capacitors, and regular readers will notice that I have not suggested them for any project (although there was one suggestion that you could use them if you wanted to). The only capacitor fault I have ever had to track down with an intermittent short circuit was a tantalum bead type - it was neither fun, nor easy to find :-(
So, using tantalum caps in X-Fi are bad idea, alrough they might look as good choice at first and I must admit, I was considered them at first as well, but then I looked more deeply and contacted experts and they all recommended against it.
Interesting discovery!
I had enought of waiting and I decided to test, if the d6.3 caps (remember, the original ones are just d4) will fit there. So I took my poor X-Fi (I wish I get my hand on some dead X-Fi for this testings, but...) and started soldering on it again, even when I did not have to caps in my hands yet, sadly.
So, I desoldered them all and cleaned the holes nicely, because I knew I will solder them right back, but first I need to test the d6.3 caps there...
So far, so good. Then I get the caps - I picked up a 8 pcs of - luckily to still have a few of them here and there - 120uF 16V Panny FM caps that are d6.3 - tought they are not bipolar and not audio caps either, but I was not going to solder them there - I just wanted to made some progress and to make sure we can fit a d6.3 caps there... So I just stick them thru:
And they fit! :wahaha: Hoooray!
Another pic:
And then I make the most important discovery yet. I suspected that before, but I was not sure. These 6 bipolar caps are for the Creative 10-pin connector 6 in/out channels separation.
The two ones are not bipolar, but normal caps and they are for decoupling of the CD-in (AUX IN) input.
This might not sound so important to you yet, but... I asked myself "What if I did not even use these connectors?" "Do I really need the caps there at all, or for the BEST possible quality is better to get rid of them completely?"
I mean - there is one thing better that good audio cap in the passing of audio signal. And that is wire - or no cap in this case.
So out of a pure luck and based just on a intuition I tried the X-Fi w/o these caps and quess what - it played and playing well still! :dev: :wahaha:
This is an important solution and very cheap audio improvement only for people who not use either of these connectors!
Amazingly and not unsurprisingly, once the Jamicons are out of the audio loop now completely, the detail level in music increased hearably once again.
However there is a side issue to that improvement. Now I can hear some compression distortions even at 320kBi, witch is considered as very high bitrate! Also, any more importantly, many many and many my mp3 music files contain some slight errors in music, that are now also possible to hear well...
In short, you might want to consider doing these mods (I'm being very frank here) because you will hear more that you might wish to hear :redface:
PS. old but interesting article: Creative's Sound Blaster X-Fi audio processor http://techreport.com/articles.x/8884
http://www.hindawi.com/GetPDF.aspx?doi=10.1080/08827510212341
Read conclusion about noise in tantalum cap
The most important sources of fluctuation consist in regenerative microbreaks, fluctuation of polarisation and mechanical strain. The frequency dependence of noise spectral density in mHz region gives information on slow irreversible processes of tantalum pentoxide crystal-isation and oxide reduction. The self-healing process can improve sample quality due to leak-age current and noise reduction. :redface:
Or there:
Low Noise Balanced Microphone Preamp
I also recommend against the use of tantalum capacitors, and regular readers will notice that I have not suggested them for any project (although there was one suggestion that you could use them if you wanted to). The only capacitor fault I have ever had to track down with an intermittent short circuit was a tantalum bead type - it was neither fun, nor easy to find :-(
So, using tantalum caps in X-Fi are bad idea, alrough they might look as good choice at first and I must admit, I was considered them at first as well, but then I looked more deeply and contacted experts and they all recommended against it.
Interesting discovery!
I had enought of waiting and I decided to test, if the d6.3 caps (remember, the original ones are just d4) will fit there. So I took my poor X-Fi (I wish I get my hand on some dead X-Fi for this testings, but...) and started soldering on it again, even when I did not have to caps in my hands yet, sadly.
So, I desoldered them all and cleaned the holes nicely, because I knew I will solder them right back, but first I need to test the d6.3 caps there...
