staudio dsp24 blown by lightning strike

B

Brian Ferrell

New member
After a lightning strike took out the southbridge of my old ASUS board, it also fried my DSP24. I really liked this card that I used in conjunction with the DAC/ADC 2000 breakout box, but now I can't find a decent place to buy a new card. I guess Hoontech/STaudio is out of business? I bought a used Tascam US-1641 but that thing uses 35-50% CPU just turning it on and plugging it in to my new rig. I try to play back a Sonar project that worked fine with my old rig but it won't even play it back for a second without dropping out although I've tried all the new drivers and firmware and raised the latency as far as it will go. Does anyone know where I can get a new or used DSP24 card? I put in a search on Ebay with no results.
 
Two things come to mind. The first is that your card may simply be incompatible with the new motherboard. Modern motherboards use 3.3V PCI signaling, while older cards required 5V. Ih theory, they are keyed differently where they won't physically fit if they aren't compatible, but some logic board vendors are probably sloppy about that. Not that this is of much help. That said, I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope there, as I looked up that chip and I think it should be 3.3V-capable. That's not saying they didn't botch something else compatibility-wise, though. :D

The second is that if the company is really out of business, you're probably better served by buying a PCI FireWire card and a FireWire-based interface at this point. USB sucks at handling large numbers of channels, as you saw, but FireWire should handle it with ease.
 
Dear dgatwood,

Would that compatibility were just the issue! I'd simply get another ASUS P3B-F MOBO. The DSP24 is a 5 volt card but I don't think the problem is incompatibility with the new MOBO- the 3.3 Volt standards are keyed oppositely of the 5 volt standard- it simply wouldn't fit (I think, from the diagrams on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conventional_PCI -as you say, there may be exceptions). Anyway, I tried the card in a bunch of computers including what I think were actually older MOBOS than mine and every time the computer would simply not boot. As a matter of fact, NONE of the PCI cards from the lightning-struck computer would allow the computers to boot! The south bridge chip actually has a 1/4" visible hole burned into it. Since the south bridge controls PCI, I guess the surge took out all the attached PCI cards.

Sonicsense.com confirmed that the DSP24 is no longer manufactured. They were advertising the card on their website for $259.00 but when I emailed them they confirmed my suspicions. I guess I'm SOL unless I can pick one up on Ebay.

Thanks for the advice about Firewire versus USB. That's the first I've heard that USB can't handle large numbers of tracks. As you say, I experienced it first hand with the Tascam US-1641. I was thinking about getting a Tascam US-144 but now I'm not going to. Your advice will save me a lot of aggration and will simplify my choice selection for a new card. Thanks again for your concern and help.
 
Brian Ferrell said:
Anyway, I tried the card in a bunch of computers including what I think were actually older MOBOS than mine and every time the computer would simply not boot. As a matter of fact, NONE of the PCI cards from the lightning-struck computer would allow the computers to boot! The south bridge chip actually has a 1/4" visible hole burned into it. Since the south bridge controls PCI, I guess the surge took out all the attached PCI cards.
Click to expand...

Wow. I wouldn't expect a bad card to keep the machine from booting unless the PCI hardware on the card fused a couple of addressing pins together or something. :D Usually, you'd expect a dud card to just not get detected.

No chance there's some sort of solder dendrite or a shorted capacitor between the power rail and the ground, is there? Just the first thought that comes to mind if you feel like doing a little debugging. :)
 
Now you've got me going back to my old budget troubleshooting ways! I got out the old multitester and tried to find some shorted capacitors. I got excited when 2 of them tested inboard with no resistance in either direction but when I removed one of them, it acted as it should- some conductance fading into resistance with both polarities. I tested the holes where I'd removed the capacitor from and that was still testing as a short. From what I can remember it shouldn't, so I tested a nearby power transistor inboard and that shorted on 2 of the 3 leads. When I removed one of the shorted leads from the board and retested, the multitester reported no short on the transistor. Unless this evidence gives you some clues, I'm giving up on this- I have no schematic and this task could go on forever and besides, it could lead to a shorted IC and I won't be able to fix that.
 
Hey Brian I was wondering if you had a power conditioner or not. I invested less then 200.00 and bought a Furman power conditioner for my set up and have had no problems yet.
 
Nope, I don't have a power conditioner (something I'm seriously considering for our band's PA system after tripping circuit breakers at one of our last gigs). I had good surge protector in place but it didn't cover the internet cable. Now I have an APC battery backup that has surge protection for everything including the internet cable. Better late than never- but don't tell my DSP24 that. :D
 
Oh man! I went on Furman's site and watched the video on their equipment and was impressed. I also know people that have had their gear saved by Furman products. Good luck.
 
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