FA 06 BIG problems

Hm,

A couple of extra questions:-

1. How long is it on for before it switches itself off? Minutes, hours? Whats the range?
2. Presume its rebooting itself automatically back to its pre-set opening song/studio set?
3.What setting is the auto off function? Does changing that have any effect on the problem? Does that auto-off setting still work properly? Is auto function on or off?
4. Are you connecting sound via USB or TRS connections?
5. Will it do its auto cut-off if its stand alone with just headphones and no other gear?
6. It is equipped with a protection circuit. Normally a brief interval (a few seconds) is required after turning it on before it will operate normally. Is that still normal?

I have taken it for granted that the mains lead is not just pulling out.

Thanks for the response, I am really in a bind with no clear ideas, here are my answers:

1. It typically switches off after "a while" maybe 20 minutes or longer, but once it does the reboot, it will start rebooting much sooner, around 30 seconds to a minute. It's hard to predict but definitely rebooting sooner and more often than a couple of months ago.

2. Yes, it reboots just like turning the machine on and off with the power switch so it always comes back to the default studio set.

3. The auto off is set to OFF. I have not experimented with that setting

4. Audio out connections are varied and the problem remains. TRS mostly and headphones, but it will reboot with nothing connected except the power cable.

5. Yes, it reboots without any attachments beyond the power. ( assuming that's what you meant)

6. Not sure what you mean with the protection circuit. Can you clarify?

datbrown wrote:

FA 06 owner. Purchased in fall of 2015. Been using it for gigs since that time. For the past 8 months it will power off and reboot randomly, sometimes while i'm playing, sometimes not. I have tried everything I can think of to identify the problem or recreate it including factory resets, running newest updated software version, new Roland power supplies, wiggling the power connection, etc. I can't recreate the problem or predict what will cause it. I have emailed Roland support and haven't heard back yet. I can't gig with this thing while it's rebooting randomly. VERY frustrated. I love the workstation and I spent a lot of hard earned cash on this thing.

3 questions:

1. Has anyone else ever experienced this or something similar?

2. Other than the solutions I've already tried, does anyone have an idea about how I can diagnose or fix this?

3. I have gigs coming up. What would you do in my situation, because I need a reliable ax. Go get an FA07 or maybe the Yamaha MODX6?

Thanks in advance for helping me with this.

Dave

Dave, almost all electronic devices reboots itself when the temperature is too high. Consider that.

Okay thanks for that tip. Not sure what would cause it to be "too hot" it often reboots within a minute of first being powered on for the day. If it is a heat related issue, wondering what would cause it to overheat so quickly or in climate controlled conditions?

It sounds like power-supply related. You said you've tried new Roland power supplies--did you replace both halves? As a gigging musician I know that wrapping power supply cables around the wall wart over time can definitely compromise the wire. Either half could have a make/break connection and depending on the cable placement could cause it to reboot. Likewise, if you gig a lot, the DC power supply jack is not the most robust, which is why most gigging keyboards use a three-prong AC design (typical PC power cord) and have an internal transformer. The jack soldered to the board may be compromised causing a momentary drop in power when the cord pulls on the jack just so, causing the reboot.

Agreed it sounds like a power issue but I just can't seem to recreate it no matter what I touch or jiggle. I would think I should be able to find it if it were a loose connection. I even tried holding the power button all the way in when I powered up and keeping it there. It didn't seem to help. By the way, The new power adapter is the complete OEM assembly from the wall plug to the input plug. I guess I could put my multimeter on it to be certain the voltage/amps are correct.

I'm very concerned that it's related to motherboard or processor. The only time I see a reboot that seems to be related to something I'm doing is when I'm making the darn thing think too much i.e. saving studio sets or editing tones etc. That being said, sometimes it reboots when it's sitting on the stand with nothing happening and no one near it.

I contacted ROLAND and they just say get it looked at by a repair person. Called the local authorized repair shop and they have a $75 diagnosing fee 2 1/2 week backlog. ROLAND says I can ship the keyboard to them in California for $80 per hour of labor plus parts etc. A one year warranty seems awful short for the price and performance of this instrument. Should I crack this thing open and see what I find?

How much do I spend on this rig before a repair would not be worth it? Thought about moving to the FA 07 but I can't find one to play on to check out the keyboard feel.

Of course, as I am sitting here writing this, the FA hasn't rebooted in an hour. Go figure. I did find some YouTube videos where a couple of people posted videos of weird FA anomalies but nothing like this.

Thanks for the ideas, keep firing, we might figure this out.

Regarding the question of the keybed in the FA-07 vs. FA-06, you might find this discussion in another forum helpful:
http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2949100/Re_Is_there_an_alternative_to_#Post2946495

datbrown wrote:

..... The new power adapter is the complete OEM assembly from the wall plug to the input plug......

