audio card needs cooling?

[groovewerx]

mine is a wamirack24 by egosys click for info (http://egosys.net/eng/product/products/wami_rack_24/WMR24.html) its a pci card with a breakout box.

i know they normally run kinda hot, and usually don't act up. but lately, after 5 or 6 hours, they add artifacts to the mix. i'd like to cool them down in hopes of gaining more stable performance. but before i install fans, i want some feedback...


1. is this a good idea?
2. if so, should i cool both or just the pci card?
3. any suggestions on heat sinks and air flow?
4. any reg hacks?

btw: the breakout box is in a 19" rackmount not a computer case...

[Diggrr]

You could try one of those slot coolers that blow inward. It fits in one of the card slots. If that won't work for ya, just try a fan on the door next to it.
If heat continues to be a problem, you can get those little bitty aluminum heatsings for board components from Radio Shack, and use Arctic Alumina Adhesive to mount them to any chips on the board. They work pretty good even if they are from the Shack.

*edit* by the way, you could try uninstalling/reinstalling the sound card too. Artifacts could be a driver corruption, usually fixed by reinstalling the drivers.

[RoadWarrior]

It might well be the amp on the card getting a little toasty, they rarely sink these, just solder them to a large ground plane on the board, if you're lucky it's just bollted down, and you can put a decent sink under it, if it's soldered, you might want to leave alone unless you feel brave..... Seen that before on several soundcards.
however looking at the thumbnail of the card on the site you provided I can't really identify the amp on the thing and you have a couple of biggish looking DSP type chips that may equally well be responsible. I'd just cyano or "frag tape" a couple of 486 heatsinks on them to see if things improved any. They probably don't need much cooling, just a little help. You could use artic silver epoxy on those if you've got any, but since it takes 6 hours to have problems, I don't think you need to go buy any specifically for that.

regards,

Road Warrior