Anyone familiar with RME sound cards (repair)?

[living sounds]

Thanks! Went through the board several times, there is no reset generator looking like the one you linked to.

As for syncing, I think RME always designs in a way that has the signal reclocked by their SteadyClock (which restarts the clock once ever 1-2 sec I think) circuit, so there's probably additional circuitry vs. the reference design. It definitely doesn't simply slave to it.

There is just that one 74HCT04D on the board. One HCT4046. Two ADG451BR. Flash memory, the Xilinx FPGA and a Xilinx XC9536XL CPLD.

So if the HCT4046 is probably for ADAT, maybe it's time to try and replace the ADG451BR closer to the DAC? There are also a lot of SMT transistors, non of which looks compromised from the outside.


One more thing: The optical input only works only with ADAT signals, not with an incoming standard digital signal.

 

[living sounds]

Thanks Andy, so the DS26LS32ACM seems to be working fine.

 

[Kingston]

One more thing: The optical input only works only with ADAT signals, not with an incoming standard digital signal.

Huh? I have been using the optical input as s/pdif just fine.

 

[MatthisD]

Hardware reset is done by powering off and back on, so the reset generator if it was there would allow a warm reboot 9632 reset if that makes sense!? so only one 74HCT04D present also makes sense.

RME manual: "After the update the PCI card needs to be resettet. This is done by powering down and shutting off the PC. A warm boot is not enough!"

Looking more likely that ADG451BR is not functioning or something related to it. See 'S1' in the eval board diagram. If that was stuck in the toslink position and S3 in the EXT(J2) position that would create your scenario, or at least very similar don't you think?

RME manual:

"SPDIF In
Defines the input for the SPDIF signal. 'Optical' relates to the optical TOSLINK input, 'Coaxial' to
the RCA socket, 'Internal' to the jumper CD/AEB/SYNC IN, 'AES' to the optional XLR cable."

from earlier

ADG451BR could be used for the equivalent switches S1,2,3,4 in the eval board diagram.

"The ADG451/ADG452/ADG453 contain four independent,
single-pole/single-throw (SPST) switches"

That would be worth replacing before anything else maybe as it switches between AES/spdif in and EXT DATA (RME calling that; SPDIF In/Internal)

 

[living sounds]

Huh? I have been using the optical input as s/pdif just fine.

On my defective sound card, that's the point. 

 

[living sounds]

MatthisD, thanks! I'll get the ADG451BR then.

 

[MatthisD]

maybe a couple of HCT4046 too if they're cheap, is the toslink the adat port? if so then the s/pdif might be affected by that part.

 

[living sounds]

maybe a couple of HCT4046 too if they're cheap, is the toslink the adat port? if so then the s/pdif might be affected by that part.

Yes, ADAT and optical S/PDIF share the same port. But the card only syncs to an ADAT signal now.

 

[living sounds]

Got the ADG451BR today. I first replaced the one next to the previously damaged electrolytic caps. The card synced! After a minute or so I switched the converter feeding the 9632's S/PDIF input from 96khz to 88khz - and the sync went away. Since then I couldn't get it to sync again no matter what I did. I then proceeded to replace the second ADG451BR - no difference. The problem on the output is still present, too.

Time to try and replace the HCT4046? There's only a single one of them.

 

[MatthisD]

Time to try and replace the HCT4046? There's only a single one of them.

Worth a try surely, if that fails I had an idea that you could use an old useless PCI card edge connector and PCI socket and wire them together with enough length to test the card outside of the PC so you could test the card powered up.

 

[living sounds]

Replacing the HTC4046 didn't help either. The only difference I could register was that the card now plays much longer without shutting down playback even at 88,2 khz. (20-30 seconds vs. 1-2 seconds). Probably not related however.

 

[gyraf]

shutdown heat related? Try freeze-spray?

 

[living sounds]

shutdown heat related? Try freeze-spray?

Don't think so, just resetting the ASIO driver (e.f. going into the sample rate settings dialog in Reaper) will suffice. I'm not even sure the issue of the distorted playback and the sync not working are really related...