Is my K beginning to fail? - no it's not

dfahrner · Post by **dfahrner** » Sun Mar 29, 2015 4:25 pm

24/7 for four years is almost 35,000 power-on hours...the internal cooling fan must be reaching the end of its life - most good ones are rated for around 30,000 POH (there are a few longer-life ones like the Nanoxia Deep Silence that is rated at 80,000) but the original KRONOS fan doesn't look like a high-end one (and doesn't sound like one, either)...

Are computer components like light bulbs? They always fail when you switch them on (the off - on stress) but that's because the filament has been weakened by use over time...if you don't use them much, they last longer...???

df

GregC · Post by **GregC** » Sun Mar 29, 2015 5:14 pm

dfahrner wrote:24/7 for four years is almost 35,000 power-on hours...the internal cooling fan must be reaching the end of its life - most good ones are rated for around 30,000 POH (there are a few longer-life ones like the Nanoxia Deep Silence that is rated at 80,000) but the original KRONOS fan doesn't look like a high-end one (and doesn't sound like one, either)...

Are computer components like light bulbs? They always fail when you switch them on (the off - on stress) but that's because the filament has been weakened by use over time...if you don't use them much, they last longer...???

df

we have good comparisons . I am in the off/on/off category going on 4 yrs. Part of this is that I dislike wasting energy and don't like to leave the house with components/computers/keyboard/fans left on

AMR · Post by **AMR** » Sun Mar 29, 2015 5:51 pm

dfahrner wrote:24/7 for four years is almost 35,000 power-on hours...the internal cooling fan must be reaching the end of its life - most good ones are rated for around 30,000 POH (there are a few longer-life ones like the Nanoxia Deep Silence that is rated at 80,000) but the original KRONOS fan doesn't look like a high-end one (and doesn't sound like one, either)...

Are computer components like light bulbs? They always fail when you switch them on (the off - on stress) but that's because the filament has been weakened by use over time...if you don't use them much, they last longer...???

df

Temperature stress, on/off causes heat/cold. Some capacitors may not like too much off time either. But most importantly, 3 minutes of boot time? Hurts my creative mojo.

The fan seems fine but if goes off there's to my knowledge overheat protection. The Kronos has handled perfectly always being on. Not gigging with it.

Main reason to have it always on is convenience. Thermal stress is a minor one I guess although it heats a lot more globally than my usual gear (and hence cools a lot when off).

Kronos 2 seems better ventilated. Lesser temperature variation means less stress. But same boot time...

Why not a standby/quickwake mode? (Cpu on low cycles, screen off, disks off, usb on wakeonlan and mem kept alive).

Have computers running 24/7 for over 10 years on the same PSUs/fans (noise increases but oil works miracles). Guess I'm lucky.

Mind that new OS on Kronos stops the fan ever once in a while. The inner temp in mine has been around 68-72 celcius, 88 keys, 2 discs and usb lan adapter always on.

Kind Regards,
AMR
http://www.alvaromrocha.com

rob_tky · Post by **rob_tky** » Sun Mar 29, 2015 10:42 pm

AMR wrote:Had this sample sync problem a couple times, sounding robotic, went away with reboot.

Thanks for sharing AMR.
Curious if the "robotic" sound was the same as Stephen's sames posted few posts above?

R

AMR · Post by **AMR** » Mon Mar 30, 2015 1:59 pm

rob_tky wrote:
AMR wrote:Had this sample sync problem a couple times, sounding robotic, went away with reboot.
Thanks for sharing AMR.
Curious if the "robotic" sound was the same as Stephen's sames posted few posts above?

R

Yes. But slightly worse.
For a moment thought it was the DAW's soundcard having a fit, but no.
All kronos outputs (phones, line, optical and USB) revealed the same problem, so I assume(d) it was being generated at an internal mix/render stage, hence, software glitch. Went away with reboot.

Kind Regards,
AMR
http://www.alvaromrocha.com

rob_tky · Post by **rob_tky** » Sat Apr 04, 2015 5:02 am

The distortion happened again and I was able to record this time. That is with unmodified A000 German Grand.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxypUL ... sp=sharing

Before it turned that bad, I heard little occasional cracklings, like on old records, but not frequent. I thought it was something else generating them, but I could only hear them when i played. Disconnected all other sources anyway, it was getting worse and suddenly turned into as above.

