X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1 soundblaster seems to be dead.

Hello,

Lately every day I turn on my computer I fear another disaster and low and
behold today another tragedy:

It seems the X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1 soundblaster has died.

I opened the case and I noticed a little dust particle on metal pins of the
soundblaster PCB.

So it seems highly likely that the little dust particle caused a short
circuit, if so then pretty amazing that electrical people/designer think
it's no problem to let metal pins be unprotected ?!?

Even when I was a 13 year old kid did I know that would be a bad idea.

Anyway this makes me wonder if I should buy a laptop so it's closed, though
laptops nowadays have airflow/fans in em too... so doesn't change much.

I also tried changing windows 7 settings, msconfig seems to crash when
trying to set normal configuration, only selective configuration seems to
work.

I also tried "diagnostic configuration", this seemed to disable all services
which is dangerous.

Fortunately I could re-enable the services by chosing "enable all from
msconfig tool" and rebooting which brought back some services.

So I am starting to fear that leaving the dust filters out has now caused
the death of another component. This means little good for the antec 1200
case, with dust filters it overheats, without dust filters it might even be
worse and electronics fail because of dust.

Bad situation.

Bye,
Skybuck.

On Oct 17, 4:20 pm, "Skybuck Flying"
wrote:
Hello,

Lately every day I turn on my computer I fear another disaster and low and
behold today another tragedy:

It seems the X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1 soundblaster has died.

I opened the case and I noticed a little dust particle on metal pins of the
soundblaster PCB.

So it seems highly likely that the little dust particle caused a short
circuit, if so then pretty amazing that electrical people/designer think
it's no problem to let metal pins be unprotected ?!?

Even when I was a 13 year old kid did I know that would be a bad idea.

Anyway this makes me wonder if I should buy a laptop so it's closed, though
laptops nowadays have airflow/fans in em too... so doesn't change much.

I also tried changing windows 7 settings, msconfig seems to crash when
trying to set normal configuration, only selective configuration seems to
work.

I also tried "diagnostic configuration", this seemed to disable all services
which is dangerous.

Fortunately I could re-enable the services by chosing "enable all from
msconfig tool" and rebooting which brought back some services.

So I am starting to fear that leaving the dust filters out has now caused
the death of another component. This means little good for the antec 1200
case, with dust filters it overheats, without dust filters it might even be
worse and electronics fail because of dust.

Bad situation.

Bye,
Skybuck.

I've opened them up and there's an inch of yellowish-brown fluff over
everything. And they're working. What's it's doing is applying a
thermal blanket over everything, helping to wear down the atomic
micron-die pathways over the design life of chips.

If you want to coat exposed metal pins, use clear women's nail
polish. I personally prefer shocking pink when labeling vacuum tubes
for easy insertion into my amplifiers.

I knew an engineering type, though, and as part of his QC routine:
Every year, he totally disassembled all the parts, (hell, go for the
thrill and take down the power supply, too, w/out first making a
lightbulb capacitor discharge unit), find a wall, put some newspapers
next to and behind it, where each board is laid up vertically
against. Now get a spray bottle with alcohol and a toothbrush and
soft-bristle parts brush. Spray liberally and clean thoroughly. Your
elbows will tired when everything is spiffy. Take an rubber ink
erasure (arts or office supply store) and clean the slotted insertion
contacts before applying WD40/60 or TV tuner with a soft cloth.

I've got a 60gal compressor for cutting through thick, the first part,
which is where I'd stop unless someone wants to pay me to rebuild/
condition a machine. If all else but an accumulative horror of filth
is fine, yes, it'll come back *as new*.

Ever worked on a someone who wears toxic-grade, pungent perfume, a non-
smoker's machine that's sat underneath a bird cage at least for an age
or more?

Skybuck Flying wrote:

Hello,

Lately every day I turn on my computer I fear another disaster and low and
behold today another tragedy:

Ever think about giving up on the whole computer thing and just take up
making wooden shoes?

--
Paul Hovnanian
------------------------------------------------------------------
Shoot straight you *******s! Don't make a mess of it.

I have some very strange results to report:

I tried the knoppix 6.7.1 live cd and when it boots this female voice says
something and it also says it on shutdown.

So apperently some parts of the soundblaster are still working.

However when I try to play an MP3 in knoppix no sound plays.

I am starting to suspect that it's either:

1. Something strange with the breakout box, I suspended the sound, and it's
some kind of software/hardware problem, it tries to remember it setting and
it gets confused ?!?