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
So far, so good. Then I get the caps - I picked up a 8 pcs of - luckily to still have a few of them here and there - 120uF 16V Panny FM caps that are d6.3 - tought they are not bipolar and not audio caps either, but I was not going to solder them there - I just wanted to made some progress and to make sure we can fit a d6.3 caps there... So I just stick them thru:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
And they fit! :wahaha: Hoooray!
Another pic:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
And then I make the most important discovery yet. I suspected that before, but I was not sure. These 6 bipolar caps are for the Creative 10-pin connector 6 in/out channels separation.
The two ones are not bipolar, but normal caps and they are for decoupling of the CD-in (AUX IN) input.
This might not sound so important to you yet, but... I asked myself "What if I did not even use these connectors?" "Do I really need the caps there at all, or for the BEST possible quality is better to get rid of them completely?"
I mean - there is one thing better that good audio cap in the passing of audio signal. And that is wire - or no cap in this case.
So out of a pure luck and based just on a intuition I tried the X-Fi w/o these caps and quess what - it played and playing well still! :dev: :wahaha:
This is an important solution and very cheap audio improvement only for people who not use either of these connectors!
Amazingly and not unsurprisingly, once the Jamicons are out of the audio loop now completely, the detail level in music increased hearably once again.
However there is a side issue to that improvement. Now I can hear some compression distortions even at 320kBi, witch is considered as very high bitrate! Also, any more importantly, many many and many my mp3 music files contain some slight errors in music, that are now also possible to hear well...
In short, you might want to consider doing these mods (I'm being very frank here) because you will hear more that you might wish to hear :redface:
PS. old but interesting article: Creative's Sound Blaster X-Fi audio processor http://techreport.com/articles.x/8884
Final look - the thread should be renamed to "X-Fi holocaust", as I removed everything I did not use/like
Bad caps Jamicons are OFF my machine, HOOORAY!
The dynamic seems to be improved slightly, but that could be just in my head...
However replacing the suxxking Jami-crap working as DAC voltage stabilization and be connected on the FILT+ pin COULD change/improve the sound...
(bear in mind that my audio output AFTER the X-Fi is reasonably suxxking low-end one, and I did not have so good ears... so maybe someone else spot much more noticable difference - or dismis my claim of slight improvment there)
Voltage stabilizing for opamps is very important.
Voltage filering for the main X-Fi chip
Useless stuff is gone now.
Better voltage stabilization for the Wolfenson audio codec can't hurt too
X-Fi holocaust
removed everything I did not use
PS. moders should rather consider rather AD8599 opamps, it has much better audio: http://www.analog.com/en/prod/0,,759_786_AD8599,00.html
PS2. another things to consider - get rid of the output muting transistors
Bad caps Jamicons are OFF my machine, HOOORAY!
The dynamic seems to be improved slightly, but that could be just in my head...
However replacing the suxxking Jami-crap working as DAC voltage stabilization and be connected on the FILT+ pin COULD change/improve the sound...
(bear in mind that my audio output AFTER the X-Fi is reasonably suxxking low-end one, and I did not have so good ears... so maybe someone else spot much more noticable difference - or dismis my claim of slight improvment there)
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Voltage stabilizing for opamps is very important.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Voltage filering for the main X-Fi chip
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Useless stuff is gone now.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Better voltage stabilization for the Wolfenson audio codec can't hurt too
X-Fi holocaust
removed everything I did not use
PS. moders should rather consider rather AD8599 opamps, it has much better audio: http://www.analog.com/en/prod/0,,759_786_AD8599,00.html
PS2. another things to consider - get rid of the output muting transistors
Definitively you can. This mod is not over yet anyway.
There is the muting transistors and other crap just after these opamps that is asking for removal, because of the distortion and add DC offset they introduce...
Also the opamps will be replaced with AD8599 ones anyway.
And I also would like to replace the MIC input opamp too...
A elektric schematic of the card will be worth gold... or at least a damaged spare X-Fi to play with and measure and measure...
