Soundblaster live card not working, prevents systems from posting when installed.

[J. Radon]

I have two SoundBlaster cards; a SoundBlaster Live, and a SoundBlaster PCI 512. The SoundBlaster PCI 512 works great, but the SoundBlaster Live card doesn't work at all; I've tried it in two different known good systems so far, and simply installing it completely prevents both systems from posting.
Does anyone know why that might be, or how to diagnose it? Nothing is jumpered on the board currently, and i'm not really sure if anything should be. None of the caps look bad as far as I can tell, so I don't know what the problem might be. Even if the card is dead, is it normal for a dead card to prevent an otherwise working system from posting? I've carefully inspected the board, and I don't see any bent pins, shorts, debris or any other issues.
I don't know much about quartz crystals, but I see one near the center of the board, is that a common failure point? I don't really know.

edit: I see there's a single resistor missing that looks like it was possibly broken off the board or something (little bits of the smd endcaps are still suspended in the solder on the pads, so it might be an easy fix at the reflow station with some tweezers if I knew what it's supposed to be.) It looks like it was bridging two other resistors. It's resistor 82 and it's bridging resistors 83 and 87.

Could something that small really be the cause of all this? I feel like it's unlikely right?

edit again: I'm dumb, it's not a resistor, it's a capacitor (I think??) looks like cap 103.

is there a diagram of the board anywhere? Or perhaps someone who knows about these cards?

 

[J. Radon]

Here's an image of the card in question http://imgur.com/a/OHlmVTr

 

[Ruud]

Static electricity can destroy a card in such way that connections are created been pins which normally don't exist. And these connections, for example a connection between two address lines, can prevent a system to start up.

 

[J. Radon]

Static electricity can destroy a card in such way that connections are created been pins which normally don't exist. And these connections, for example a connection between two address lines, can prevent a system to start up.

How could static create permanent shorts? I'm not doubting it's possible, but I've never heard of that.
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If that's the case, is it something I can properly diagnose with testing?
I've got a decent multimeter, soldering/rework station, and other tools.

Is there a list of steps I could take, like pads where I could test for reference voltages, or pins I can check for shorts or something?

I mean, I feel like if worse comes to worse the card would look cool mounted behind glass on the wall, but it'd be cooler in a system if I could get it working.

 

[Timo W.]

ESD is nothing more than a very high voltage. It can arc inside an IC and melt metal parts together. Or even easier, it does that with a single transistor - because that's how a transistor fails normally: it becomes fully conductive between all pins.

I wouldn't waste too much time with that card. If it prevents a PC from even starting, it has a serious issue. These cards however are cheap and easy to get, while repairing is very hard.

 

[J. Radon]

ESD is nothing more than a very high voltage. It can arc inside an IC and melt metal parts together. Or even easier, it does that with a single transistor - because that's how a transistor fails normally: it becomes fully conductive between all pins.

I wouldn't waste too much time with that card. If it prevents a PC from even starting, it has a serious issue. These cards however are cheap and easy to get, while repairing is very hard.

Aww, that's a bummer to hear, but if it really can't be helped I'll leave it alone. I would eventually like to get another nice PCI sound card, as I currently only have a soundblaster PCI 512, and a generic ISA card.

 

[Timo W.]

You can get a Live! on eBay for under 20 bucks. I would recommend getting an Audigy instead, however.

 

[J. Radon]

You can get a Live! on eBay for under 20 bucks. I would recommend getting an Audigy instead, however.

Duely noted! Thank you. I've never heard of Audigy, and I didn't know soundblaster cards went for that cheap. Of the two I have, one was inherited, and the other was in a system I got from a thrift store.