I came back to the UK, and bought an SD1 32voice. That was around 12 years ago, and it has just started to tell me my backup battery will soon need replacing. This keyboard has been great. I found, in most crashes, the crashes occurred after trying to access a faulty, or wrongly formatted disc, without doing a soft reset immediately afterwards.
I must admit, when it does crash, I haven't quiet figured a way to make it recover from a reset loop, with ease, every time. If anyone with the 32voice has worked out an easy recovery from when it says press any key to reset. Does anyone know whether that refers to the keyboard or to the softkeys?? I fumble on that part, and don't know what I did to get out of that loop, each time.
Good Luck.....
Ralph :-)
keybdt wrote:
Thanks STEVE! It's good to be in a forum like this where people are generous! It's time to open my VFX !!! YEAH YEAH YEAH ! --- In Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com, Steve Wahl wrote:I'm wondering does anyone know about the VFX-SD, does it has the same 'recalibration' problems it had with the VFX?My experience was opposite of yours. I never had the OS hang, and never had the keyboard calibration fail. I did once have the internal RAM sounds get zapped, possibly due to a static zap as it was after transporting it. However, I got mine late in the life cycle of the VFX, so probably had a newer version of the ROMS, which would explain the OS hang thing. I never had the keyboard calibration problem, but I didn't move it around much at first, and when I started moving it, I got it fixed proactively, before I actually saw the problem. The keyboard calibration thing was solved by Ensoniq, but it was WAY late in the game, after the SD-1 was released. There are two printed circuit boards under the keybed, joined by a connector in the middle of the keyboard. The pins of this connector would oxidize, resulting in bad connections that caused the calibration failure problem. I think the act of shipping the synth back to Ensoniq or opening it up to examine it tended to jostle this connection and make the problem go away, so the problem was hard for Ensoniq to figure out. The solution, was to get rid of the connector entirely and replace it with wires soldered between the boards. I believe it's referred to as the hard-wired keyboard mod. Instructions on how to do this are now available on the web. Even though aimed at the EPS sampler line, this page seems to apply quite well: http://www.chickensys.com/kb/eps-asr/014.html For the used market, you have to find out if the keyboard has had this fix performed or not. And if not, find a tech who will fix it for you, or, if you know which end of a soldering iron to grab (hint: not the hot end), be prepared to fix it yourself. I believe at one point, Ensoniq was performing the service for free, but only those who complained to their dealer or heard about it through other sources got it done -- maybe it was a high enough priority that if they brought their keyboard in for some other service, this repair was also done, but I'm not sure. Knowing that, it's up to you to guess the odds if the seller doesn't know if it's been done or not. Years ago, I bought a used VFX-SD to compliment my VFX. I was fully aware of the hardwired keyboard mod, and this VFX-SD was exhibiting the exact symptoms of the problem and available cheap because of it -- I figured it was a 90% chance or better that I could fix it myself, and get a fully functioning VFX-SD on the cheap. So, you can imagine my dismay when I opened it up and found that the connectors had already been replaced by wires! However, I re-soldered the connections, and cleaned all the other connectors between the keyboard and the main board. And I haven't had a problem since, knock on wood. In short (yeah, right), I don't know what OS problems you were having, but the keyboard calibration error is either already gone from your prospective purchase, or it can be fixed. --> Steve