There is the muting transistors and other crap just after these opamps that is asking for removal, because of the distortion and add DC offset they introduce...
Also the opamps will be replaced with AD8599 ones anyway.
And I also would like to replace the MIC input opamp too...
A elektric schematic of the card will be worth gold... or at least a damaged spare X-Fi to play with and measure and measure...
Removing X-Fi muting transistors.
Having transistors in the audio loop is definitively a big NO-NO, just go ask any audiophile of Hi-Fists and he did not even need to be an extreme one to tell you this. So, I concentrated my efforts this way. First I produced this picture of what is short direct contact on my X-Fi Fatal1ty: http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee193/trodas_cr/X-Fi_opamps_outputs.jpg
And todays I go deeper. It is same for each output. After opamp, there is a 33ohm resistor to protect the opamp from shortcut on the end. It has minimal impact on the signal, so, keep it. Later there are two muting transistors, for the positive and negative flow:
And after them a two small caps to the ground to kill the possible high frequency interference. For L and R channels the card utilize 4 separate transistors. For the rest a dual transistor is used to save space - two (or coudl that be four?) ones in one.
Regardless, the removal is rather easy. First get rid of them:
Then solder a shorts there:
...and you are free to test them. As you probably noticed, I for the work desolder the C46 and C27. And also as you sure noticed, I replaced the LM4562 opamps with AD8599 ones.
The results.
After hearing the sound, I was like "Holly ****...!"
There is no words to describe how much better it sounds. The oversharped thick sound of the LM4562 is gone (LM4562 also like to pick a lot RFI) and the sound is rich and full - and yet more detailed - very likely thanks to these muting transistors removed!
Fantastic change, damn I'm glad I did it!
Side-effects.
As everything in life, there is a price for this. Not only this is NOT easy mod (do NOT try that, unless you are soldering MASTER, and I'm not kidding) but it also has consequences. Not only you want to delete all, even the 320kBi mp3 files now, but upon the driver loading in windows boot, there is notable click in the speakers. Same when changing audio mode. Not louder that the amp is set for, so a minor price for such wonderfull, rich sound.
There is a bigger price and I was quick to discover it.
I remember it well from measuring the voltages on the caps on X-Fi. When I touch the opamps, well, then the X-Fi started to oscilate like MAD and the resulting sound noise, even on small testing speakers, are unbearable.
So, to get to it - I plug my rear speakers into the SUB/CENTER jack, so upon discovering that, I was like fixing this. So I unplug the jack... and the moment it started. The X-Fi, no longer protected with these muting transistors, start oscilating like mad. From all 6 speakers it output SO horrible noise and SO strong, that it was like when F18 is about to land on your head.
I can't remember anything comparable in my life.
My stepbro run to my room asking WTF... so you get the picture.
The oscilating noise, when you change your speakers, does not stop till reboot.
For me it is fair price to pay. I just can't now hotplug the speakers of fiddle with them "on the fly", like I used to. This is kinda sad and limiting, but what one can do. I'm ceratainly not going to put these cursed transistors back, no way. I love the sound now way too much.
Having transistors in the audio loop is definitively a big NO-NO, just go ask any audiophile of Hi-Fists and he did not even need to be an extreme one to tell you this. So, I concentrated my efforts this way. First I produced this picture of what is short direct contact on my X-Fi Fatal1ty: http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee193/trodas_cr/X-Fi_opamps_outputs.jpg
And todays I go deeper. It is same for each output. After opamp, there is a 33ohm resistor to protect the opamp from shortcut on the end. It has minimal impact on the signal, so, keep it. Later there are two muting transistors, for the positive and negative flow:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
And after them a two small caps to the ground to kill the possible high frequency interference. For L and R channels the card utilize 4 separate transistors. For the rest a dual transistor is used to save space - two (or coudl that be four?) ones in one.
Regardless, the removal is rather easy. First get rid of them:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Then solder a shorts there:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
...and you are free to test them. As you probably noticed, I for the work desolder the C46 and C27. And also as you sure noticed, I replaced the LM4562 opamps with AD8599 ones.
