POLL: how many exprienced m50 freezing?

[csteen]

The results of the poll are concerning: 43 people experience freezing, vs 53 who do not. Even accounting for bias, that's a huge percentage.

What you need to understand is that the very small sample group is not a large enough group to be indicitive of anything at all one way or the other. While it may be a fun thing to do on the forum it could no way denote an over all trend because not enough imput was given for an accurate result......

[salientdigital]

I came here, saw this thread and my heart sunk. What a bummer! Buyer beware on CraigsList.

My new used M50 will play for a few minutes, if I'm lucky, then... nothing. No buttons work, touchscreen does though. All I can do is switch patches. Then even that dies.

Also I get freezing during note play -- lovely -- agree a panic button would be nice. I fear now I will kill the power switch rebooting every five seconds.

I don't think OS on mine has ever been updated. Guessing I should try that first? Or should I just bring it into Guitar Center for repairs? Anyone know what they paid for repair?

I also wrote Korg and got no response.

Sigh.

Great forum - just joined today. Thanks whoever owns the site.

[kimu]

i guess you will have to sent it back for repairing.

i had mine repaired for free since at the time it was still under warranty.

btw, have a try updating the OS, maybe helps.

[salientdigital]

I tried this from page 102 of the Korg M50 owner's manual:

Initialization
If operation of the M50 should become unstable, you can initialize it. Turn off the power, and then, while holding down the RESET CONTROLS switch and REALTIME CONTROL switch, turn the power on. The M50 will be initialized. While the data is being loaded, the display will indicate “Now writing into internal memory.” When initialization is completed, you’ll need to load the preload data. Go to Global mode, and execute the
menu command Load Preload/Demo Data to load the data. (See PG p.251)

That got my M50 to work as expected again. At least I could get to the Global settings page. I then followed the Korg M50 1.1.0 Software Update process and Voila - I'm back up again!

I'll report back if I still have crashes.

[fuzzball]

Hi

I have a Korg M50-88 which is now experiencing the same problems with freezing. I found that a system reset freed up the buttons but whenever I loaded the preset data everything locked up again. I have now tried re-installing OS 1.1.0 and it is better but not good. Now everything is workable when I switch on except COMBI. Whenever I press the
COMBI button everything locks up. I have to switch off and on again and then the PROGRAM, SEQ, GLOBALS is all working but as soon as I press the COMBI everything freezes up again. so re-installing the OS improved the situation, but I can't hit the COMBI button unless I want to freeze the keyboard. Anyone else have experience of this specific problem.

Thanks

[twobears22]

I bought a used M50 for 700 bucks from Guitar Center Used. I updated the driver, and it only occasionally locked up over two months' time. Then it started freezing much more frequently, every 5 minutes to 20 minutes, the keys becoming totally unresponsive, and, if I was playing when it froze, it would take one note and hold it. The only way to unfreeze my Korg is to turn it off and on again. Reinitializing the device did not solve the problem.

I took it to a certified tech in the Cleveland area and they've had it for 2 weeks, still trying to figure out why it locks up. "This is a tough one," the tech told me today.

I see people on here trying to brush this freezing problem under the rug. I have to wonder if they work for Korg!

I will never buy a used keyboard again and never another Korg. Too bad because it was a nice keyboard before the freezing made it unplayable. Hopefully, the techs can repair it or I am out 700 dollars.

[kimu]

i got mine repaired by korg tech assistance. they changed a couple of capicitors

[pkpdjh]

Mine is freezing constantly now. I will have to get it fixed. It's a 61-key model. It used to freeze once in a while, but now it freezes all the time, every 5 to 20 minutes.

[pkpdjh]

Success! I followed @salientdigital's instructions (initializing the board, then doing the 2-step upgrade to v1.1.0 and I've had the board running all day for 2 days with no freezes.

[TheWindWaker01]

Had my board repaired twice now. First time it got new capacitors, and then the second time they replaced the whole motherboard with a new one. Both times the issue was fixed, but then came back.

My board is currently off warranty as I imagine most of them are, and hasn't been working for a while now. I took it apart myself and upon reassembly it started working again, which leads me to believe in my case there's a sensitive wire somewhere that needs to be in just the right position.

Is the Krome known to have any of these problems? Despite this whole ordeal which is pretty disappointing I really do enjoy Korg products and would like to get a Krome.

[kimu]

Is the Krome known to have any of these problems? Despite this whole ordeal which is pretty disappointing I really do enjoy Korg products and would like to get a Krome.

so far i haven't read anyone reporting freezing issue in krome

[cjj]

Is the Krome known to have any of these problems? Despite this whole ordeal which is pretty disappointing I really do enjoy Korg products and would like to get a Krome.

so far i haven't read anyone reporting freezing issue in krome

Mine has never had any problems. It's only 1 month old though, so it may be a bit early to tell...

[salientdigital]

I emailed Korg and got a response in 48 hours over the holidays.

Korg asked whether I could reproduce freezing with nothing attached (other than power and phones/audio) which I took to mean they wanted to rule out my MIDI rig sending data it couldn't understand or too fast. If you haven't done that I recommend trying it but I need mine to work over MIDI either way -- still froze anyway. Ten minutes later, two minutes later, random freeze. I even got it to freeze on the M50 v1.1.0 startup page once or twice while rebooting.

My M-50 61-key, serial # 0001801, is now at Korg Certified Repair Center (M-Troniks in Mesa, AZ).

Parts take 1-2 weeks to get from Korg. Jeff Naylor says "... it's a well-known problem on that board," (the M-50 61) and he would "order some more Korg caps (capacitors) again..."

I'll post back in a couple weeks when I get the bill.

[TonyTallarico]

I've had the 73 key version for 7 months and no freezing.

[twobears22]

I bought a used M50 for 700 bucks from Guitar Center Used. I updated the driver, and it only occasionally locked up over two months' time. Then it started freezing much more frequently, every 5 minutes to 20 minutes, the keys becoming totally unresponsive, and, if I was playing when it froze, it would take one note and hold it. The only way to unfreeze my Korg is to turn it off and on again. Reinitializing the device did not solve the problem.

I took it to a certified tech in the Cleveland area and they've had it for 2 weeks, still trying to figure out why it locks up. "This is a tough one," the tech told me today.

I see people on here trying to brush this freezing problem under the rug. I have to wonder if they work for Korg!

I will never buy a used keyboard again and never another Korg. Too bad because it was a nice keyboard before the freezing made it unplayable. Hopefully, the techs can repair it or I am out 700 dollars.

Update 1/30/13: Got my Korg M50 repaired in Cleveland at Beamish Electronics. The tech replaced the capacitors (thanks to people who posted here about that problem). He said a Korg representative told him there was some kind of memo or repair order about this problem - it's known and the company is addressing it. The Korg rep told the tech at Beamish that they would most likely cover my repairs, even though I bought it used. That is standing by one's product.