Internal battery?

[evergreenthompson]

The owner's manuals for the MM6/MM8, MO6/MO8, PSR-E413, PSR-S700/-S900, S90 ES, and probably others contain the following notice:

Battery Notice:
This product MAY contain a small non-rechargeable battery which (if applicable) is soldered in place. The average life span of this type of battery is approximately five years. When replacement becomes necessary, contact a qualified service representative to perform the replacement.
​

Any idea how to tell which keyboard(s) have the permanent battery, short of bringing a screwdriver to the store?

 

[Skipp]

I'm not sure but i think that MOs, s700/900s, and S90 ESs don't have battery power at all.

 

[evergreenthompson]

I just found out a good number of Korg models (including the M50 I am considering buying) also have an internal battery, and like on Yamaha, the user cannot replace it when it dies without voiding the warranty.

Makes me wonder if all keyboards don't have a non-user-replaceable battery. One day you wake up with a non-functional keyboard. Or worse, right before the gig starts!

Then you've got one of two options. Track down a someone who can replace the battery without voiding the warranty, assuming there is still any warranty left when the day occurs.

Or, you can try replacing it yourself, like this guy did on his Korg 01/W. (Hopefully by now, no manufacturer is soldering batteries directly onto the boards anymore.)

Seems like it would have been better for everyone if the manufacturers would build a small battery access cover into their keyboards.

At least this is something a person won't have to bother with more than every five years.

 

[kanthos]

Probably the battery is to send occasional charges to refresh the memory. Computers used to do (maybe still do) that kind of thing to keep the BIOS refreshed, since it was something that was supposed to be permanently available, could be changed by the user, and wasn't stored to magnetic media, such as a hard drive. I suspect keyboards do the same kind of thing.

 

[Mourndark]

kanthos has got it right, they keep all your user settings stored. I wouldn't think that new ones are too hard to get hold of, as they are probably the same as the CMOS batteries on motherboards (but don't take my word for it!)

Chances are, if the battery dies, the keyboard will just reset to factory settings.

 

[evergreenthompson]

Yeah, I figured the internal battery was to maintain settings while the thing is off, or unplugged for the keyboards that have on/standby.

I just think it's a bit odd something so simple to replace is generally considered warranty-voiding if the user replaces it. Even many laptop manufacturers allow the user to crack open the case to replace the CMOS battery without voiding the warranty.

 

[fbieler47]

I believe that manufacturers are a bit hesitant about having Sparky the electrical genius change a battery that is soldered in. In a computer it's no problem because it is removable, don't have to worry about having a roadie droping it two flights of stairs and having the battery fall out, so it can be in a battery holder. On the other hand, kboards are dropped and physically abused every day, not ours of course, we take too good care of ours to let that happen, but in the gigging roadtrip kind of life the abuse is pretty bad so they have to solder the battery in to the motherboard. I learned the hard way with my Poly Six, too much heat unsoldering and a lot more than the solder and battery come off, so do the traces on the board and the ferrules for through point connections to the layers of the Motherboard and that leaves you with a nice door stop, or conversation piece, but no more music.
And even though you have extremely good manual dexterity, there are only seven thousand screws and plugs and wires and brackets and all that crap before you even get to see the mother board.
And you cannot ignore the dead battery, although it is to keep the memory refreshed and when it is dead it reverts to default settings, and you think you can live with that little inconvenience, when the battery goes dead it starts to leak all sorts of nasty chemicals on your board, dissolving anything that's near it, and even the fumes are corrosive and they migrate and ruin parts at a distance from the battery.
Time for my meds