2. It also feels like some kind of malware attack, perhaps aimed at
services, but this wouldn't make sense for knoppix, and perhaps hardware
attack against x-fi, though this seems hard to believe.

Mostly likely:

3. It's either some kind of weird hardware-based-memory error for the x-fi
elite or it's breakout box.

or

4. It's some kind of hardware damage but still allows to play sound somehow
? perhaps the onboard audio is being re-routed through soundblaster outputs
is such a thing possible ?!?

It's very strange...

5. Maybe the breakout box is simply dead or something... I shall try power
down the computer, and disconnect the breakout box to see if that helps.

Bye,
Skybuck.

On Tue, 18 Oct 2011 04:14:10 +0200, "Skybuck Flying"
wrote:

I am starting to suspect that it's either:

1. Something strange with the breakout box, I suspended the sound, and it's
some kind of software/hardware problem, it tries to remember it setting and
it gets confused ?!?

Damn! You're dumb!

2. It also feels like some kind of malware attack,

Damn! You're dumb!

perhaps aimed at
services, but this wouldn't make sense for knoppix,

Damn! You ARE dumb!

and perhaps hardware
attack against x-fi,

Damn! You're dumb!

though this seems hard to believe.

Mostly likely:

3. It's either some kind of weird hardware-based-memory error for the x-fi
elite or it's breakout box.


You made one listing number but listed two elements DOH!

or

4. It's some kind of hardware damage but still allows to play sound somehow
? perhaps the onboard audio is being re-routed through soundblaster outputs
is such a thing possible ?!?

Damn! You're dumb!

It's very strange...

NO! YOU are strange. Damn! You're dumb!

5. Maybe the breakout box is simply dead or something... I shall try power
down the computer, and disconnect the breakout box to see if that helps.

Are the optical ports putting out light?

Damn! You're dumb!

I tried to repeat the sound that Knoppix produces by booting again into
knoppix after disabling one harddisk and also disconnecting the breakout box
(or maybe not ?).

This time I did not press enter during the Knoppix boot screen, no sound was
perceived.

Perhaps the sound was disabled by the breakout box, or perhaps not.

Perhaps the sound I thought to be perceived was just a fluck of luck from
the soundblaster before final death.

I am not that familiar with Knoppix so maybe I imagined the female voice,
but I don't think so why would I imagine a female voice ?

Also during shutdown there was no female voice anymore...

Pretty strange, I also googled a bit, some people write also having these
problems, and some of them wrote they unplugged their soundblaster, booted,
and then shutdown and then rebooted... perhaps strange bios or strange
windows issues.

There is also some slight brownish on the x-fi pcb near the edge, but I
think I have seen that before... there is also a somewhat strange faint
burning smell in my house, probably car fumes, but I am not sure... I also
put some extra tape on vents to keep stuff outside...

I have turned down the fans on antec 1200 a little bit, there was something
else I wanted to mention but forgot... hmmm.. what was it ? hmm...

Oh yeah now I remember, here is some whacky theory: Some strange mobile
devices wireless signals inteferred with the breakout box's
infared/signalling and caused some kind of lock up/mis configuration ?!?

When I zap the TV with the remote control sometimes the breakout box blue
led turns RED to indicate an invalid signal was received... so it does seem
to receive signals not ment for it...

Also the breakout box still seems to respond to pushes against it's knobs
which are used to enable/disable sound.

I also wonder if perhaps a windows shutdown/system update has sometime to do
with it, but there are no logs of that in the event logs... last update was
from 13-ocotober-2011.

Oh yeah there is one more thing I wanted to write:

I have done some pretty heavy gaming the last few weeks, so perhaps the GT
520 with passive cooling still managed to FRIE the X-FI which is directly
below it... the GT 520 temperature is about 45 to 47 degrees or so... so
perhaps still to hot ?

Bye,
Skybuck.

Ad why do you think I am dumb ? You give no reason... very convincing...
NOT...

Bye,
Skybuck.

Every day.

Bye,
Skybuck

On Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:48:58 -0700, "Paul Hovnanian P.E."
wrote:

Skybuck Flying wrote:

Hello,

Lately every day I turn on my computer I fear another disaster and low and
behold today another tragedy:

Ever think about giving up on the whole computer thing and just take up
making wooden shoes?

I was thinking manual lightning rod tester.

On Tue, 18 Oct 2011 05:34:43 +0200, "Skybuck Flying"
wrote:

Ad why do you think I am dumb ? You give no reason... very convincing...
NOT...

Bye,
Skybuck.

Because you think that someone hacked your soundcard.