Lithium battery

[odabash]

can an old/dead lithium battery prevent a keyboard from resetting? my rhythms won't play at all - cannot get them to function - i thought maybe the battery had an effect. the existing battery is 10 years old.

 

[Biggles]

Technically it is possible as some types of flash memory were classed as volatile which means that they need a power feed to maintain the memory. Changing a button cell every 18-24m is good practice to ensure data is not corrupted or lost and the Manual should give guidance on that the manufacturer recommends.

So change the button cell and see what then happens.

 

[delaware dave]

can an old/dead lithium battery prevent a keyboard from resetting? my rhythms won't play at all - cannot get them to function - i thought maybe the battery had an effect. the existing battery is 10 years old.

If one of the battery's functions is to hold "memory" (volatile RAM) then a dead battery would mean the data was lost. I have a GEM Equinox whose battery supports memory. When the batteries die the memory gets lost and will have to be reloaded after the new battery is installed. My Kurzweil's memory is supported in Flash RAM meaning that the data is written to a chip that retains the memory without a battery. My Kurzweil also has a CR2032 lithium battery in it; its function is support the "clock" which in turn supports time stamps of files written to memory and therefore supports various versions of the data. If your keyboard doesn't have an EEPROM or Flash then the battery supports your data and a dead battery means lost data. As always it is a good idea to backup your data just in case a lost data event occurs; this way it can be restored. For my GEM keyboards I have a couple of backups. I even have backups of my Kurzweil data on USB card just in case the Flash RAM chip were to fail or if I want to transfer my contents to another Kurzweil keyboard. Backups are part of good housekeeping.

 

[Biggles]

If one of the battery's functions is to hold "memory" (volatile RAM) then a dead battery would mean the data was lost. I have a GEM Equinox whose battery supports memory. When the batteries die the memory gets lost and will have to be reloaded after the new battery is installed. My Kurzweil's memory is supported in Flash RAM meaning that the data is written to a chip that retains the memory without a battery. My Kurzweil also has a CR2032 lithium battery in it; its function is support the "clock" which in turn supports time stamps of files written to memory and therefore supports various versions of the data. If your keyboard doesn't have an EEPROM or Flash then the battery supports your data and a dead battery means lost data. As always it is a good idea to backup your data just in case a lost data event occurs; this way it can be restored. For my GEM keyboards I have a couple of backups. I even have backups of my Kurzweil data on USB card just in case the Flash RAM chip were to fail or if I want to transfer my contents to another Kurzweil keyboard. Backups are part of good housekeeping.

OMG Dave.

Your response oh so reminds me of the Electronics course I had to do as part of my BSc Degree.