SP-404 no longer powers up

[Synthasy2000]

I recently got two SP-404 samplers. One works perfectly after fixing the CF socket but the other refuses to switch on.

They guy I got it from says it just stopped powering on one day.

I'm a fairly competent tech and I've gone over the board checking for blow components and that the voltages are there. Everything seems present and correct.

I've even swapped the good board from my other SP-404 with the broken board and the good board works in the other unit and the broken board fails as before.

All I can think of is there's some corruption in the OS Flash ROM.
I've tried to update the OS via CF but as the SP-404 doesn't even boot it can't reinstall itself.

How can I reload the Flash ROM?

Send it off to Roland?

[formal]

Yup you gotta send it off to Rolly. Good luck amigo

Also, welcome to the forums!

[wax inspektor]

same shit with batteries?

[Synthasy2000]

Batteries or PSU gives the same non-responsiveness. The power is fine on the board as it seems.

As I said, I've swapped the motherboard with a working one and the other boards in the broken SP-404 are fine.

[a.D.]

Fuck I must have some kind of indestructible super sp. My shit's got dust all through it, dents in it,numberless pads, a thick coat of grime,no card protector, no cover for batteries... and a couple years ago survived a ride in my cartrunk when some teenagers stole my shit for a joyride that resulted in two flat tires. And it still works perfectly, besides 1 or 2 pads sticking very slightly. Bulletproof s.p.'s ! Dude must have had something serious happen to it he's not telling you about, that sucks.But maybe take the opportunity to think about instead of using 2 sp's- getting a zoom sampletrak to team up with a 404--the perfect low budget combo imo.

[Synthasy2000]

Well if I can't get this one working I could get yours back to full new like functionality or you might want to sell me your battered old thing!

[tape smoke]

Fuck I must have some kind of indestructible super sp. My shit's got dust all through it, dents in it,numberless pads, a thick coat of grime,no card protector, no cover for batteries... and a couple years ago survived a ride in my cartrunk when some teenagers stole my shit for a joyride that resulted in two flat tires. And it still works perfectly, besides 1 or 2 pads sticking very slightly. Bulletproof s.p.'s ! Dude must have had something serious happen to it he's not telling you about, that sucks.But maybe take the opportunity to think about instead of using 2 sp's- getting a zoom sampletrak to team up with a 404--the perfect low budget combo imo.

yea , mine is like 3 years old , been on almost everyday, got the shit beat out of it every day solid, the fx control knob 1 spins forever but works good i try not to hurt it tho, my sp 505 was indestructable too.

[Jim Y]

You might try different button combo's on power-on to see if there's a backdoor "emergency boot". Sometimes there's a secret way built in like that to get around a badly corrupt o/s and only the service department knows what buttons to press.
You could also try soaking the board in some solvent in case something corrosive and conductive has got in between somewhere and stopping a clock or scan line from working.

Jim

[djazid]

Try the factory reset from this file: http://www.rolandus.com/corporate/press ... _Reset.pdf
Hope it works.

[Jim Y]

wow! I didn't know that info existed... so here is the one for the 404....

Power on while holding CANCEL, REMAIN, and DEL. When “ini” shows in the display, press REC

I don't know if this is also an emergency boot but it's worth a try.

Edit.. in fact it's the same initialise procedure shown in the 404 manual.

A service emergency boot is usually just a way of forcing the machine to rewrite it's o/s from an update file when it's too ****ed to find it itself.

Jim

[djazid]

Edit.. in fact it's the same initialise procedure shown in the 404 manual.

Yeah, but now you have all the Roland factory reset procedures

[Synthasy2000]

Thanks for the reset tip but I've already tried it with no success. It seems to still need a running CPU and OS to initialise.

You are not really initialising the OS with the reset just the non-volatile parameters\presets.

I think it's one for John Bright the Roland tech as recommended by Roland UK.

The board looks in pristine condition and I did use a soft brush and IPA* to clean it just in case.

*not Green King IPA but Isopropyl Alcohol!

[tape smoke]

wow, i wish i knew about the secret factory resets a couple years ago when I owned a br 1180. i just left it behind when i moved cause it costed to much to send it in. I bet all it needed wasa reset, arg,.

is this in the sp 404 manual ?

[Jim Y]

I can tell you how things went with the Roland VS-840 recorder. Quite a few got burned by o/s updates because Roland provided update files meant to be run off the units Zip drive. Those with the 250MB discs failed because a computer couldn't write the file on the disc without it getting corrupted due to an odd quirk in the disc format. A 100MB disc would work, but nobody was warned about that. So the machines had to go to a service centre. Usually they were quoted for a mainboard replacement.

Eventually somebody found out about a special update disc and when someone managed to get hold of one, it turned out be a normal one with the standard update file on it. Sometime later, a service manual came to light and behold - a secret button combo was needed to force it to load.

Jim

[Synthasy2000]

Sometime later, a service manual came to light and behold - a secret button combo was needed to force it to load.
Jim

This is my secret hope. I get the OS onto a compact flash. Insert it into the "dead" SP-404, hold down some magic keys, switch on and hey presto new OS flashed.

So I would love the Service Manual. Then I would love to get the OS binaries. Then I need the secret button combo.

Thanks for the ray of hope.

Anyone out there can help?!!