sound cards

Johnny Cunnyngham · Post by **Johnny Cunnyngham** » 13 Oct 2006 5:34 pm

I have had Three sound cards replaced in my Three year old computer. The cards stop working after six to eight weeks. I had them replaced by a different computer repair facility each time.
Perhaps someone has a suggestion. Thanks, Johnny Cunnyngham

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 14 Oct 2006 2:37 am

Are you sure the cards are bad? Could just be the drivers got clobbered and needed reinstallation. Or many times just uninstalling the sound card in the Windows device manager then restart Windows and it will be detected and reinstalled (refreshed).

Unless you have a power supply or motherboard problem that is zapping the sound card (and that's a remote possibility) I would suspect the sound cards are not "dying". I do part-time PC repair and although it's possible, I've NEVER had to replaced a sound card.

John Daugherty · Post by **John Daugherty** » 14 Oct 2006 4:51 am

A sound card can be damaged by the device you connect to the inputs and outputs of the card.
For instance, if you connect the output to a mic preamp which supplies "phantom power", you could have a DC voltage on the line that is high enough to damage the card.

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Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 14 Oct 2006 1:01 pm

If you overclock a SoundBlaster Live card you will suffer from random lockups and BSODs, but I don't know if it will also damage the sound card. I found that even a 5% overclock from 200 Mhz is enough to cause problems with my Audigy II Platinum card.

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Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 14 Oct 2006 6:41 pm

Wiz,

What do you mean by overclock? I have an SB Audigy2 Value soundcard. Whenever I go thru all my anti-virus/malware programs, EAX comes up DISABLED. So I have to click on ENABLE and reset everything. I've had the card for a number of years now, and I'm pleased with it alright, except for this problem.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 15 Oct 2006 7:53 am

Chip;
Overclocking is something done by propellor heads like me to push our computer's performance by 5 to 10 percentage points over stock timing. It should only be attempted by people who know what risks they are taking and are capable of recovering from failures to boot. Overclocking produces more heat in the processor, RAM, and plugin cards (e.g. sound and video cards), which can shorten their lifespans if additional cooling is not supplied to the case and processor.

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Bob "Wiz" Feinberg
Moderator of the SGF Computers Forum
<small>Visit my Wiztunes Steel Guitar website at: http://www.wiztunes.com/
or my computer troubleshooting website: Wizcrafts Computer Services,
or my Webmaster Services webpage. Get Firefox Here.
Learn about current computer virus and security threats here.
Read Wiz's Blog for security news and update notices. My FAQs.</small>

Johnny Cunnyngham · Post by **Johnny Cunnyngham** » 16 Oct 2006 11:01 am

I resolved my problem with sound cards by reinstalling new drivers. Thanks to all for your valuable comments. Johnny