The results.
After hearing the sound, I was like "Holly ****...!"
There is no words to describe how much better it sounds. The oversharped thick sound of the LM4562 is gone (LM4562 also like to pick a lot RFI) and the sound is rich and full - and yet more detailed - very likely thanks to these muting transistors removed!
Fantastic change, damn I'm glad I did it!
Side-effects.
As everything in life, there is a price for this. Not only this is NOT easy mod (do NOT try that, unless you are soldering MASTER, and I'm not kidding) but it also has consequences. Not only you want to delete all, even the 320kBi mp3 files now, but upon the driver loading in windows boot, there is notable click in the speakers. Same when changing audio mode. Not louder that the amp is set for, so a minor price for such wonderfull, rich sound.
There is a bigger price and I was quick to discover it.
I remember it well from measuring the voltages on the caps on X-Fi. When I touch the opamps, well, then the X-Fi started to oscilate like MAD and the resulting sound noise, even on small testing speakers, are unbearable.
So, to get to it - I plug my rear speakers into the SUB/CENTER jack, so upon discovering that, I was like fixing this. So I unplug the jack... and the moment it started. The X-Fi, no longer protected with these muting transistors, start oscilating like mad. From all 6 speakers it output SO horrible noise and SO strong, that it was like when F18 is about to land on your head.
I can't remember anything comparable in my life.
My stepbro run to my room asking WTF... so you get the picture.
The oscilating noise, when you change your speakers, does not stop till reboot.
For me it is fair price to pay. I just can't now hotplug the speakers of fiddle with them "on the fly", like I used to. This is kinda sad and limiting, but what one can do. I'm ceratainly not going to put these cursed transistors back, no way. I love the sound now way too much.
That's really cool. I have a few issues with bypassing the output filter on the Sondigo soundcard as well. Leaving an amp on unattended is a bad idea 
I found my speakers pulsing full excursion both ways during a thunderstorm even though the computer did not restart or have any issues. Restarting the computer was required to stop it.
I found my speakers pulsing full excursion both ways during a thunderstorm even though the computer did not restart or have any issues. Restarting the computer was required to stop it.
Well, we having few thunderstorms here and there, but no problemo anymore. I just cannot pull the jacks on the run from the card anymore. That it is. I think is is a pretty good price to pay for the quality
My modification of X-Fi Fatal1ty, UK edition w/o heatsink on main chip and with caps wires bent to sides and then soldered from the bottom of the PCB for user Tez, Head-Fi forum:
...and his card is working just great!
My modification of X-Fi Fatal1ty, UK edition w/o heatsink on main chip and with caps wires bent to sides and then soldered from the bottom of the PCB for user Tez, Head-Fi forum:
...and his card is working just great!
If you remove all the eight audio caps, you won't be able to do a RMAA measuring using loopback cable, since the input jack will not work anymore. So, to make it work, you gotta add a C48 and C49 caps. The original are bipolar 4.7uF 50V Jamicons. I used audio quality polypropylene film caps to replace them, 4.7uF 63V MKT ones (Digi-key order number 495-1131-ND ):
And then I can make my first RMAA test: http://ax2.old-cans.com/X-Fi Fatality MKT caps 24_48.htm
It is much better that trying to pass the -200mV DC offset right back to the input: http://ax2.old-cans.com/X-Fi Fatality NOCAPS.htm
...
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
And then I can make my first RMAA test: http://ax2.old-cans.com/X-Fi Fatality MKT caps 24_48.htm
It is much better that trying to pass the -200mV DC offset right back to the input: http://ax2.old-cans.com/X-Fi Fatality NOCAPS.htm
... 
There is nothing wrong with modern electrolytic capacitors or muting circuits.
No bugs were solved by replacing the capacitors and you even managed to make the output buffers unstable by removing too much of the mute circuit (probably some required resistors) and/or adding small capacitors.
The terrible stuff that makes computer sound cards buggy and noisy is inside the chips and the drivers. If you could imagine you would not bother touching the poor capacitors...
