Hi all newbie here🙂
I am trying to recover a sound-card that being used for almost 10 years.
Creative Sound Blaster SB0790
Really like the sound quality and cant stick with onboard sound-card. I was listening to fav music suddenly the sound disappeared with like a Boom sound faded away, I have tried to uninstall the card and changing the slot but it seems the problem persists ....
Also tried to recap the G-luxxon capacitors but no success...
|There are 4 jacks on SB but I don't know why 5 Op-amps being implemented. 😕
3* ST 4558C
1* JRC 4556A
1* TI M33078
Another strange thing can bee seen on 33078: testing with multi-meter pin 1 with pin 2 along pin3 with pin 4 are shorted, I cant figure it out whether is the pcb design or that's the problem and stems from sth else, so I removed the 33078 from the pcb but it seems those pins on board still shorted.😡
I am trying to recover a sound-card that being used for almost 10 years.
Creative Sound Blaster SB0790
Really like the sound quality and cant stick with onboard sound-card. I was listening to fav music suddenly the sound disappeared with like a Boom sound faded away, I have tried to uninstall the card and changing the slot but it seems the problem persists ....
Also tried to recap the G-luxxon capacitors but no success...
|There are 4 jacks on SB but I don't know why 5 Op-amps being implemented. 😕
3* ST 4558C
1* JRC 4556A
1* TI M33078
Another strange thing can bee seen on 33078: testing with multi-meter pin 1 with pin 2 along pin3 with pin 4 are shorted, I cant figure it out whether is the pcb design or that's the problem and stems from sth else, so I removed the 33078 from the pcb but it seems those pins on board still shorted.😡
any opinion would be appreciated.
New ones are 10 Euros and up, probably better in functions.
Buy another, it is not really worth the hassle to fix a 10 year old unit, the 4558 and 4556 are considered old fashioned to obsolete anyway.
Buy another, it is not really worth the hassle to fix a 10 year old unit, the 4558 and 4556 are considered old fashioned to obsolete anyway.
Can you post pictures that are big enough? More info?
This is an old card. It's possible they still used Tantalum wet slug caps, that have now dried out and shorted. This could short stuff. It would explain the sudden 'pop' when it finally gave up.
Why does a soundcard have more than one op amp per channel? Op amps have more than one purpose. You can use them for amplifying, buffering (impedance matching!) etcetera.
This is an old card. It's possible they still used Tantalum wet slug caps, that have now dried out and shorted. This could short stuff. It would explain the sudden 'pop' when it finally gave up.
Why does a soundcard have more than one op amp per channel? Op amps have more than one purpose. You can use them for amplifying, buffering (impedance matching!) etcetera.
If there's a computer recycler like Free Geek near you, they should have bins of sound cards for cheap. It's also worth asking at local independent computer stores. You might even find some nice semi-pro sound card (M-Audio?) for a song.
Back Again
🙂
Hi all
what you are going to read here might let you think and wonder why would a crazy guy pursue to recover a cheap and old sound card in a waste of time manner but in the end I am happy with the results.
I had recapped some of those junk electrolyte capacitors but no success. I was so desperate of my very little and basic knowledge of electronics and not having enough tools available to test those electronic elements😕 so I made my mind to build some tools and purchase some to accomplish my goal.
Thanks to Jay_diddy_B ESR-meter and Carlson leakage tester I figure out those new capacitors that was just recapped were also junk !
So I recapped them with quality ones as follows:
all 16/25 V 22micro ------> 25V 22M Nichicon KW
all 16/25 V 10Micro------->25V 10M Elna RC
all 16/50V 4.7 NP---------->50V 4.7M Elna RE
16v 100M------------------->16V 100M Elna Starget
16v47M--------------------->16V 47M Elna Silmic
50V1M---------------------->50V 1M Nippon KY (better esr than KW practically 😀)
Regulators:
Swaped the 79L05 smd with new one.
Swapped the Am117-5 with new one-although it was not faulty but I suspected some frying on its surface.
Transistors:
All 2n3904 and 3906 smds were healthy, the TN 4033A also was good2go.
At last came to M33078 op-amp and comparing it with LME49720 I was tempted with higher slew rate(20) and ultra low THD but that 55mhz-bandwidth tag glazing.. made me be suspicious about sticking with 33078 and not replacing it at no cost but at last I plucked all my courage and soldered the new LME49720 !
The sound seems more powerful I can listen to my fav music at the lower volume than before, the treble seems more crisp and the bass somehow more punchy🙂 I dont know thats because of the new Op-amp or the quality Caps ...maybe a pro can answer that.
🙂
Hi all
what you are going to read here might let you think and wonder why would a crazy guy pursue to recover a cheap and old sound card in a waste of time manner but in the end I am happy with the results.
I had recapped some of those junk electrolyte capacitors but no success. I was so desperate of my very little and basic knowledge of electronics and not having enough tools available to test those electronic elements😕 so I made my mind to build some tools and purchase some to accomplish my goal.
Thanks to Jay_diddy_B ESR-meter and Carlson leakage tester I figure out those new capacitors that was just recapped were also junk !
So I recapped them with quality ones as follows:
all 16/25 V 22micro ------> 25V 22M Nichicon KW
all 16/25 V 10Micro------->25V 10M Elna RC
all 16/50V 4.7 NP---------->50V 4.7M Elna RE
16v 100M------------------->16V 100M Elna Starget
16v47M--------------------->16V 47M Elna Silmic
50V1M---------------------->50V 1M Nippon KY (better esr than KW practically 😀)
Regulators:
Swaped the 79L05 smd with new one.
Swapped the Am117-5 with new one-although it was not faulty but I suspected some frying on its surface.
Transistors:
All 2n3904 and 3906 smds were healthy, the TN 4033A also was good2go.
At last came to M33078 op-amp and comparing it with LME49720 I was tempted with higher slew rate(20) and ultra low THD but that 55mhz-bandwidth tag glazing.. made me be suspicious about sticking with 33078 and not replacing it at no cost but at last I plucked all my courage and soldered the new LME49720 !
The sound seems more powerful I can listen to my fav music at the lower volume than before, the treble seems more crisp and the bass somehow more punchy🙂 I dont know thats because of the new Op-amp or the quality Caps ...maybe a pro can answer that.
https://freeimage.host/i/20210719-150134-copy.Rsy75B
https://freeimage.host/i/20210921-130716-copy.RsyCb9
https://freeimage.host/i/20210720-154026-copy.RspkcQ
https://freeimage.host/i/20210922-182535-copy.Rspjou
https://freeimage.host/i/20210922-174446-copy.Rspn6v
https://freeimage.host/i/20210921-130716-copy.RsyCb9
https://freeimage.host/i/20210720-154026-copy.RspkcQ
https://freeimage.host/i/20210922-182535-copy.Rspjou
https://freeimage.host/i/20210922-174446-copy.Rspn6v
You could have bought a new one, for the time and money you spent on this.
Congratulations, you have earned your stripes here.
Congratulations, you have earned your stripes here.
Thanks, actually the price for another used one in my country is about 30$. I have repaired mine around 3$ in my free time, along that I've repaired some other devices like my DSL modem.😛