POLL: how many exprienced m50 freezing?

[richardj]

I have an M50 88, and saw the posts about updating, as well as how to reset, so I will need to do both. I have the same freezing situation that others are writing about, with stuck notes, or just simply shutting down in performance or home recording. I have a Mac, so I will need to see if I can get the update on a SD card and do that task. I noticed the update is in two parts, and that you have to be careful to get them in the right order. Hopefully, this will fix the problem. Thanks to all who helped out on the forum.

[Stargazer]

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

Some news:
http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=79119
http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=78905

[richardj]

I talked with the tech at the local shop we have here in Oregon, and he said that Korg did send out a statement about replacing the capicators. Looks like a trip to the shop, just as my warranty has expired ever so conveniently a couple of months shy of the date for coverage. I will have to see what the cost is going to be, and hope that it is a good fix for the problem. I noticed that some other folks are also waiting for the outcome on their M50's at the shop too.

[arc1953]

Having just joined this forum and read this thread in it's entirety, I decided to take a look at my M 50-61. It is serial #1539, with version 1.0.1 . Purchased new in June of 2010. I gig with it regularly, leave it on for many hours at a time. I have never had a problem. Now I'm scared that I might. Fortunately, my gigging setup contains a Korg Poly-800 and a Yamaha PSR-E413, so if the M50 were to do that trick I wouldn't be totally defenseless, although it would be a hugh pain in the butt as the M50 is my main keyboard.

[richardj]

Turns out that I didn't have to make the trip to the shop, as a simple upgrade saved the day. Our local tech suggested that I just go down and buy a basic SD card big enough to hold the file, to which I formatted with a Kodak card reader/writer on my Mac, and then downloaded the upgrade from Korg, followed the step by step instruction from the OS upgrade page, and it is a done deal. Massive relief!

[Enri]

I've experienced this issue too...It is rare, but it happens. I'm afraid that the day will come when that rare occasion will be live.

[MinorKey]

Hi all,

I got my M50 in April last year from my local distributor. Sadly, in the last 3 days I too have experienced what a freezing M50 means.
I looked on the net and found this thread and I must say, not too pleasant to read that there are so many that have had this problem.
Anyway, so far it was only once or twice that it froze on a single note in program mode. But once I turned on the drum track and the arpegiator at the same time or played a combi with the drum track and arpegiator turned on, a freeze was 99% guaranteed. I use past tense because after I initialized the machine everything seems to be working just fine.

Now I don't know to be happy about it or not, because I have roughly one more year of warranty on it and if this is related to the issue with the capacitors, I'd rather have them replaced. But for the moment it seems I can't do anything about it, because I can't get the machine to freeze no matter what. Confusing...

Is this issue always related to the capacitors or are there other cases when the M50 freezes? I have no other equipment connected to the M50, so nothing else can cause the problem, but the M50 itself, I guess.

I know nothing is 100%, but does replacing the capacitors solve the problem more or less permanently?
I have the 61 key version and I have OS 1.1 installed on it. My serial number is 016200, so if my problem is related to the capacitors as well, I guess that the statement that it only happens to early produced units does not stand...

Update:
Sadly I was wrong. My problems are not over. After I load a PCG file or the preload data and turn off the machine I lose the arpegios in program mode. Sometimes the machine freezes, sometimes not... This sucks... If it can't be fixed permanently, I demand they give me (at least) a Krome as replacement...

[csteen]

If mine does is this I am holding out fot a Kronos ! Or in other words I am glad you retain the ability to dream anyway.

[jampa17]

Hi, I'm Juan Pablo from Guatemala. I bought the M50-61 in april of 2009. I didn't have any single problem and I used it very often on-stage. But it started to freeze just in march of these year. Then, like a month ago, it started occasionally to show me the "Uplading left panel" thing. Now, it just doesn't work at all and I'm really worry about it.

I know I have to take it to the store and see what they say, but I'm sure they will squeeze me out with the costs.

Are you sure there are only the capacitors? then I only ordered them to check them and replace it.

Please, help me cause I need it as I'm working on a studio project and of course, I need the tool.

Thanks.

[jampa17]

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.

Let us know please when they contact you. I'm hopeless right now about this issue. Guess there's no certificated repairers in Guatemala, so I guess I must try it in an unathorized one.

[kikedeolivos]

Funny thing is happening to me as of today. I just got back to play with my old band of buddies. They got a new keyboard player (we'll be 2 keys players in the band). This guy bought a brand new Korg Krome 88 and is telling me that the keyboard gets crazy, randomly: screens changing all of a sudden, buttons not working, etc. I'm wondering what is happening to Korg's QC, if there's any. SHAME ON YOU KORG.

PS: We are in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

[jpkeys]

Well, sadly I am with this problem too, a little bit over the "acceptation period" for this... I have my M50 - 61 , since Jul, 2010 and ALMOST 2 YEARS with this issue. I tried with the initialization from the manual (RESET + REALTIME CONTROLS + ON), software updates (v1.0.5 , then v1.1.0) and nothing. The problem seemed to be fixed for a while (4 or 5 months) and came back to the initial point a week ago.
I'm really sad to say that my first KORG instrument, is probably the worst thing that happened to me. It isn't funny to have to reset it 7 or 8 times during a gig.

I hope KORG people read this thread, 'cause you selled a product with a very non-predictable issue and didn't send one only massive message recognizing it and telling out how to fix it.

Sorry if my english isn't quite right.

Juan Pablo from Tucuman, Argentina.

[kimu]

it would be better to bring your keyboard to korg assistance to have ti solved.

[Sea Crust]

Hi! I am experiencing the freezing glitch with my Korg M50. I write songs in sequence mode and save the data to my SD Card. That's one good thing about the keyboard, you get to keep your info!! That is the board doesn't delete it off of your card.

While I was still under warranty, the card reader stopped reading my card. I had that replaced by korg.

About a year ago the second bank in prog mode completely dissappeared.

And now after 3 years of work, the freezing. I am able to use the piano in prog mode without worry. After a month of freezing if any other buttons besides keys were played, I was able to play the board in sequence mode the othe day without it freezing once. Im scared to keep making music on it for all the known reasons but am willing to see if the upgrade will work. I will have someone who has needed resources handle that and update my experience.


Does anyone suggest a sweet synth with all the capabilities of an M50 in lieu of the keyboard??

I'm in Oakland, CA.

[csteen]

Korg makes the M3 and it indeed has all of the capabilities plus more than that of the M50, I love my M50 but if I had to choose it's replacement the M3 would be my choice.