Korg Forums

[Kletsivo]

My Kronos X 61 wouldn't boot and displayed:

SYSTEM STARTUP FAILED
Please turn the Kronos off, wait, and then turn it back on.
(If any USB devices are connected, please disconnect them first.)

*Red loading bar stops under "s" of "music"

Solution:
Take off the back of your Kronos and check the SSD drive's connection (red cable). I was surprised to find out that the cable doesn't clip to the SSD like it does on the other side where it's connected to the motherboard. It just kinda loosely plugged in.

Some older posts suggested removing RAM and putting it back again. It could help with your Kronos.

Extra tip: check your motherboard screws every now and then. I find one missing every 4 to 5 months and usually have to take the Kronos apart and shake it hard to find it and put it back. If you hear something jiggling when you move your keyboard don't risk it. Loose metal screws could damage the internals in many ways. I tried gluing them but no luck so far. I gig a lot and stages with super loud bass and the constant banging from traveling keep unscrewing them.

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[psionic311]

Glad you worked it out.

I checked out your video of your Get Lucky keyboard solo... very nice work. Interesting how you angled your Kronos. Your band looks and sounds great!

[Windsofsoul]

[fabianbarbin]

Does not boot up. I have new Kronos 2. I'm scared . Hope it doesn't happen to mine. Kong won't honor problems. 1 day late with warranty and he's on his own with the cost. the repair shop says their coming in for the same problems like hot cakes.

[Kletsivo]

Well...I have bad news. Apparently my "fix" was temporary. Now I have the same problem and sometimes it won't boot at all and just displays that a problem was detected, please reboot
My guess is that my SSD got damaged because I had to drag my keyboard for two blocks in it's korg hardcase. The vibrations from the not so smooth pavement messed it up probably.
Could also be the extreme weather conditions and temperature variations, -20c outside to 25c in the club. Whatever it is I am very disappointed. This is a pro flagship and it should be built and work like one. I have important gigs and auditions coming up and I'm extremely stressed. Imagine getting a once in a lifetime opportunity and your keys won't turn on! Add to that that I have to change my joystick every 5 months and check for loose screws every month, have issues with the PC editor and midi drivers, 2 minutes boot time, etc...
I'm very pleased with the Kronos as a workstation and I understand that as a first of it's kind it's not gonna be perfect but there are tons of little things korg just doesn't care about and won't address or fix. Too many cases of DOA and people resorting to buy a second kronos because they just couldn't fix the first one. If I lose my kronos I'll loose my job. My only hope right now is a miracle. Thanks for your time guys.
*waves a fist at korg while crying


Thank you @psionic311

@windsofsoul that's unacceptable bro. That's the main reason I hate korg. Once you bought the keyboard you're on your own really. I never had a problem solved at the shop. Korg dealerships are slow, overpriced and a lot of the times rude. I usually buy the parts and repair whatever's broken by myself. I'm so pissed to hear they can't help you after five months!! That's heartbreaking.

[Windsofsoul]

@windsofsoul that's unacceptable bro. That's the main reason I hate korg. Once you bought the keyboard you're on your own really. I never had a problem solved at the shop. Korg dealerships are slow, overpriced and a lot of the times rude. I usually buy the parts and repair whatever's broken by myself. I'm so pissed to hear they can't help you after five months!! That's heartbreaking.[/quote]

Thanks man, you know I feel for you. Tried to fix it myself since it was not under warranty and I was an electronic tech for 20 years. This is the only repair shop that would touch it out of 4 called, that were listed on Korgs support site. They're not very happy with Korg's help or should I say LACK THEREOF. No one seems to fully understand the boot process and there's no diagnostic help until you can boot completely up into the main screen. I don't play out, or even move the unit and when the problem occured it was after I finished loading the new firmware then OS which I followed to the "T". Played great that night, but next day wouldn't boot up 70% of the time. It's frickin weird and I'm getting highly PO'd

Good Luck Bro, if I find a solution you'll hear from me!

