Problem with Solo-tri. The Trinity freeze...

[Prophecy]

I am going to buy a Trinity Plus with the Solo- Tri, PBS-Tri and the Scsi-tri. The seller told me that the Trinity freeze when you go beyond the D bank, he thought that it was because the SCSI needed to be connected, that it was a issue with the SCSI-Tri in generel. But he would check it and get back to me.

Now he has check it. And there is no problem with SCSI-Tri. The problem is the Solo-tri. When it is connected it freeze after the D bank, when unplugged there is no problem. And the Trinity works fine. Is this a known problem or is there something wrong with the Solo-tri or maybe the socket on the Trinity "mainboard"? It looks like the Trinity knows the Solo-tri is connected but it freeze when you what to use it, the S bank...

The firmware/OS version is 2.2.0...so it ain't the newest one, could it help to update the firmware/os.

Cheers

[Timo]

My Trinity did the same (freeze after accessing C, D or M bank) after I manually installed the PBS-TRI board and its extra RAM chips for the first time. In my case I just needed to reset the Trinity to properly recognise the new hardware.

Firstly, save any onboard patches, combinations and global data (PCG) currently on the synth, as you will otherwise lose it by doing the following....

.... Then try holding both 'Enter' and '0' at the same time when switching on the Trinity. This is a full system reset.

If everything's ok, you'll just need to reload the PCG and carry on where you left off.

I doubt it's the SCSI being unconnected. I have the SCSI and don't have it connected and the Trinity works fine.

However if the SCSI or indeed any other expansion option is somehow faulty, or incorrectly seated, then rejigging or removing them before doing a system reset may solve it.

If there are several expansions, I'd work by process of elimination - take all expansions out, make sure the Trinity works ok by itself, and then put one in at a time, doing a system reset after each one, and then re-test.

[Prophecy]

First...thank you for your reply to my post.

So the "problem" is the PBS-Tri? If so, then maybe it is because of the extra 64 S programs you get with the PBS-Tri. Since it "communication" is with an other board (Solo-tri) and not directly to the "mainboard" of the Trinity?

I don't have the Trinity here with me...so I can't try it. I will reset it when i get the Trinity. I am going to buy it for 200 euro.

If it don't work after a reset. I will follow you suggestion to remove all exp and put them back in one by one...with a reset each time.

I just hope that it ain't something wrong with the mainboard of the Trinity...

The Seller told med that he will leave the Solo-tri inside but will disconnect it. Since the Trinity works just fine with just the PBS-Tri and the SCSI-tri...

[Timo]

So the "problem" is the PBS-Tri?

In my case it was. However I cannot say if this is normal or the same for everyone as I only have my sole experience to go on.

If so, then maybe it is because of the extra 64 S programs you get with the PBS-Tri.

In addition to the C&D banks and the extra 64 patches of Solo/Moss, yes, that was my thought at the time - More specifically, I thought it could have been the separate RAM chip that you get when you buy the PBS-board, as it is this that expands the banks and patch numbers, not the PBS itself. They are effectively two separate upgrades, even though they are marketed and sold together. However I'm not sure if one can be used without the other. Others have tried buying similar (but not identical) chips to try to expand their banks/patches without buying the PBS board but without success.

One extra thought, regards that RAM chip, many people including myself found that the legs on the chip are very easily bent (when installing it). It would be easy to attempt to push the chip into the mainboard and bend one of the legs out of place, I very nearly did this myself and others have said similarly. I would visually check that chip to see there is anything untoward and that it has been seated correctly.

Back on topic, when I installed the PBS and RAM chip it made those newly expanded banks and patches 'garbled', and selecting one of them would cause the Trinity to freeze. It was partly amusing as some garbled patch names included notation (crochets, quavers, etc.) and sheep(!) characters which are not available via normal patch-naming usage.

I was that amused I even took a photo at the time, hoho, which may or may not be useful for comparing possible similar evidence to you. Anyway, for one example of the sheep see patch #127.



If you don't have garbled names, it could still be plausible that a PCG was loaded afterwards to mask the garbled patch names - but because a system reset may not have been carried out in order to have recognised the actual new hardware change itself, the Trinity could still freeze. I'm unsure of this in theory, but could be possible.

I don't have the Trinity here with me...so I can't try it. I will reset it when i get the Trinity. I am going to buy it for 200 euro.

I would strongly advise you to ask the guy who's selling it to do all this. I would hate you to buy it and find it's a different fault entirely. That said, €200 is exceptionally cheap for such a unit and its upgrades if you can get it working, even if you have to leave one of the faulty upgrades out. But it could turn expensive if it's the Trinity itself.

[Prophecy]

So, there is more the one thing that go wrong...

But somehow thats "good" in my position...since then there is also more then one solution to the problem

I don't know if the unit makes those "grabled" patch names
..but I will ask the seller. As far as I understand from what the seller says, the unit freeze when you select bank S when the Solo-tri is connected. When the Solo-Tri is disconnected, you can select bank A,B,C and D without any problems. But it sounds plausibel that it could be the ram chip and not the Solo-Tri itself.

In reality, i was after a Korg Prophecy, but I had to pay 300 euro for one. Then i saw this Trinity plus with the SCSI for 200 euro. Whice was a better deal for me. The seller told me that unit freezed, but that he thought that it was because the SCSI wasn't connected to SCSI CD/HDD. But that he would check the unit, since he hasn't used it for a long time. Then he opened the Trinity and found out that it also had the PDS-tri, which he had forgot all about. Moreover he found out when disconnecting the Solo-Tri the unit worked just fine...so...i was getting bad news and good news. The good news was that it had a PBS-tri and the bad news was that the Solo-Tri was making the unit unstable. So I was in a bit of a dilemma...but decided that I would buy it, even if the Solo-Tri wad broken. Since I could find a new Solo-tri or buy a Prophecy another time. But just like you said....i just hope that it ain't a mainboard issue..

Once again, thank you for tour replies

PS: I already got a Korg N1R, a Microkorg and a M50.

[Timo]

No worries. You're well accustomed to Korg gear, then!

The Trinity's Solo is identical to the Prophecy, even the onboard effects, so if you get it working it should sound super, especially with the rest of the Trinity architecture laid on top of it.

Only difference is that the Trinity has no arpeggiator of its own, so cannot arpeggiate the Solo like the Prophecy can by itself. However all your others - N1R, M50 and MicroKorg - have arp's, so you can simply hook one up as a slave to the Trinity via MIDI for Solo arpeggiator madness. (I use an MC505 exactly for this purpose).

If you have any queries about hardware installations, let me know.

Make sure you grab a copy of all the Trinity manuals & various tuts here:

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=45892

[Prophecy]

Thats the reason why I think the Trinity is a better deal. I am only missing some knobs and the Arp. But with a Solo-tri I can use the trinitys efx, use the solo sounds in combi mode, better/eaiser editing...so all in all...it somehow seems better.

I will post here again to let you know if I can get it to work or not.


Thank you for your help...it really means alot