ISA Sound Card Blown? Or is it just the speaker out jack?

[MusicallyInspired]

I think I've mentioned it before sometime, but I have an ISA Sound Blaster compatible card (I don't know if it's actually a sound blaster or not). It has 3 jacks in the back: Mic, Line In, and Speaker Out as well as a volume control dial. There's also a game port on the back (but I don't think it's MIDI compatible...just the joystick port...at least I think. I couldn't get any MIDI device working through it before).

Long ago when I had a 286 with a Hercules Monochrome video card and monitor, I was young and naive (sp?) and decided that I was going to follow the manual that came with sound card (a friend gave it to us so I don't know if it was actually for it or not...I seem to remember it wasn't, but I don't know) and hook the PC Speaker sound beeps up to the sound card instead of the pc speaker. The result worked well......except it was very loud and distorted through the sound card.

I don't know if this is what caused it or what because I can't remember exactly when this happened I just know it's been like this since around that time. Now when I listen to the sound card the volume is extremely low and very distorted for adlib sounds. Digital audio is even lower volume. Games still detect the card but it's pretty useless other than that.

My question: is this fixable? Does this have something to do with the jacks in the back or is it an on-card problem? If it is an on-card problem, is it possible to fix that in any way? It's kind of annoying as I need an ISA Sound Blaster card and I have one sitting around but it's in this state.

[Alistair]

I suppose the obvious question is, are your Windows mixer settings too high? (Or the back of your isa volume dial too high).

And, you can use a joystick->MIDI convertor. I use two, one in XP and one in Win 95.

- Alistair

[MusicallyInspired]

No, I don't use it in windows. It's a DOS card. And like I said, the volume is so incredibly low that you have to turn the dial AND your speakers up to the maximum to hear anything audibly and the sound is muffled and distorted and hissy and very very quiet.

And I know you can use it as a MIDI port. I'm doing that right now with my Audigy 2 and Realtek. But when I tried playing a MT-32 or SC DOS game with it it wouldn't send any messages to the module. As if it's only for a joystick and not a MIDI/gameport combination.

[HondaSiR]

Your card probably has a defective capacitor or component if it emits distorted sounds. My ISA SB16 has a defective speaker out jack so I use the line-out to connect to my speakers. The only thing stopping me from acquiring another ISA sound card is the possibility of me upgrading my entire  system to a new one, most likely without ISA slots.

[Alistair]

Sounds like a dodgy card- since you're in Canada you can get good cards v. cheap on Ebay to replace it.

- Alistair