Sound card killer?

[hewybo]

my wife's (i bilt) GA-EP45-UD3L motherboard recently fried (or otherwise made inoperable) a Soundblaster X-Fi Extreme Audio card. the card was some years old, so i passed it off as age. replaced temporarily with an ASUS vostro(?) to get by. two weeks later, IT ceased to function. mobo going away? i ask because my mobo (same model) now seems to have intermittent usb port problems. both are 1 1/2 yrs old. Help?

 

[dmill89]

What power supply is in that system (brand, model, rating ,age)? There is a chance that a failing PSU could cause that problem. It is possible that it is a motherboard problem but Gigabyte's UD (Ultra Durable) series is known for exceptional reliability and they rarely fail. Of course there can be defects in even the best products however it is not exceptionally likely that a 1.5 year old GA-EP45-UD3L would be failing. Of course there is also the slight possibility that the old Sound Blaster damaged the slot when it failed.

 

[hewybo]

thanks, dmill -shoulda thought of that, i guess. used to think i knew things, but then got old! a good idea - i will test the psu (an Antec 500w earth watts). it's old enuff to be maybe leaving. thasks again -i'll let you know what i find

 

[dmill89]

Depending on age (and or load) that could be the problem. Earthwatts are decent PSUs (either Seasonic or Delta [for EA-500D]OEMed) but since they are a budget product they cut costs by using second rate capacitors on the secondary side (usually OST sometimes L-Tec, Taicon,etc.) so they don't tend to last as long as the same PSU platform with better caps. For example I had an EA-430 in my old server, after 5 years of 24/7 use one of the 12v rails went low(I can't really complain given age and use). I replaced all the OST caps on the secondary although none had visibly failed (OST caps are known for failing internally without the normal bloating/leaking) with Nippon-Chemi-Con's and all the rails were now at the correct voltage and rock stablelike when it was new.