capacitor polarity

[fixr1984]

Im fairly new to this and didnt realize that some capacitors have a + and a - side to them and that they must be installed a certain way. Would improper instalation cause a circuit to work backwards so to speek? I have one circuit that will have sound come thru it with no power on it and once power is put on it cuts the sound right out. The other circuit has sound all the time with no change once the battery is installed.

[R.G.]

Improper orientation of polarized capacitors makes them act like a very low resistance instead of a capacitor in most cases. What you're describing could well be caused by wrong-way capacitors.

Resistors and inductors pretty much don't care which way you turn them, and capacitors without polarity marks don't either. Every other electronic part is critically dependent on getting the leads connected up exactly the right way.  This is why about 90% of beginner problems are caused by not looking up the correct pin diagram every time.

[fixr1984]

Thank you very much..I was hoping that might be the problem and that someone would agree before i went and started taking both of my boards apart to fix the polarity.

[fixr1984]

Well I got it working..kinda. After  a few days of switching parts out and re looking at the schematic I finaly realized that if I wouldnt have switched the positive and negative of my in and out jacks i could have avoided a lot of crap....lol. Like I said I'm new to this. I still feel dumb about it cause i looked at them many times and still for some reason thought they were in the right place. The problem i have now is that I may have the wrong transistor in but im not sure. BTW im making Joe's Easydrive. Radio Shack had a big pack of transistors that I bought cause they were NPN and that was what i needed but i cant figure out if that will cause me to have little boost. The number is 2n222. I looked it up the data sheet on it but i have no clue what im looking for. The reccomended number is 2n5089. Did I screw up thinking this pack was a good deal? Any help would be great.