Crash problem with my brand new Korg Kronos 2

Stephen Butler · Post by **Stephen Butler** » Sat Jan 08, 2022 8:04 am

Hello:

I bought a brand new Korg Kronos 2 from Professional Music Technology and I have had it now for two days.

I also have an original Kronos 88. That instrument I bought in 2012 and is still going strong - works perfectly, except the USB MIDI appears to have died. I heard that that could be an issue with Windows 10. I don't know yet as I have not been able to install Windows 11.

Anyway, my new Kronos sounds great, in some ways better than the old one but twice now I have had the message: A problem has been detected. Please turn the KRONOS off, wait for 10 sec, and then turn it back on.

I have read on other forums (forae?) that it could be caused by...guess what? Many different things! A hardware issue such as memory or battery seem to be the most popular, which means sending it back to the shop because they sold it to me only two days ago, meaning the initial warranty is still in effect. The other cause may be a power surge, which is strange because my other Kronos has worked for ten years and there has never been an issue like this. A further issue could be an upgrade of the firmware or a complete factory reinstall, but from what I've read it didn't seem to solve the problem.

I don't know if anyone has any other ideas? No? Back to the shop we go...

It's funny, my wife and I always said we would have just one Kronos, but the second one was most definitely unplanned. I think we were just happy Christmas was finished with. x

Cheers,
Stephen[/img]

Stephen Butler · Post by **Stephen Butler** » Sat Jan 08, 2022 8:09 am

PS - By the way, as a side issue, it seems that Kronoses (Kroni?) are very difficult to get hold of, particularly here in the UK. Professional Music Technology were the only UK-based store that had one in stock, nobody else had one. Is this, do we think, due to the presence of the Nautilus, which I looked at but in the end decided to stick with the familiar because I trusted them to work! The Nautilus seems to me an inferior product, why would Korg release it? It's the first time they've regressed with a new workstation launch in 30 years. I thought the Krome was supposed to be the budget Kronos. x

Broadwave · Post by **Broadwave** » Sat Jan 08, 2022 9:03 am

Hi Stephen, Sorry to hear about your new Kronos, but I would take it back to PMT for a replacement or refund.

Korg have discontinued the Kronos, hence the shortage and Nautilus is the official replacement (even though it's several steps back IMHO).

I suspect a RAM seating problem, but that would involve opening up the new Kronos to re-seat, which would invalidate the warranty. You just can't win can you?

I would happily own two Kronos'sisisis, but I ended up supplimenting mine with the new Fantom.

Good luck with PMT

Stephen Butler · Post by **Stephen Butler** » Sat Jan 08, 2022 9:54 am

Thank you my friend, very nice of you. I'm simply amazed, astounded, gobsmacked even, at the news that the Nautilus is the official replacement for the Kronos. If something ain't broke, why fix it? The screen is a KROME screen, for goodness' sake!

I shall write to Korg about it, because I love to spend half a day writing something that is going to be completely ignored by them.

I'm actually staring out the window in something of a daze; I can't believe it, the Kronos is no more.

Cheers,
Stephen

AntonySharmman · Post by **AntonySharmman** » Sat Jan 08, 2022 11:29 am

Hi Stephen
If the "A problem has been detected ..." message is frequent or permanent then by 80% this is media reading error caused by faulty SSD ,
15% by power supply unit and 5% caused by bad seating of Rams or SATA cable.

So if you plan to DIY then if external repair of SSD (de-fragmentation /Linux system error check & repair) is not feasible , then you have
to format and reinstall OS & resources in internal boot SSD using Kronos 2 DVDs and an external compatible DVD reader.

If you're under warranty its advised to send it back for official service center to resolve the issue.

Stephen Butler · Post by **Stephen Butler** » Sat Jan 08, 2022 2:56 pm

Hi Anthony:

Thank you so much for your generous reply.

I decided to upgrade the firmware. This is going to be a bit weird to explain; I hope it makes sense. I downloaded the latest version of the firmware, which is 1.10, and made sure I had the latest version of the KORG MIDI USB-MIDI driver. It's 1.15.Something or Other.

So, I follow the instructions exactly. I make sure my Kronos is unplugged, put into firmware update mode by pressing Pause and Enter and switching it on, plugged in the MIDI, opened up the Kronos Sub-System Win 110 folder and opened up the Updater file and got...a screen that said error: an update device cannot be found. I looked. It was in my device manager. It was in my list of audio devices in Windows 10.

I had heard that Windows 10 didn't like the Korg MIDI-USB facility app, but I assumed that was one of the things that would have been fixed by v1.15 or something. It's crazy, it's just crazy. Seems like I'm going to have to go to the shop, even though I don't want to what with a pandemic going on and everything.

Thanks anyway,
Cheers,
Stephen

Stephen Butler · Post by **Stephen Butler** » Sat Jan 08, 2022 2:57 pm

Hi Anthony:

Thank you so much for your generous reply.

I decided to upgrade the firmware. This is going to be a bit weird to explain; I hope it makes sense. I downloaded the latest version of the firmware, which is 1.10, and made sure I had the latest version of the KORG MIDI USB-MIDI driver. It's 1.15.Something or Other.

So, I follow the instructions exactly. I make sure my Kronos is unplugged, put into firmware update mode by pressing Pause and Enter and switching it on, plugged in the MIDI, opened up the Kronos Sub-System Win 110 folder and opened up the Updater file and got...a screen that said error: an update device cannot be found. I looked. It was in my device manager. It was in my list of audio devices in Windows 10.