No bugs were solved by replacing the capacitors and you even managed to make the output buffers unstable by removing too much of the mute circuit (probably some required resistors) and/or adding small capacitors.
The terrible stuff that makes computer sound cards buggy and noisy is inside the chips and the drivers. If you could imagine you would not bother touching the poor capacitors...
Ehm, excuse me, bu I beg to differ. Most modern electrolytic caps are known bad fake ones, that dies soon, ofter taking the HW in witch they are with them to silicon heaven. Just look:
http://capsmod.net/forum/viewthread.php?tid=124&extra=page=1
Do these images looks like that there is "nothing wrong"?
Removing muting circuits give more detailed sound. That is what counts.
On the contrary
Did you even bother to read at least start of the thread?!Only for the test. You again completelly missed the second round of testing WITH these MKT caps, lol. Why reply when you did not read anything? Why bother? Posthunting? Showing own ignorance?
Witch is why I replacing the opamps and using only choosen drivers... but that is, what is this thread all about
As I understood, you thought that you solved the problem by replacing capacitors, but as soon as the chipsets on the soundcard and the motherboard got back hot the bugs showed up again. This is extremely common (placebo effect). These faults are usually temperature dependent.
There is nothing wrong with op-amps either, they are very simple and well behaved circuits (then again, they are made out of a few dozen transistors). The problems have to do with logic chipsets (the ones with several million transistors in them) and the timing and sequencing of the PCI bus. Do you want to tweak this? No chance of course
These chips are the ones missing clock cycles, losing the pointers to sound buffers in main memory and corrupting digital sound data on the fly And they usually do that due to bad design and extreme cost reduction.
Remember that Creative Labs has been releasing buggy sound cards and drivers to the market since the times of the old AWE32 (I still keep two of these and I even learned to program their EMU8000 chipset at port/assembler level). These cards were already tricky to program, there were many programming situations that resulted in noise or random playback (due to hardware quirks) and had to be detected and avoided before they happen.
The channel swapping bug is very funny because it was already present in very old Creative Labs cards form the Sound Blaster Pro era. They released a document explaining a particular programming sequence to overcome it in these old cards. It seems that 15 years later they are still not able to get the hardware right (or even to get the software fixed to overcome hardware bugs).
BTW: Never load an op-amp directly witn a capacitor or connect its output to the outer world without a resistor for RF decoupling and capacitive load isolation, it will oscillate at times as you are experiencing. Suppressing DC-blocking capacitors is quite a bad habbit too.
There is nothing wrong with op-amps either, they are very simple and well behaved circuits (then again, they are made out of a few dozen transistors). The problems have to do with logic chipsets (the ones with several million transistors in them) and the timing and sequencing of the PCI bus. Do you want to tweak this? No chance of course
These chips are the ones missing clock cycles, losing the pointers to sound buffers in main memory and corrupting digital sound data on the fly
And they usually do that due to bad design and extreme cost reduction.Remember that Creative Labs has been releasing buggy sound cards and drivers to the market since the times of the old AWE32 (I still keep two of these and I even learned to program their EMU8000 chipset at port/assembler level). These cards were already tricky to program, there were many programming situations that resulted in noise or random playback (due to hardware quirks) and had to be detected and avoided before they happen.
The channel swapping bug is very funny because it was already present in very old Creative Labs cards form the Sound Blaster Pro era. They released a document explaining a particular programming sequence to overcome it in these old cards. It seems that 15 years later they are still not able to get the hardware right (or even to get the software fixed to overcome hardware bugs).
BTW: Never load an op-amp directly witn a capacitor or connect its output to the outer world without a resistor for RF decoupling and capacitive load isolation, it will oscillate at times as you are experiencing. Suppressing DC-blocking capacitors is quite a bad habbit too.
Whew..
Modding these cards is big business these days isn't it.
I also see you closely mimicking other modders who've come before you and speak of these same "bugs" and "solutions". Not sure it's a great move on your part, because really, what makes you think they had the first clue?
