Keyboard stopped working properly

[Piesang]

I hope you can help me. I have a Roland E86 Keyboard. It all of a sudden stopped working. The sounds are messed up. Playing all different sounds when I try to play it.

I took it in for expection and was told that the problem was traced to the software map of sounds and storage on the memory section of the unit.

What could be the cause of something like this? My insurance don't want to pay out because they say it is normal wear and tear and that there is no specific reason why it should just stopped working.

I will appreciate your reply.

Thanks

 

[happyrat1]

Something like this can in fact be attributed to normal wear and tear, at least as far as warranties are concerned.

As to the actual cause, there's multiple possibilities. A cascading bug in the firmware could easily have caused this, or even a bad flash the last time you upgraded the firmware.

Or it could also have been corrupted by noisy power lines or power surges in the mains. Are you located in a rural area with lots of brownouts and/or flaky power lines?

Or even a third possibility, a faulty regulator or defective capacitor in the keyboard power supply itself. If you have access to an oscilloscope then take a look at the shape of the sine waves coming in on your mains supply and take a look at the DC output being fed internally to your keyboard from its onboard power supply.

If you could prove the internal DC is noisy then you'd have a case for a warranty repair, as long as it's still covered by warranty.

If, however, you are trying to cover this with your homeowner's policy, then two things apply. 1) Exactly how "good" is your insurance. and 2) What passes for "adequate" mains power in your area.

All of this aside, though, have you tried initiating a factory reset on your keyboard and failing that have you tried reflashing the firmware with the latest from Roland?

It could ultimately be caused by any one or even two or all three of the possible causes I've mentioned, but proving it to an insurance adjuster's satisfaction is a whole different animal.

If it's out of warranty and you are trying to make a homeowner's insurance claim then I advise you to simply give up and pay for the repair out of your own pocket because a successful claim will drive your rates up and they may even end up canceling your coverage if you win.

It's basically lose/lose either way you flip it.

Gary

 

[happyrat1]

And just in case your home's power lines are full of noise and garbage, my advice would be once you get the repair done properly, invest in a UPS or some other power line conditioning device.

 

[happyrat1]

And one final, if remote possibility is that the memory chip is simply flaky or else it "went bad" due to nothing more than a stray cosmic ray or random static electric shock. Again, without an iron clad warranty this too would be viewed as "normal wear and tear."

It's rare, but sometimes chips simply do go bad for no good reason.

 

[borislavbaros]

Is there some way to reset they keyboard or something to change the keyboard so that it functions more easily...And sometimes the notebook keyboard is not working properly.

 

[happyrat1]

I can't find any reference to a factory reset setting in the manual.

http://media.rolandus.com/manuals/E-86_OM.pdf

Try posting over on a Roland Specific Forum.

http://www.roland-arranger.com/