Korg Forums

EJ2 · Last edited by EJ2 on Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:00 pm; edited 1 time in total

Greetings all,
A few weeks back I had reported on a problem with my sequencer acting up when loading a combi for recording. Well, it's fixed. Thanks to the genius of Daz (aka Darren Richards), my OASYS is back to good health.

Just a bit of background: Dan Phillips and Brandon Daniel, two super Korg R&D blokes, have been closely working with me to try to solve my persistent sequencer problems including a hard drive swap. Now I know how to really get inside an OASYS. Rolling Eyes

Hope I never have to do that again with these shakey arthritic fingers. Anyway, guys, I really appreciate all the extra effort and support you provided me.

Since the HD swap didn't lead to a cure, I decided to follow up on a suggestion that Daz provided near the beginning of my problems - check the ram sticks. A few days ago Brandon thought I should give this a shot too, after reporting that my hard drive worked perfectly at R&D. So, this morning, I opened my OASYS (again), removed the factory ram, moved the Kingston memory to the back slot, closed up and rebooted. Shazaam! The sequencer performed as it should!

I remember some discussion way back about trading the factory ram's position with new additional ram. So, I decided to leave the Kingston in the original factory location (closest to the rear) and to put the factory ram back where the Kingston was (closest to the keybed), closed up and rebooted. Shazaam!!! No more BS from the sequencer.

Daz, you're a genius! I owe you one. That's coming up, my friend.

So, here's crossing my fingers that this was the problem and that my OASYS stays healthy for a long time.

Thank you once again, Dan, Brandon, and Daz!

Cheers everyone,
Eric

PS: For those having difficulty loading combis into the sequencer, it's not the update 1.3.0 causing this. In all likelihood it may have something to do with your ram memory sticks as was the case with mine. Try Daz's suggestion and see if that improves matters.
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Catalyst v 1 Combi Explosion for OASYS, M3, & K-M50: http://www.karma-lab.com/sounds/catalyst1.html

Chemistry 3, a Groove Injection for Your Karma: http://www.karma-lab.com/sounds/chem3.html

Drew FM · Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 3:20 pm Post subject:

sebbytriton · Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 5:48 pm Post subject:

RC-IA also got a similar problem I think.

Korg repair center constate also the memory slots was inverted and the second memory slot was fill with the first oen supplied with OASYS.

Strange ...........

RC-IA can you confirm this point ?
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French OASYS76 owner Smile

EJ2 · Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 5:52 pm Post subject:

Hey, Drew. Thanks for quoting those. That should add to helping the fix.

That's quite interesting, Sebby. I haven't heard about that possibility, but it could explain some of the problems people are having. I don't know why that should be. Maybe Daz can shed some light on this.
Cheers,
Eric
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Catalyst v 1 Combi Explosion for OASYS, M3, & K-M50: http://www.karma-lab.com/sounds/catalyst1.html

Chemistry 3, a Groove Injection for Your Karma: http://www.karma-lab.com/sounds/chem3.html

Daz · Retired Joined: 01 Jan 2002 Posts: 10813

Very glad to hear that you're up and running again. As Drew very rightly alludes to, RAM problems are always going to be something computery folks will point the finger of blame at when intermittent problems occurs, because of how these things work. It's part of our 'lore' ... rather than genius Wink

I personally felt it was more likely a RAM thing than a disk thing, because your Oasys often booted and operated correctly suggesting the disk and it's contents were in-tact. However it was when you started working with the sequencer that things would periodically go wrong. Imagine it this way; if everyday you travel to work on the same multi-lane highway and there is a pot hole in the second lane at a particular point between the junctions where you join and exit, you probably won't hit it every day because you might not be in that particular lane according to the prevailing traffic conditions. The same thing can happen with RAM, a couple of the memory cells die in a particular spot, but they are not always a location of memory that gets used even when you perform the same operation repeatedly, such as copying a specific combi to the sequencer, after powering up the Oasys. The memory manager doesn't always drive in the exact same lane to work everyday Wink

Daz.

EJ2 · Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 5:56 pm Post subject:

Thanks for sharing that, Daz. Interesting analogy. Now, why would simply switching the ram positions correct the problem? I hope this holds true for my O, but so far so good.
Cheers,
Eric
_________________
Catalyst v 1 Combi Explosion for OASYS, M3, & K-M50: http://www.karma-lab.com/sounds/catalyst1.html

Chemistry 3, a Groove Injection for Your Karma: http://www.karma-lab.com/sounds/chem3.html

RC-IA · Platinum Member Joined: 16 Jan 2004 Posts: 553

i don't know exactly! they changed the dimm i bought a year ago telling that it was not compatible (but it works well before i have the update problem)......

Daz · Retired Joined: 01 Jan 2002 Posts: 10813

sebbytriton · Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 7:50 pm Post subject:

Daz, you exactly point the problem where it is.
I don't know Hard disk is a problem, there is a problem base on memory for sure !

Hope Korg could tell us more !
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French OASYS76 owner Smile

Daz · Retired Joined: 01 Jan 2002 Posts: 10813

When Nige (aka mag66) and I were having a problems a great tip he shared was to create a bootable CD running memtest86 to thoroughly test the Oasys RAM.

http://www.memtest.org/

You can download an ISO disk image from the memtest site :

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

... and just boot the Oasys using that CD much like doing an OS update. It won't do anything nasty to the Oasys, it just tests the RAM. IIRC The display is a little squiffy for some reason, but you can pretty much make out what is going on.

Daz.

Daz · Retired Joined: 01 Jan 2002 Posts: 10813

c.f. http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=122836&highlight=memtest#122836

EJ2 · Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:06 pm Post subject:

Thanks again, Andy, Daz, Nigel. s**t, now I have to look our for pot holes while driving my OASYS... Rolling Eyes

Cheers,
Eric
_________________
Catalyst v 1 Combi Explosion for OASYS, M3, & K-M50: http://www.karma-lab.com/sounds/catalyst1.html

Chemistry 3, a Groove Injection for Your Karma: http://www.karma-lab.com/sounds/chem3.html

Drew FM · Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 4:46 am Post subject:

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Create to enjoy, not to destroy

sebbytriton · Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 5:28 am Post subject:

Mag66 · Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 1:59 pm Post subject:

Yes, I inverted mine and there was a small improvement over time for me at least.

Im not sure I actually posted this next bit here.. but I did find some random errors via Memtest, in the upper end of the Factory 'stick' that could have given issues when that particular part of the mapped memory was being used... ie, under heavy memory usage when, if I understand correctly, that upper end memory was being used by the OS which would be infrequently. I took it upon myself to replace the factory stick with another stick I had lying around here that matched my additional stick exactly, and since then I have noticed a marked improvement in stability. Maybe using matched sticks had something to do with it too?

I think that action along with the then latest update (1.2.2 that fixed an issue with the Program select screen) resolved almost all the issues I was having on a daily basis... I still think there is something buried deep in the O's code that can cause the very rare 'hang' during heavy memory usage (or it could be that it's another mem issue that only rears it's ugly head during such heavy mem usage) but for the most part, compared to how my O was prior to switching memory sticks over (and then replacing the factory stick) and the v1.2.2 update, my O is as stable as I would hope it would be, all things considered.

Cheers..

Nigel
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Nigel Sixsmith
The Art Of Sound Studios
Gilbert, AZ

The Art Of Sound Website **UPDATED: 1st FEB 2008**

MBP 17", M-Audio Midisport 8X8 Oasys88, Karma, Triton Classic, and a whole bunch of other keyboards, modules, racks, software + such