Your logic is often false, jumping from one conclusion to the next for the sake of justifying "good" caps and other tweaks.If you want to learn you'll have to be more scientific and objective in your method for the results will mirror your efforts.
How is it you suppose caps ageing on the front panel will accelerate the caps ageing on the card, telekinesis? You're seriously paranoid about these caps for no reason, would it drive you mad if I told you X7R or Y5V MLCC ceramics commonly used all over the motherboard aren't that stable and are known to crack?
Was your problem really gone for a month, or were you pampering your typical test conditions while your new caps were babies?
I have no clue how your mentioned "proof" is proof, decoders seeking, what's that?.. "quickly do many pause/unpause". Does that fall under normal or sane usage patterns? If I pour gas in my water tank, my plant will stall when I invert it too. Therefore the solution is obviously, C02, and I have enough in stock for all of you! Please tell me of your experience with gas in your ater.
Let's review:
Win2k? Upgrade to XP to start with.
Mafia stable? No. It's a known buggy pig coded game. That's how it runs. BF2 is not so different and I doubt Prey is either. These all seem like notorious choices to a make a case for something.. how odd.
It would not even matter if you had optimized the PC for gaming by turning off services you don't need, deleted the porn from your desktop, or upped the ram to the 64mb min requirement.
Is your hardware even configured half decently? Bios settings optimal? Cooling adequate? I see you recapped your PSU.. is it stable? Did you recap your motherboard? Swapping motherboards out at random either isn't going to help unless you take the time to figure out how to configure them properly.
For example you haven't a single mention as to whether or not the obvious first choice of shared IRQ's was looked after, or how about, and look this one up, PCI latency and hogging. There goes 99% of your issues right there, the basics covered.
Moving on, not all mute circuits are created equally, I sure don't like the looks of that one, but I'm not convinced it's a correct representation of it either and I'd almost bet that it isn't. Another problem you set out to cure but later failed to report on, the DC offset never changed when you removed those, did it.
"Don't attempt to solder this yourself unless you're a master".. but it sure sounds great now, you'll really want this, I can do it for you? I could solder that blindfolded with my toes, kind of stinks like marketing tactics there.
"The tick is as loud as the amp". Turn the amp up and don't just reboot, actually turn the PC off. Expect fatality. You clearly have critical stability issues with it as well, recommend a turn about here, you're over the bend and on the wrong street.
Changing the op amp originally got you no difference, much to be expected as it's largely the DAC that sets the stage. So, upset that you see no difference, naturally you go messing with caps until you do, with FC's no less. Then you're happy to hear their signature distorted response.
The truth is the original caps were better for the job as the board was designed, and will sound best for they are superior for audio than anything you've used to date. DC coupling the DAC is of very little benefit, and probably raised your DC offset.
Even EMU's highest end hardware suffers some small glitch when you hit mute on your media player rapidly with it under load, which is in relation to timing issues, buffers, latches, clocks, PCI related etc. It's not something you'll be fixing, and certainly not by recapping anything. If you think you fixed it, you imagined it.
Caps not in relation to the circuits in use are not going to hurt the sound, neither will they improve it if you remove them. You can't imagine that removing them is somehow going to, what, clean up your computer's disgusting ground?
The whole bad cap thing is yesterday, and not a good business model really. It's the very tail end of faulty 5 year old hardware dying off that you can show recent pictures of. These cap companies are still in business to turn a profit and they do so by offering products that least meet spec.
The cap on the Fatality you've shown as "bad" doesn't look so bad to me, it looks more like someone took a black marker and traced the vents. It's not even swollen so it's hard to believe it's "leaking" out of the pressure vent..
LM4562 has the furthest thing from a "hard edge", and how could it pick up RFI that's not already there, say perhaps, from resonating with ultra low Z caps that shouldn't be there to begin with and don't sound good anyway?
You're doing a lot more harm than good thus far, and are floating on cloud placebo.
Modding these cards is big business these days isn't it.
