# Gold on sound cards? Gold VS. Copper



## Anonymous (Feb 18, 2008)

Ok, i don't have a picture to show this, so I'm going to try and describe it. I found an old sound card today at a thrift shop. The circuit board was all gold in color on the bottom part. Is that gold? Or is it copper?

How do you identify gold vs. copper on electronics?


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## Harold_V (Feb 19, 2008)

mrgreenblack said:


> Ok, i don't have a picture to show this, so I'm going to try and describe it. I found an old sound card today at a thrift shop. The circuit board was all gold in color on the bottom part. Is that gold? Or is it copper?
> 
> How do you identify gold vs. copper on electronics?



Color alone should be adequate. Copper isn't yellow, it's pink/red or "copper" colored. Gold would be pure, or nearly so, and would be yellow. Remember that boards are often coated, so the real color may not be what you're seeing. 

There are chemical tests for identifying metals. Buy Hoke's book and get educated. It will teach you how to test, how to build solutions, how to refine the values----pretty much anything you may need to know. It is written in common terms so even a person without a chemical background can understand what is being discussed. 

BUY THE BOOK! It will be the best money you've spent lately. Promise!

Harold


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## Gotrek (Feb 19, 2008)

You're probably talking about the soundblaster live cards. I think that coating is an annodizing. It's closer to white then yellow.

I'm not going to be the one finding out though I still use those in systems.


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## Anonymous (Feb 19, 2008)

I've had a few sound cards that were gold instead of copper.


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## aflacglobal (Feb 19, 2008)

Welcome to the forum Vanished.


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## banjags (Feb 19, 2008)

I have a whole box full of video and sound cards that have gold plating under the solder mask. There are some sound blaster, but most of them are ensoniq which is made by sound blaster I think. The video cards are old ati rage cards.


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## Shaul (Feb 19, 2008)

I've been using Steve's method of scraping around the edges of sound and video cards to see the color underneath the solder mask, and I've been finding more & more cards with gold-colored plating underneath; the same color as the plating on the fingers.


Shaul


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## Gotrek (Feb 19, 2008)

This is the type of card I'm thinking off

http://mail.lipsia.de/~enigma/neu/pics/sb_live.jpg

(LARGE PICTURE)


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## ericrm (Oct 28, 2012)

does anyone have dealt with those card? are they worth processing ?


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## philddreamer (Oct 28, 2012)

Eric, most of those cards, if you scrape the brown mask, you'll see gold plating underneath. I don't know how thick, though. It might be worth it if you have enough of them.

Phil


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## ericrm (Oct 28, 2012)

i have, like many others put them on the side 8) ,but i havent made any progress on the yield part, the only thing that i have see is how much tin the plating apear to be under the mask,practicaly white...


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## Geo (Oct 29, 2012)

i toss them in with my other boards with gold traces. i have no idea about yields on these. i guess i could gather a batch and do a test. also, its not just sound cards. a large percentage of Ethernet cards have gold traces. its best to test them all.


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## ericrm (Oct 29, 2012)

geo i spot them with the white shinny finger. after that i scratch them to make sure


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## xALmoN (Oct 29, 2012)

Are you talking about the soundblaster cards with the whitish looking fingers?

Because I am confused as to what material those fingers are, they don't look like gold, yet they look like gold.


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## ericrm (Oct 29, 2012)

basicaly is is normal finger with a gold plating so thin that you see the nickel thru it.....


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## xALmoN (Oct 29, 2012)

ericrm said:


> basicaly is is normal finger with a gold plating so thin that you see the nickel thru it.....




Its somewhat like the picture I've just uploaded, if that's nickel, does that mean no AP? Though I'm sure that AP will leach it just fine.


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## Geo (Oct 29, 2012)

xALmoN said:


> ericrm said:
> 
> 
> > basicaly is is normal finger with a gold plating so thin that you see the nickel thru it.....
> ...



that is a normal gold plated finger and should do fine in AP.


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## xALmoN (Oct 29, 2012)

Color is very much lighter compared to ram and other pci cards though.

