Vintage Synth Repair

Hi all, I've just acquired a Roland U20 keyboard and when I powered it up it showed Grand piano,the keys all worked,I tried the Romplay demo, they worked and I thought Great, I've got a bargain. When I next powered it up a few hours later instead of the display showing Grand piano it showed some strange characters(crochets and things) and the keyboard plays nothing.The Romplay still works but no keys.Could it need a new battery,if I replace it will I need to load factory reset data and if so where can I get it and how do I do it? Or has it just given up the ghost.

Any help gratefully accepted as I don't really want to scrap a nice keyboard.

Regards Colin

Hi all, I have just acquired a U20 and when I first powered it up all seemed OK. All keys played,display showed Grandpiano.I then selected RomPlay and both tunes played OK so I turned it off and congratulated myself on an absolute bargain. When I powered it up again instead of Grandpiano on the display I got some musical notes(quavers etc) and general rubbish, non of the keys play anything but the Romplay still works OK. I've read it could be the battery but if I change it will I have to Factory Reset it. If so where can I can a factory reset rom and how do I do it? I have a working U220,can this be used in some way. Sorry if this message appears twice but when I first sent it nothing appeared on the group(the same happened with the last post I sent) so I've had to post again. Any help gratefully accepted,It would be a shame to split it up for spares.

Regards Colin

Hi..
have a look at page 148 of owner’s manual for initialization procedure maybe that could help you
you could probably also do a bulk dump using midi to keyboard from pc if above didn’t help
regards, NoelBuhagiar







Hi all, I've just acquired a Roland U20 keyboard and when I powered it up it showed Grand piano,the keys all worked,I tried the Romplay demo, they worked and I thought  Great, I've got a bargain. When I next powered it up a few hours later instead of the display showing Grand piano it showed some strange characters(crochets and things) and the keyboard plays nothing.The Romplay still works but no keys.Could it need a new battery,if I replace it will I need to load factory reset data and if so where can I get it and how do I do it? Or has it just given up the ghost.


   Any help gratefully accepted as I don't really want to scrap a nice keyboard.


Regards Colin

The factory sounds are available for free from Roland's website- in fact, the entire existant lot of factory patches for early MIDI Roland synths is there in sysex form. You'll need MidiOx and a MIDI interface to do the job. Your battery needs replacing, it's a standard CR2032 and is in a slide-out holder rather than being soldered in. Download the owner's manual while you're at the Roland site. Hope this helps. Bought my U-20 new in 1989 and still use it- doing so later tonight, in fact.