I also see you closely mimicking other modders who've come before you and speak of these same "bugs" and "solutions". Not sure it's a great move on your part, because really, what makes you think they had the first clue?
Your logic is often false, jumping from one conclusion to the next for the sake of justifying "good" caps and other tweaks.If you want to learn you'll have to be more scientific and objective in your method for the results will mirror your efforts.
How is it you suppose caps ageing on the front panel will accelerate the caps ageing on the card, telekinesis? You're seriously paranoid about these caps for no reason, would it drive you mad if I told you X7R or Y5V MLCC ceramics commonly used all over the motherboard aren't that stable and are known to crack?
Was your problem really gone for a month, or were you pampering your typical test conditions while your new caps were babies?
I have no clue how your mentioned "proof" is proof, decoders seeking, what's that?.. "quickly do many pause/unpause". Does that fall under normal or sane usage patterns? If I pour gas in my water tank, my plant will stall when I invert it too. Therefore the solution is obviously, C02, and I have enough in stock for all of you! Please tell me of your experience with gas in your ater.
Let's review:
Win2k? Upgrade to XP to start with.
Mafia stable? No. It's a known buggy pig coded game. That's how it runs. BF2 is not so different and I doubt Prey is either. These all seem like notorious choices to a make a case for something.. how odd.
It would not even matter if you had optimized the PC for gaming by turning off services you don't need, deleted the porn from your desktop, or upped the ram to the 64mb min requirement.
Is your hardware even configured half decently? Bios settings optimal? Cooling adequate? I see you recapped your PSU.. is it stable? Did you recap your motherboard? Swapping motherboards out at random either isn't going to help unless you take the time to figure out how to configure them properly.
For example you haven't a single mention as to whether or not the obvious first choice of shared IRQ's was looked after, or how about, and look this one up, PCI latency and hogging. There goes 99% of your issues right there, the basics covered.
Moving on, not all mute circuits are created equally, I sure don't like the looks of that one, but I'm not convinced it's a correct representation of it either and I'd almost bet that it isn't. Another problem you set out to cure but later failed to report on, the DC offset never changed when you removed those, did it.
"Don't attempt to solder this yourself unless you're a master".. but it sure sounds great now, you'll really want this, I can do it for you? I could solder that blindfolded with my toes, kind of stinks like marketing tactics there.
"The tick is as loud as the amp". Turn the amp up and don't just reboot, actually turn the PC off. Expect fatality. You clearly have critical stability issues with it as well, recommend a turn about here, you're over the bend and on the wrong street.
Changing the op amp originally got you no difference, much to be expected as it's largely the DAC that sets the stage. So, upset that you see no difference, naturally you go messing with caps until you do, with FC's no less. Then you're happy to hear their signature distorted response.
The truth is the original caps were better for the job as the board was designed, and will sound best for they are superior for audio than anything you've used to date. DC coupling the DAC is of very little benefit, and probably raised your DC offset.
Even EMU's highest end hardware suffers some small glitch when you hit mute on your media player rapidly with it under load, which is in relation to timing issues, buffers, latches, clocks, PCI related etc. It's not something you'll be fixing, and certainly not by recapping anything. If you think you fixed it, you imagined it.
Caps not in relation to the circuits in use are not going to hurt the sound, neither will they improve it if you remove them. You can't imagine that removing them is somehow going to, what, clean up your computer's disgusting ground?
The whole bad cap thing is yesterday, and not a good business model really. It's the very tail end of faulty 5 year old hardware dying off that you can show recent pictures of. These cap companies are still in business to turn a profit and they do so by offering products that least meet spec.
The cap on the Fatality you've shown as "bad" doesn't look so bad to me, it looks more like someone took a black marker and traced the vents. It's not even swollen so it's hard to believe it's "leaking" out of the pressure vent..
LM4562 has the furthest thing from a "hard edge", and how could it pick up RFI that's not already there, say perhaps, from resonating with ultra low Z caps that shouldn't be there to begin with and don't sound good anyway?
You're doing a lot more harm than good thus far, and are floating on cloud placebo.
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