I'm still collecting, so, I'll worry about it come processing time. Thanks.


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## ericrm (Nov 7, 2012)

what do you think about this, i have removed the solder mask of this board but forget to remove the serial number paper after the wash i discover that the gold color with less contact with the stripper was goldyer in color. could i been stripping gold without realizing it .... i have try to erase both gold color the grayer gold dosent change ,the goldyer color lower with a few stoke, could it be a bad wash(unfinnish reaction with the solder mask ?...on the other hand .the other side with the sign,the sign didnt lower in yellownes with make me beleive that the gold indeed didnt dissolve... your impression would be nice to heard of


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## Marcel (Nov 7, 2012)

I had one of those. The fingers were good as usual and the plating of the rest of the PCB was flash, so it just vanished in AP. No need to say that the remaining tin added to the "pleasure".


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## Golddigger Greg (Nov 7, 2012)

I also ran into the same issues. There was a very little amount of gold that was stripped along with the solder mask on a couple of boards. Removing the card from the stripping solution as soon as possible and using an old toothbrush to scrub the remaining mask off worked for me. Like Marcel said, the plating was very thin and dissolved in A/P. In the future I'd just cut the fingers off and toss the board in to the PCI box to ship.


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## AndyWilliams (Nov 7, 2012)

Golddigger Greg said:


> I also ran into the same issues. There was a very little amount of gold that was stripped along with the solder mask on a couple of boards. Removing the card from the stripping solution as soon as possible and using an old toothbrush to scrub the remaining mask off worked for me. Like Marcel said, the plating was very thin and dissolved in A/P. In the future I'd just cut the fingers off and toss the board in to the PCI box to ship.




GG, 

Why would the plating dissolve in A/P? Doesn't that work like Nitric?


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## Geo (Nov 7, 2012)

it depends on how much oxidizer is in the copper chloride solution. copper chloride will not dissolve gold. if you are processing items with thin plating over a copper underlay, do not use fresh hcl and peroxide. use copper chloride from a previous batch and it doesnt matter how finely divided the gold plate comes off, it will not dissolve.


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## g_axelsson (Nov 7, 2012)

I've also seen that the gold surface could turn almost white if it sits in the lye too long. I suspect that it is tin that is dissolved in some places and cemented out on other tracks that have contact with another base metals. The card I saw it most clearly on was an old HP (Hewlett Packard) computer card, one of the fingers turned all white while the one beside it were golden and not affected at all.

If it looks like the gold flash is dissolving it is probably because it is so thin and breaks down into dust that is hard to see. It is also very light so it stays suspended in the liquid a lot longer and is easier to pour out with the AP at the end.
If you want to know how massive the gold on the tracks is, just put a drop of nitric on an exposed surface and watch what you get after the copper is dissolved. Then decide if it's enough value to mess with.

/Göran


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## Golddigger Greg (Nov 7, 2012)

I misspoke. It didn't dissolve, it was as Goran described; finely divided and settled as a near-black powder in the bottom of my leach bucket. 
I was so sure that gold had been stripped along with the mask that I saved the solids from the lye bath, incinerated them, rinsed, and placed them in a test tube with fresh HCl.


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## butcher (Nov 7, 2012)

From the looks of that test tube, it appears some gold did dissolve into solution, and is being reduced by tin.


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## Golddigger Greg (Nov 7, 2012)

Yep, I thought it looked pretty neat with the stratified layers like that! 8)


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## g_axelsson (Nov 8, 2012)

If you find gold in the lye bath it is probably from gold freed by dissolving solder. Any solder on gold dissolves the gold when it is melted. I guess that it could form a colored solution as the gold should be very fine particles when the tin is removed.

You should have found your gold flash suspended in the AC solution.
Do you still have it? Pour it into a glass jar, let it settle and look thru the bottom for any fine golden dust.

/Göran


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## Golddigger Greg (Nov 8, 2012)

I do still have it, and will get around to it eventually. Just too many irons in the fire to worry about the little bit in the test tube for right now.


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