Where to buy a Korg M50 Motherboard?

[Lord John]

So a while ago I posted about a problem with my keyboard. Turns out the entire motherboard is dead. I've had it less than a year and haven't taken it out of my studio at all.

In short; the repairs will cost $700 (Half the price of the keyboard these days.)

As I'm in Australia and not America, Korg don't really have any support and the Australian Korg dealer requires purchase from them for repairs. (Which is ridiculous because the keyboard was $600 cheaper in America.)

Basically I don't want to pay $700 for something that SHOULDN'T have broken so easily (plus it's a lot of money to throw away when you're a poor music student.)

I would like to know if there is anywhere online that you are able to buy KORG M50 motherboards so I can manually fix it.

[guillex]

So a while ago I posted about a problem with my keyboard. Turns out the entire motherboard is dead. I've had it less than a year and haven't taken it out of my studio at all.

In short; the repairs will cost $700 (Half the price of the keyboard these days.)

As I'm in Australia and not America, Korg don't really have any support and the Australian Korg dealer requires purchase from them for repairs. (Which is ridiculous because the keyboard was $600 cheaper in America.)

Basically I don't want to pay $700 for something that SHOULDN'T have broken so easily (plus it's a lot of money to throw away when you're a poor music student.)

I would like to know if there is anywhere online that you are able to buy KORG M50 motherboards so I can manually fix it.

OMG, first of all, I feel so sad to read this...Second, If I were you, I will contact trough many websites, to the guys of Korg U.S.A, Rich Formadoni, for example, to help you with this...even If they are from Korg U.S.A, they are from korg, and if you didn't treat bad your keyboard, and have less than one year, they should repair by free, or give you a new one..Also in this forum there are some guys of the official team of Korg, you could write them a private message telling all these...

[Lord John]

I really need to find an answer to this question.

I am going to try to contact KORG again. (Takes them weeks to reply to an email.) But in the meantime I want to get the keyboard fixed.

[Trinity2112]

Call Parts Is Parts at 800-590-0014 .

[Lord John]

Do they have a website? I assume it isn't an Australian company (because of the phone number.)

I will buy parts from overseas but a website with a catalogue would be ideal so I can also email them about it.

EDIT: Found their site.

[jonnyj]

Hi Lord John, sorry to hear of your troubles. You may want to try inquiring here at Parts Is Parts. http://partsisparts.net/content/estore_ ... tname=Korg

A long time ago I bought a used beat up Karma MW that needed all the knobs replaced and they had them for me to order. I am going to ask them if they can locate or sell me a new end bell for my M50 nto replace the broken one I just bought on eBay. (see below)

I'm speechless as to the fact that this happened so soon to your M50 I just bought a used one on eBay that was rather neglected and appears to have endured a little damae to one of it's end bells. I saw your post and was wondering if I could ask what do you think or do you now know what happened to your MB in your M50? Might be important to know for future reference here and I would like to know from the gear geek in me.

-JonnyJ
http://synth.me

[Lord John]

Thanks for the link to Parts is Parts. They replied and they said they can get me a KORG Motherboard.

"510C60112887 PCB ASS'Y KLM-2887(MAIN)M50-61ASS'Y" this is the product they were selling. One perhaps nooby question; would the 61 key motherboard work in the 73 key M50? (Just have to be sure before I spend money on it.)

This is a run down of what happened to the Keyboard:

I was playing along with a drum track and all of a sudden the keyboard froze and the note I was playing was sustained infinitely. The only way out was to restart the keyboard by turning the power off then on.

It booted up fine and all my sounds were there and all the touch screen and button functions worked, EXCEPT it made no sound whatsoever when a key was pressed.

I was able to hit "Drum Track" or "Arp" and it would apparently turn on by the colour of the button, but I heard nothing.

I tried restarting the whole keyboard by holding down "Reset Controls" and "Realtime" controls but that made no difference.

After this, I contacted a synth repair shop in Australia and had it sent off to them ($40 courier...) and they diagnosed the Keyboard with a dead motherboard.

I sent this message off to KORG and basically got a "Did you try restarting it?" after 2 weeks...

I am going to follow up with KORG soon and at the least tell them that I'm pretty unsatisfied. As it was within warranty, I hope they can do something about it except there's the whole "We operate in America, and you're in Australia" which has made this process a lot harder.

[akmon]

The warranty is INTERNATIONAL, so keep fighting, because it´s not your fault for breaking the motherboard. It could happen to anyone of us. Nobody deserves such problem.

[John Hendry]

A percentage of MBs are going to go down and sooner than later from my experience....but it seems if they make past 30 days or so they are good and will last. I would be concerned about the A/C feeding it....maybe a neighbor on the same transformer turning on his latest invention or some solar effect hit your grid. This is why I was using a balanced A/C in the US off a Furman IT1220 BIT before it was stolen. Never had any more problems after using it and watched the A/C drop to 92 volts and fry everything not on it.

John^^

[sullycq]

I've seen Korg M50 motherboards going on eBay pretty cheap. I guess you didn't get any warranty with the shop you bought it from? For $700 bucks you could get a second hand M50, again from eBay.

It's bad luck mate and I feel sorry for you. I'm also surprised that Korg support isn't better. I would fight this.

Please let us know how you get on.

[WhiteCloud]

John, I was wondering if you were able to find a resolution to your problem. I purchased a 61 key Korg M50 in 2009 or 10. Two weeks after the warranty expired, it developed the exact same problem you described. I sent it to two different repair shops, a total of 4 times, and it still has the same problem today. The board will power up and play somewhere between 1-15 minutes and then will freeze up. I was told that a new motherboard was the best solution, but didn’t have or want to spend $700 on a nearly brand new workstation.

Please let me know if you found a solution or ended up purchasing a motherboard.

Also, I’m going to do some more research, but I have seen several people mentioning this same problem with their M50. It may be the case that this was a development/manufacturing issue. I wonder if there was ever a recall for the board.

Thanks, and I hope you are doing well and enjoying your board and music in general.

[alfredokiwi]

So a while ago I posted about a problem with my keyboard. Turns out the entire motherboard is dead. I've had it less than a year and haven't taken it out of my studio at all.

In short; the repairs will cost $700 (Half the price of the keyboard these days.)

As I'm in Australia and not America, Korg don't really have any support and the Australian Korg dealer requires purchase from them for repairs. (Which is ridiculous because the keyboard was $600 cheaper in America.)

Basically I don't want to pay $700 for something that SHOULDN'T have broken so easily (plus it's a lot of money to throw away when you're a poor music student.)

I would like to know if there is anywhere online that you are able to buy KORG M50 motherboards so I can manually fix it.

I can understand people from Africa and from other poor countries complaining about the repairs costs on Korg products but not from Australia a very rich country with a high purchasing power. If Korg don´t provide for spare parts at convenient price you need to change to a cheaper brand like CASIO, is my recommendation. Is a sad situation anyone agree on that but in the case of Australia a very rich country buying a new keyboard with zero interest rates is very affordable.