I had heard that Windows 10 didn't like the Korg MIDI-USB facility app, but I assumed that was one of the things that would have been fixed by v1.15 or something. It's crazy, it's just crazy. Seems like I'm going to have to go to the shop, even though I don't want to what with a pandemic going on and everything.

Thanks anyway,
Cheers,
Stephen

AntonySharmman · Post by **AntonySharmman** » Sun Jan 09, 2022 3:52 am

Stephen , you do not have to upgrade firmware or OS for this problem ! this probably won't change the fact that you face hardware issue !
By 90% , Kronos boot SSD sectors are damaged that contain OS files and recovery of whole system files is required !
I do not just speculate issues , I repair on demand advanced hardware failure cases of Kronos as skilled engineer for WavesArt libraries
customers here in Greece that I personally support and I have investigated and addressed decades of similar cases.

Bear in mind that official service center is the advised solution since you should still be under warranty.

alland · Post by **alland** » Sun Jan 09, 2022 8:02 am

Just my 2c to offer:
Have Kronos X may years, had several times (couple times a year when I moved my Kronos around weekly, less later whan I settled it to studio) similar hangup message or just nasty hangup without any message.
Every single time this was cured (for a while) by opening Kronos, cleaning and reseating RAM. So next time when that happens I even do not think twice. Not recommended though if warranty service is valid and handily available.

Stephen Butler · Post by **Stephen Butler** » Sun Jan 09, 2022 9:27 am

Thank you both for your replies.

Unfortunately, since I cannot upgrade the firmware - and besides, it wouldn't matter if I could or not - I cannot avoid the inescapable conclusion that this is going to have to go back to Korg to be resolved. I'm sure under your careful guidance Antony I could have the back off, re-seat the RAM and have this fixed in under ten minutes but because of this sodding warranty I can't do that in case two years down the line something serious may occur.

What a shame that, as we wave goodbye to the Kronos as an era in Korg's history - the fragility of the workstation is brought home to us when a small issue can affect the whole beast and make it at least temporarily unusable.

Thanks again. In the interests of full disclosure, I shall keep this thread updated as to what happens and what is necessary to fix the problem.

Cheers,
Stephen x

Stephen Butler · Post by **Stephen Butler** » Sun Jan 09, 2022 9:34 am

Thank you both for your replies.

Unfortunately, since I cannot upgrade the firmware - and besides, it wouldn't matter if I could or not - I cannot avoid the inescapable conclusion that this is going to have to go back to Korg to be resolved. I'm sure under your careful guidance Antony I could have the back off, re-seat the RAM and have this fixed in under ten minutes but because of this sodding warranty I can't do that in case two years down the line something serious may occur.

What a shame that, as we wave goodbye to the Kronos as an era in Korg's history - the fragility of the workstation is brought home to us when a small issue can affect the whole beast and make it at least temporarily unusable.

Thanks again. In the interests of full disclosure, I shall keep this thread updated as to what happens and what is necessary to fix the problem.

Cheers,
Stephen x

Derek Cook · Post by **Derek Cook** » Sun Jan 09, 2022 9:34 am

Hi,

FWIW

If it is a new Kronos with a fault, then I would return it to the distributor for repair by Korg (assuming no immediate replacements).

But before then, what power are you running it off? Do you have a UPS protecting it from power issues?

I note you did not say that the old Kronos is experiencing this issue, so a power issue is unlikely, but maybe the new one is a little more susceptible?

Stephen Butler · Post by **Stephen Butler** » Sun Jan 09, 2022 9:37 am

Thank you both for your replies.

Unfortunately, since I cannot upgrade the firmware - and besides, it wouldn't matter if I could or not - I cannot avoid the inescapable conclusion that this is going to have to go back to Korg to be resolved. I'm sure under your careful guidance Antony I could have the back off, re-seat the RAM and have this fixed in under ten minutes but because of this sodding warranty I can't do that in case two years down the line something serious may occur.

What a shame that, as we wave goodbye to the Kronos as an era in Korg's history - the fragility of the workstation is brought home to us when a small issue can affect the whole beast and make it at least temporarily unusable.

Thanks again. In the interests of full disclosure, I shall keep this thread updated as to what happens and what is necessary to fix the problem.

Cheers,
Stephen x

blazerunner · Post by **blazerunner** » Sun Jan 09, 2022 3:57 pm

Broadwave wrote:Hi Stephen, Sorry to hear about your new Kronos, but I would take it back to PMT for a replacement or refund.

Korg have discontinued the Kronos, hence the shortage and Nautilus is the official replacement (even though it's several steps back IMHO).

The Nautilus is just the LE version of the Kronos. Like the Triton had the Triton LE.

Korg and a bunch of other manufacturers are suffering from supply shortages at the moment. There's a lot of backorders and products completely unavailable.A few Korg keyboards have been out of stock since the pandemic peeked like the FS MS20's, Prologues,Kronos 2's, the ARP 2600M, ETC. I think they dropped the plans for the 61key Modwave they showed us last year. Roland has a huge back order on their new products right now that 404Mk2 and Boutique line is long. Products are coming in slowly but retailers don't have any specific dates.

tunaman · Post by **tunaman** » Mon Jan 10, 2022 4:04 pm

Yes, the statement that Kronos has been discontinued is Internet FUD - members here should not be parroting that as fact.

There has not been any such official announcement, and in fact the Kronos is still alive and well on the Music Workstations page of Korg USA, right alongside the Nautilus. In fact, looking at the page right now they list the Kronos, Kronos Titanium and Kronos LS.