Sound cards don’t have a particularly high failure rate, I believe but they get replaced more often than any other adapter, with the possible exception of modems. The reason is that older PCI sound cards that came stock with systems offered pretty lousy performance, so gamers and musicians often find they have to replace the sound card just to work with the programs they buy. The first step is to unplug the PC and open the case. Yes, you can use a power strip and turn off the power switch to preserve the ground, but I’ll bet more people blow up adapters sticking them in motherboards with a live 5V rail than with static electricity. You only need to remove the top lid on the average midtower - two screw, slide back a couple inches, and off. You can see the original sound card connectors in the center of the adapter bay.
The original sound card is secured in the case with a single screw. If you’ve done this before, you’ll see that there’s something missing along the top edge. This PC was built without an analog audio lead connecting the CD drive to the sound card, which means it never would have been able to play music CDs. This is an extremely common issue with PC’s that were built without any quality control or a CD was installed at a later date by somebody who had a lazy attack. The audio lead is a two cent part, and it’s probably generated more “my sound card/speakers don’t work” service calls than any other assembly oversight, and who knows how many sound cards replaced for no reason. We remove the old sound card, and also a blank bay cover next to it, because our PCI 5.1 upgrade sound card needs two slots for the SPDIF riset.
Read more…