I saw it happen years ago, when the first 1820m blew out the power section. It was during an install of sonar 8.5.3, as it ended the audio dock lost the so called lock.
It was very noticeable at the time the 1820m was sitting on top of a electric piano easy to see.
Now the 1616ms were on the deck out of view but these have a changed power circuit.
So even tho the record section power is blown,it comes on and locks normally.
The trouble appears under analyst.
Every time any input it received,
I'm seeing 2 bands shoot up 60dB or so.
One band is up at 90k or there about and the other is near 45k.
Every time a string is plucked or a sound thru the microphone, the band's shoot way up,
yet with no load,no trouble can be seen
and the playback output section is ok
The input power supply.
Looks like it was driven to resonance.
Caps poped.exploaded.
Finally disassembled the 1616m pain and found 2 exploded capacitors.
Now,as I say,
I saw it happen years ago,
On the 1820m it was the same trouble.
Resonance
Power supply ,caps driven to overvoltage.
They explode.
Back then the audio dock stopped working.
This time
Mucrodock 1616m
and another 1820m blew too.
My records made on the 1616m were ruined.
However.
If i set sonitus as up,it does operate up at that band 90000 hertz.
I shall need 3 or 4 instantations tho as the band is approximately 60dB up.
I purchased a new microdock 1616m again a few months ago
and that blew roo.
So I was really upset on this one.
I purchased a used oscilloscope to see it, the trouble
The 90k and 45k I saw on analyst.
Oscope to see where the trouble came from.
I did not see the trouble that I see on the a.c. power,it was not getting thru the microdock power supply.
The microdock dc was good dc
Haven't been able to get any work done because of this trouble.
So, finally,
Two days ago, I opened the 2nd blown 1616m and saw the caps.
Only thing I can think of has to be something in the update causing it or maybe it was when I reinstalled 8.5.3 on a new win10 install.
I don't know.
First time it occurred was August, September 2017
And 2009 or so when I purchased 8.5.3 SONAR.
Anyway
Thats a total of 4 units blown
2 1820m's
And 2 1616m"s
The 1212m's have a completely different power arrangent and so,they work.
The computer power supply powers them from the pci slot.
But no headphone outs,no pre and only 2 in 2 out..
But,I'm up running.
New caps ordered.
And I went to soldering school
Aced it.,
Solder to N.A.S.A. spec.USMC 1975.
Not long ago.electronucs maint,TELETYPE repair specialist
Have to type a big sign on the SONAR installers
To remind me
turn off microdock before install.
No one to check SONAR installer now they're not working too.
Fyi my friends.
Wayne

https://fr.audiofanzine.com/carte-son-rack/e-mu/1820m/forums/t.61725,emu-1820m-et-applications-multimedia,p.2.html
 
2004?  You got of be kidding. And it's a sister to the  Sound Blaster like my old Audigy II card. 

The EMU interfaces were great for their time, but nothing special now.  In fact, with advances in I/O converters, other budget interfaces sound noticeably better than the EMU boxes.
 
If money is tight I can understand, but seems like a lot of trouble to keep these boxes going.  Plus, with those models I believe you're stuck with PCI, so good luck finding a newer motherboard that works efficiently with it (Modern PCI slots are bridged).  And then there's the matter of drivers...

No way a Sonar installation physically damaged the Emus. The 1820M and 1616s were notorious for capacitor issues after a few years of use. I didn’t even know about this until years later. I had an 1820m. That’s how mine died. I was using the headphone converter for mixing at night and the main outs were ok so I didn’t know until I went to sell it. Buyer came back miffed so I took it back and tested it and blown channel caps. I have a UR22mk2 that has better pres, drivers and converters than the emus.

Time to take that old emu out behind the shed and shoot it. If times are tight, you can get good used but modern interfaces on eBay. 

Whoa, that is an epic litany of hardware failure and repair. It also indicates a tenacious but perhaps misplaced loyalty to these mostly forgotten devices from a once-respected but now mostly forgotten manufacturer... I would agree that at this point it's probably time to move on! But I'm glad I read this thread because in fact I still run a 1616m, on a Cardbus connection via a cheap PCI adapter, and it still runs pretty much without problems under Windows 10 - it even survived the 1709 update!

I've certainly never experienced any issues with software updates of any kind - Sonar, Windows or drivers - and it seems pretty unlikely to me. More likely is just bog standard failure due to age, use and cheap components. The reason I'm glad I read this thread is that now I guess I should check mine out - I don't do a lot of recording with it, mostly playback (soft synths) but if it's hooped I want to know about it just in case I decide to record something and am trusting it just because it still plays back OK... Might be time to move on for me too!

No way that SONAR blew up your obsolete audio interfaces. A prime example of the "post hoc, ergo propter hoc" fallacy. This is a straight up hardware failure on an obsolete piece of hardware with a known issue that is the exact failure mode that presented itself.

There's all kinds of reasonably decent audio interfaces available for around $100.

subtlearts
Whoa, that is an epic litany of hardware failure and repair. It also indicates a tenacious but perhaps misplaced loyalty to these mostly forgotten devices from a once-respected but now mostly forgotten manufacturer... I would agree that at this point it's probably time to move on! But I'm glad I read this thread because in fact I still run a 1616m, on a Cardbus connection via a cheap PCI adapter, and it still runs pretty much without problems under Windows 10 - it even survived the 1709 update!

I've certainly never experienced any issues with software updates of any kind - Sonar, Windows or drivers - and it seems pretty unlikely to me. More likely is just bog standard failure due to age, use and cheap components. The reason I'm glad I read this thread is that now I guess I should check mine out - I don't do a lot of recording with it, mostly playback (soft synths) but if it's hooped I want to know about it just in case I decide to record something and am trusting it just because it still plays back OK... Might be time to move on for me too!

Hey Tobias - keep your 1616m until it dies. One of my older laptops uses a Cardbus 1616m for live playing of softsynths under Windows 7. It's a backup for my main laptop (using an RME Bayface Pro) also for softsynths, but the EMU still works just fine. Though not as good as the Babyface Pro as far as sound and latency goes, it is actually better as far as connectivity is concerned. I actually have another 1616m dock and 2 additional Cardbus cards as backups for my backup!
 
I would agree, however, that the chances of Sonar blowing out the OP's EMUs are virtually zero.

Emu related but have been using an usb 404 for years...does the job for me... anyway switched it on last week and blew, no Sonar on  !
 
So Roland quad capture now in place and notice a difference...