[fabianbarbin]

Again I said Korg won't help with the problem with my friends Kronos. He finally heard from the technician, He was out of warranty 1 day and he now has to replace his motherboard and SSD drives. His Kronos is 3 years old and its gonna cost him probably 1500 plus to fix. I have a Kronos 2 and I'm really thinking about getting rid of it bc of DOA. i can't afford to have that happen.
Too scary to deal with.
The person that said it was probably his faulty bc he had to drag his keyboard 2 or 3 blocks. "So What! that is not his fault. If those flag ship keyboards aren't built better no one is gonna trust it.

[GregC]

[Knave101]

Several months ago our keyboardist starting having problems with his Kronos. It started to not boot up. We noticed that rolling the board around would sometimes get it to start. So as the "technician" of the band I decided to get to work.

Upon opening the board I noticed one thing...2 of the motherboard screws were gone. and the board tended to flex. I thought this might be the reason...but all attempts to put it back wth new screws did nothing.

After many hours, I jumped the Green Wire (5V) on the ATX connector to ground and the fan would start and the Kronos would also start running, but would stop about 1/5 of the way and send an error code. But at least this allowed me to measure the output voltages of the power supply. All Good. This has a standard 20 pin ATX supply and voltages/pins can be found on google easily.

I still believed it was a mechanical board failure. I checked all solder joints, and moved all the plugs. rechecked the RAM, the SSD, and every connection point, thinking that all the flex in the MB with two screws missing had damaged a solder joint somewhere.

Finally, while flexing the small 'mini-connector' and 'mini-board' at the lower right of the MB, near the keys/power supply, I noticed one pin didn't flex. The 5th pin. It had broken off at the board itself. So this made detection almost impossible. I jumped this pin and the keyboard soared back to life...problem solved.

You don't have to remove the key bed to complete this repair (though it makes it easier for sure) and this little board should be checked if you have the same problem. From what I'm reading, these units frequently lose MB screws due to vibration from gigging and travelling. This MB loosening is the fundamental problem that caused the pin to crack.

No new MB, no new PS. I was minutes from putting it in the closet for a few years. I used thread lock when I put the MB screws back in. Hopefully, they will hold.

Hope this helps someone else. If you need any info let me know.

[GregC]

[Knave101]

Here is the connector with the broken pin. The screws coming out of the board seem to be a common problem among users. This is due to the movement and gigging. This is a serious design flaw...that may have been fixed on later models. (in my past life I was a reliability engineer at a major aerospace firm).

Interesting, my keyboardist has an old Triton that he gigged for a decade or more....still working. The MB screws are the issue. because when they fall, the MB is upside down and flexes, particularly during movement. It must have put too much pressure on the pin. I've marked the pin that broke with a red dot. It was difficult to see until i flexed the little standoff board around and could see that the 5th pin was not moving...cause it was broke. It broke just beneath it's solder joint...so the solder joint appeared fine, and the pin itself appeared fine....it was broken exactly where it passed into the board.

So i pulled out the broken pin and replaced it with a small wire that I tied to the remnant of the post.

I would assume that others have screws falling from their MB.....you can usually hear them rolling around. If so....then the board is flexing, and something is bound to give. In this case a new MB would not have solved the problem....because in this case the problem was in this small standoff board.

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[GregC]

[Knave101]

It is a Korg Kronos- 88. Purchased in 2013. Serial number below 003500. Intel D510MO. Plastic ends.

If any others have this problem....definitely check the little standoff board, "KLM-3008". Check continuity between the pins and the solder joints, on either side of the MB. If they are discontinuous....that may be problem.

Hope this helps someone else, because I have looked and looked and never seen anyone with a similar fix. Everybody talks about resetting the RAM, etc, but this is the first mechanical fix from what must be fairly common...if these motherboard screws are falling out. This board has not been gigged out much at all, less than 50 times since new, and in a road case.

[GregC]

[Derek Cook]

Thanks for the detailed report, and one to watch out for.

Most keyboard problems (and other electronic systems) I have ever had have been due to tarnished connectors or thermal creep on socketed ICs or connectors (I remember a chip on a micro board in work that had completely worked its way out of the socket it was in (cheap, not turned pin) and was only held in place and working (most of the time) due to gravity!

I guess this is one small drawback of the Kronos using commercial motherboards, which reminds me it is about time I got a spare one for my four year old Kronos "just in case"
_________________
Derek Cook - Java Developer



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