========
EDIT: 10 minutes after the reboot, it started happening again .. Maybe indeed the end is near

GregC · Post by **GregC** » Sat Apr 04, 2015 9:14 am

rob_tky wrote:The distortion happened again and I was able to record this time. That is with unmodified A000 German Grand.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxypUL ... sp=sharing

Before it turned that bad, I heard little occasional cracklings, like on old records, but not frequent. I thought it was something else generating them, but I could only hear them when i played. Disconnected all other sources anyway, it was getting worse and suddenly turned into as above.

========
EDIT: 10 minutes after the reboot, it started happening again .. Maybe indeed the end is near

Did u ever add more RAM ? If so, it could be going defective.

Also try to reseat the RAM, make sure connections are tight.

Are u out of warranty ?

rob_tky · Post by **rob_tky** » Sat Apr 04, 2015 4:33 pm

Thanks Greg for the comment.
It's 3 years old keyboard, no warranty.

I added only 2nd ssd in the past.

Today, the issue was getting worse, happened few times, and really got me curious.

I opened it up, with no specific plan, other then to slot in extra RAM i had bought before and did not have a chance to insert. And also I wanted to move around the keybed. Few keys were squeaking a little, not much (since I bought it or soon after), and I was not 100% happy with the way I put the keybed back before. It was not easy to align, took me few rounds, the front gap was a little bigger than original, but within reason. Though keybed was making more unwanted sounds.
So I moved the keybed around, moved it forward managing to reduce the gap to what it was originally. And put it back together. I'm very happy with the way keybed feels now.
Have been playing a long while now and so far so good. Issue have not reoccurred, And keys that were squeaking before work with no issues.
We'll see. It is possible that something in the keybed was not contacting correctly, causing undefined states, confusing other electronics.
I don't think extra RAM i added fixed anything.

rob_tky · Post by **rob_tky** » Mon Apr 06, 2015 2:12 am

After intensive use in the last 2 days, no sound issues, no cracklings, no keybed squeazing noises.
Last few days before I applied above fixes things were pretty unstable, and would have most likely reoccured by now, so I assume all is fine.

Well, only my K knows where the problem was. Maybe the keybed contacts are sensitive to the way it's aligned?
Anyway, thank you all for comments.

DJ Kronos · Post by **DJ Kronos** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 4:05 am

GregC wrote:
enigmahack wrote:
GregC wrote: so you leave your Kronos powered up for a week ?
I don't have an opinion about that.

curious if after 4 years of ownership, what is the wear factor on components if left on like that
Other than potential screen burn-in, computers in general are designed to have a very high duty cycle. Fortunately the mobo on this sucker is a computer, so I would anticipate that it would be just fine to leave it on.

I'd sooner be worried about something burning in the screen but maybe it's not a problem with that screen type?
Thanks for that.

Possibly you have spotted it. Back in the day, I recall the Triton LCD had some potential of burn in. whether or not this applies to the Kronos is only speculation ( in context to leaving the Kronos on a great deal).

I realize this reply is a bit late, but FWIW, my recently purchased Kx was a GC demo that had been on the floor for about 18 months AFAI can tell. It was probably on 10-11 hours a day every day and I can tell you that I have absolutely NO burn in whatsoever on my screen. It looks fantastic.

Just MHO. Hope this helps some.

tomto66 · Post by **tomto66** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 11:02 am

Not sure if this is related: I have weird noise on one combi (it's a hand made one, not a factory one). It's very minor - when playing live audience won't hear it but it's there. If I switch to another combi it disappears. When I disable all effects the noise stays. Why would one combi generate noise and not the others?

If interested I can post an mp3 to illustrate. I can also post a PCG if anyone interested.

GregC · Post by **GregC** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 1:22 pm

tomto66 wrote:Not sure if this is related: I have weird noise on one combi (it's a hand made one, not a factory one). It's very minor - when playing live audience won't hear it but it's there. If I switch to another combi it disappears. When I disable all effects the noise stays. Why would one combi generate noise and not the others?

If interested I can post an mp3 to illustrate. I can also post a PCG if anyone interested.

something to quickly rule out- i would check FX. disable them, etc, then test your combi. There is also a drum kit that has a scratchy 33 1/3 album effect

tomto66 · Post by **tomto66** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 1:25 pm

@GregC - is what I did - disabled all FX, noise is still there. Is not drumkite related - noise is there when drum is not playing ...

rob_tky · Post by **rob_tky** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 1:37 pm

can you post mp3 sample, pcg?

GregC · Post by **GregC** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 1:38 pm

tomto66 wrote:@GregC - is what I did - disabled all FX, noise is still there. Is not drumkite related - noise is there when drum is not playing ...

home grown combis are tricky. If you are stacking pianos( many of the same instrument in different zones) or have many timbres on a global channel, these might be the culprit. I would go thru each, setting them to off.