I was also going to suspect the power supply, based on the idea that this problem is heat-related, and when a keyboard has an internal power supply, the power supply is one of the heat-producing elements in the box. But I forgot that you have the external power adapter - even though I have the same in my FA-07!

I next wondered if you could be facing a ventilation problem. I could not find a picture of the underside of an FA-06, so I looked at the bottom of my FA-07, but found no vents. I am guessing your FA-06 is the same. So I am stumped.

There are no vents on my FA 06. The problem with the overheating idea is this: last night it went a few hours without rebooting so I decided to leave the keyboard on all night and check it in the morning. Didn't reboot at all overnight and stayed good thru most of the day. Then I was saving a studio set and boom it rebooted for the first time since yesterday afternoon. I really don't think it's heat related because the dang thing seems to operate better when it's been on a little while, but that could be chance.

I don't wish this on anyone but I do wish someone had seen or heard of this issue before, I really hate being patient zero.

Keep the ideas coming. Should I crack this thing open and peek around? Would you?

datbrown wrote:

Then I was saving a studio set and boom it rebooted for the first time since yesterday afternoon.

What are you saving to? If it's to an external card, the card could be bad or have bad sectors and it could cause the reboot if the FA-06 is trying to save to an invalid memory location. I've definitely seen behavior like this on keyboards with bad external memory. If you're saving to the internal memory, it *could* be the same thing but highly unlikely.

Turned the thing on this morning and before I did anything it started to go into reboot mode. Rebooted several times. Turned it off and back on again, still rebooting but a little less frequently. Then on/off and now it looks like it has calmed down. I will explore the memory corruption route, but I think that reboot while I was saving may not be the whole answer because I don't know how it explains the other random reboots.
My FA has an external SD Card. I'm not sure about internal memory. I will switch out the sd card and see if that helps.

Thanks again for the ideas everyone!

Swapped out the SD card. No improvement. Really frustrated!

Welcome to capitalism. It's frustrating but, hey, no one wants to bring enough class action suits for corporations to actually run fairly.

You'll have to pay to get it fixed, or toss it as with most modern things.

I dread anything like this happening to mine because it was a "once in a two decade" purchase for me - I think I bought my Sound Canvas in the late 90s and hadn't had anything new since then.

So this needs to last me until, well, I die (I'm sure in my 70s, if I make it, I won't be able to afford anything) and let's just say "they don't build 'em like they used to".

Talk to other players in town and see who they recommend to work on it. Usually there's a diagnostic fee but it counts towards the repair if you get it repaired.

Stupid Questions:

Have you tried a different outlet?

Is it in a power strip or direct in the wall. If in the wall, is it in an outlet that's controlled by a light switch? If so, try a different one.

Is anything else plugged in the outlet? If so unplug everything else.

Is it near a computer? Are you setting your phone or other mobile device on it or near it? If so, try moving those away. Same with any kinds of TV monitors or other Radio sources (wi-fi router, etc.). Even a microwave! Ceiling fan remote, all of the fancy new Alexa type thingies in the house?

Have you updated it to the latest software? If not, you may want to.

Take out any Cards/USB and check behavior (unplug USB from computer as well).

You may want to do a Factory Reset if you haven't already tried it. You would need to back any user sounds you've created and custom studio sets, etc. But if all of the above fails, the Factory Reset would be the way to go, then start adding things back in a little at a time.

One other stupid thing to check: Synths have a little watch battery in them to hold user patches in memory (at least many do). Sometimes erratic behavior is caused by the battery going bad. I'm not sure if the FA has one, but if one goes bad you lose your user presets if not backed up elsewhere. Usually what would happen though when you turn it on you would get a bad battery message and all you could access would be the factory presets, though it would typically still operate OK. But who knows. At 4 years old, if it has one, it's possible it could be going and causing issues.

Of course, most likely it's probably something on the motherboard or something - maybe it got too hot one time, or maybe there was a power surge one time or something. Who knows.

Another thing to check is that technicians often have diagnostic modes they can enter with certain panel presses that aren't included in manuals. If you can find these they can let you run a diagnostic on the unit and see if it returns any kind of error messages you can decipher.

I hope you're able to solve it inexpensively. Good luck!

I appreciate the perspective. It's tough to hear but you are right. I did try all of the things you suggested and nothing helped so I'm left with something internal that will need to be fixed.

Curious if anyone here knows a way to put the FA into test/diagnostic mode?

I also have wanted to try and/or buy the FA 07 ever since it was announced. Maybe now is the time.

Would you move to the FA 07 or just replace the 06 with another one new or used?