Videomate TV Tuner - Constant hiss?

[Sobek]

Hey guys, yet another mundane problem.

I have a Videomate TV Tuner that I sold to some of my dads friends (they wanted to backup all of their ancient family VHS's to DVD), and everything was fine. The device worked in my system, and in theirs for about a day... Then they call me telling me the latest video they recorded had a constant hiss in it, I figures fair enough, it's probably either a dodgy disc, dirty videoheads or someone's accidentally tinkered with their audio panel and unmuted/enabled something they shouldn't have (they're not that bright ).

Needless to say, after hours spent trying to get the bugger working, nothing I did could combat this constant, extremely loud HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS coming in from both speakers (though prominently the right speaker). In the end I removed the card with the intention of returning home to troubleshoot it, but upon looking at the card after removing it I found what appeared to be the problem...a burnt out trace. I took the card home, hooked it up and surely enough, as soon as I fired up the PVR software (for recording/viewing), the hiss was there, loud as ever. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on fixing it? Here's a picture of the trace in question. This is a picture of the exact card I have (i've brightened and highlighted the problem area, this is the largest picture of the card I can find, no camera on hand at present sorry...);

There's no extreme damage, it's just the copper wiring from the PCI connector's end up to just about the small soldered area, so there's a little bit of copper exposed on both ends. I tried getting a nice dark pencil and filling the hell out of it, but it didn't make a difference (there was a slight change in quality, the hiss gave a slight stutter every 10 seconds or so). Any ideas what I can do? I'd like to fill it in using one of those lovely pens with the epoxy or whatever in them, but honestly, no place within 3000km's of me sells them (or at least, I haven't been able to find one). Any suggestions? I won this card at a lan and never even used it until a few weeks ago when I sold it, so i'm sure the warranty is out, and i'd rather try and fix it then have to refund these people their money and potentially get a new card should I ever want to use it.

Big thanks for any help!

*edit* I have thorougly checked every remaining iota of the card, and there is not a single other trace of damage anywhere to be seen (also checked under the shieled section on the frontside).

 

[the maddman]

Looks like from a check of the PCI bus pin out, that pin is "Test/Reset", so there's no easy solution like just soldering a wire to a ground point. You'll probably have to try and get some trace wire and try and bypass the burnt out part.

However, I'm pretty sure there's something else going wrong with your friends computer. That pin shouldn't have enough current on it to burn out a trace. I'd be worried about more damage to the card beyond just what's visible.

 

[Sobek]

Hmm, thanks for the info :smile:

I did notice that while it was installed in their system it was on a *slight* angle...though they have a few other PCI devices operating on the same slight angle and have had nary a problem (perhaps their pc just hates me).

Would the test/reset pin, if damaged/destroyed, be capable making the card do what it's doing? (The constant hiss), or is that what you mean by more damage other than what's visible (ie; something internally wrong somewhere due to the damage). Assuming for a moment that the rest of the card were in perfect shape (every single feature still works fine other than audio....TVin, Composite, S-Video, multiple streams), would fixing that burnt trace be a plausible 'fix'? I've got a fantastic little soldering iron and a LOT of varyingly sized copper, some of which should do the trick. Or would you think that wont accomplish anything?

Just want to be absolutely sure before I stick it back in its box and start handing back cash

 

[the maddman]

Hmm, thanks for the info :smile:

I did notice that while it was installed in their system it was on a *slight* angle...though they have a few other PCI devices operating on the same slight angle and have had nary a problem (perhaps their pc just hates me).

Would the test/reset pin, if damaged/destroyed, be capable making the card do what it's doing? (The constant hiss), or is that what you mean by more damage other than what's visible (ie; something internally wrong somewhere due to the damage). Assuming for a moment that the rest of the card were in perfect shape (every single feature still works fine other than audio....TVin, Composite, S-Video, multiple streams), would fixing that burnt trace be a plausible 'fix'? I've got a fantastic little soldering iron and a LOT of varyingly sized copper, some of which should do the trick. Or would you think that wont accomplish anything?

Just want to be absolutely sure before I stick it back in its box and start handing back cash

Yeah, I'm worried that whatever managed to dump enough current to scorch the board cooked other things.

I'd fix any visible damage I could, but honestly, I don't have much hope in that being the only thing broken.