EMU 1820M not working properly

[Broosta]

Hi, first post here!
I have an EMU 1820M soundcard which has been fine last 3-4yrs, but suddenly went wrong by making strange popping noises and won't detect the breakout box so I took it out and cleaned the PCI cards up. I forgot about it for a while and used the onboard sound but then yesterday I put it all back in the computer and it was still faulty. I uninstalled all the drivers and reinstalled the latest ones - still faulty.
I started to do google searches and came accross some youtube clips of similar faulty souncards and one of the comments said it was bad caps.
I then searched bad caps and came accross this website. And here I am!

So I read a few posts and got the courage to open the breakout box and have a look inside. At first glance all seemed well but then I noticed 2 bad caps!
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...id=16957&stc=1
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...id=16958&stc=1
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...id=16959&stc=1
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/attachm...id=16960&stc=1

I got the info off them - G-Luxon 680uF 10v LZ 105C, diameter=10mm, height=12.5mm. And then I ordered some Panasonic EEUFM1A681 from RS-Online. Should get here tuesday.

But I was wandering if you guys think I should replace any other parts while I'm at it?
And have I done things correctly? I think I kind of rushed in a bit but think its all correct.

[Scenic]

kinda sad to see what crap manufacturers put in there..

replace all the G-Luxons.
and what are those orange ones? pics?

[Broosta]

The orange ones are more G-Luxons

[Agent24]

They even put the microprocessor in a socket, yet used useless capacitors.

Makes me wonder if the manufacturers actually know how bad these capacitors are...

Hopefully you'll get it working in no time!

[Broosta]

Just posting to say I changed the 2 bad caps and I'm listening to the soundcard on my headphones right now(its late) and it sounds awesome! I couldn't wait to order all the other caps to replace them as well but I'll be happy if I get another 2 yrs or so until the next one goes. Actually if another does go I will replace all the rubbish ones.
So a big thank you to Bad Caps!

[jofo70]

Thanks for this post. I had the exact same problem with the 1820m. I just ordered the same caps from digikey that Broosta did because I don't know anything about picking out new caps.

I had the same problem the same last year and just replaced a motherboard. I guess the bad caps don't like my cold basement when the winter hits. it never gets below freezing or anything in the studio. thanks for the informative post.

[jofo70]

I soldered them in in 15 minutes. All is good! I'm very happy. thanks again for the informative posts.

[jkefalas]

So happy to find this! Same two caps blown! Gonna drive to RS and see if I can't find some higher voltage ones to replace. If not, will order 4 Nichicon (or equivalent) 680uF, 16v tolerance caps to replace. Same 10mm diameter but with more voltage headroom.

Again, I can't thank you guys enough for posting. I know this is an old thread, but I will post my results nonetheless.

Best,

Jason.

[Agent24]

Originally Posted by jkefalas

So happy to find this! Same two caps blown! Gonna drive to RS and see if I can't find some higher voltage ones to replace. If not, will order 4 Nichicon (or equivalent) 680uF, 16v tolerance caps to replace. Same 10mm diameter but with more voltage headroom.

Again, I can't thank you guys enough for posting. I know this is an old thread, but I will post my results nonetheless.

Best,

Jason.

If by RS you mean Radioshack then don't. They don't sell high quality capacitors.

I would at least replace all the G-Luxons, not just the two leaking ones.

No need to go crazy getting higher voltage parts, there is no real point. What you really should do is make sure you match ESR and Ripple current rating as the originals (You will need to look up this in the datasheets)

ESR should be same or lower, RCR same or higher.

[lti]

Originally Posted by Agent24

If by RS you mean Radioshack then don't. They don't sell high quality capacitors.

They are good enough for their intended purpose. Some of them are even Nichicons, but they are all 85°C general purpose caps.

[Agent24]

Well sure, though their intended purpose isn't likely going to be what people here would use them for.

But I didn't know they sold any decent brands like Nichicon at all, so I stand corrected on that!

[djsubject]

i just registered so i could see these pics!

i have the same problem on 2 break out box's (1820m)

off to open both & see if the fix is this simple

Subz

[djsubject]

same 2 caps on both my cards

off to get them now

will post back after swapping them

Subz

[djsubject]

Hmmm, could only get 470uF 25V 105C Caps at local Maplin, i got 2 & put them in the break out box that has the broken Phantom Power & so far it seems to be working,

will order the correct 680uF 10v 105C to put in my break out box with working phantom power,

i wonder if the phantom power not working is another CAP? all the others looked fine to me?

any way! thanks to all the useful posters in this thread! thanks to you my dead cards are being brought back to life! :-)

Subz

[Agent24]

Bad caps can sometimes look just fine but still be faulty. In this case confirmation by an ESR meter is needed, otherwise you can just replace them and see what happens.

Of course, the failure could be caused by something else, too.

[mockingbird]

You should replace ALL the caps. All those Jamicons and ALL the G-Luxons, not just the ones that are bloated.

[Stelio]

Originally Posted by Agent24

I would at least replace all the G-Luxons, not just the two leaking ones.

No need to go crazy getting higher voltage parts, there is no real point. What you really should do is make sure you match ESR and Ripple current rating as the originals (You will need to look up this in the datasheets)

ESR should be same or lower, RCR same or higher.

Hello and good afternoon. I am new to this forum and I find the information here extremely informative, figure why not give it a shot and attempt to replace my own caps on my 1820M. None of my caps appear to be showing any signs of damage, however, I will replace them all and hope this does the trick.

Since I am a bit new to this I must ask for some help with a few things. Please forgive my newb syndrome...

I have gone to digikey.ca in order to find some replacement caps and to be honest, I have not a clue of what to find. What is an ESR and an RCR?

Also, this seems like a daunting task considering there are tens of thousands of products. I've tried looking at the writing on the capacitors and finding matching numbers to order, I guess it's not as simple as that?

If anyone can give me a hand through this I would very much appreciate it. Again, my apologies for being such a newb. Interestingly enough, I feel an interest in this stuff as it would be great to be able to have the knowledge to fix damaged electronics.

Thanks,
-Stelio

[budm]

@stelio, look for PANASONIC FM series, or FC, FM is what I use.
http://search.digikey.com/us/en/cat/...panasonic%20FM

[Stelio]

Originally Posted by budm

@stelio, look for PANASONIC FM series, or FC, FM is what I use.
http://search.digikey.com/us/en/cat/...panasonic%20FM

Thank you. An interesting thing just happened. I just had a friend over and he was looking at my interface and noticed something that I had missed. There is some discoloration on something on the board that looks like it may have been a failure which needs to be replaced. Problem is, I don't know what the thing is called to find a replacement or its function.

In Broosta's origional post he uploaded some photos (2nd & 3rd), you can see thing that has a white ribbon around it marked as "coev, TTl8711" on top. Mine has clear markings as though it has been shorted, the ribbon has some burnt markings on it the color of caramel. I took some photos and tried to upload but for some reason the browser keeps timing out when I attempt to upload them.

Does anybody have any guess as to what it might be?

Thx,
-Stelio

[Agent24]

Maybe your photos are too large for the forum to handle. Try resizing them down a little bit.