Audio Drive ES688 ISA Sound Card - Capacitor Replacement

With the failure to repair the Dasher for RetroChallenge 2022/10 we never got to test this card out. After a bit of a dig through Vogons it looks like we might have drivers if we did get it working.

The card itself looks to be a Miss Melody (ESS Audiodrive 688 / ES688) according to links one (photo credit) and two - both are non-english links so you might need a translator.

Found some capacitors that were appropriate.

Mostly Rubycon YX*, ZL* and Panasonic FR series.

We gathered the ingredients and gear needed for the ritual.

A wave of the wand, the Hakko 808 desolder gun, and the capacitors were removed.

We tend to reference Tom’s Hardware for capacitor tiers. Interestingly, the NCK brand we removed were nowhere to be seen.

We then removed the jumpers, after noting where they were installed. This shouldn’t be an issue though as we have those previously mentioned sites that give us a little more detail. If you are looking here in the future, you can try using archive.org to pull up the dead site.

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