Re: [LAU] Are my sound cards really dead?

I've got 2 dead sound devices and am wondering if there is any way to determine if the death is complete or a software issue? 1. My Audiophile 2496 has been working for years in my computer. A few months ago it just stopped. At the time I figured it was a software upgrade issue with pulseaudio, etc. so I pulled the card and ran with the on-board sound on my Asus motherboard. Didn't sound wonderful, but not to bad ... and I really did intend to upgrade the software "real soon" so I just lived with it. Until today... 2. the on board sound on the Asus MB decided that "white noise" was much more appreciated by me than the Ornette Coleman which I was playing. Okay, it might be right ... but several reboots later it was still insisting on static.