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I have an original Kronos 88 that has performed almost flawlessly over the past seven years or so. Only one, maybe two, error messages upon startup in the entire time I’ve had it, and no lock-ups, freezes, stuck notes, etc. It’s been an incredibly stable, reliable workhorse of a machine for my gigging purposes.

The presenting problem is that one key (G#4) has a few small nicks along the sides (damaged from my ring) that I am thinking about getting replaced. If this note were not smack in the middle of the keybed I would probably just deal with it, but it can be a distraction at times. So when I take it in to the shop, since they will have the thing opened up, I was wondering if there were any “routine maintenance” issues anyone would suggest? Checking the SSD SATA and 24-pin RAM connections, along with a thorough cleaning, come to mind.

A larger issue is if I should be concerned with any “life expectancy” factors? The unit is getting rather long in the tooth, so I’m wondering if I should be worried about any component failure issues? If this is a concern, the intervention would be to get a new machine (Kronos 2). I’d rather not do this...as mentioned it’s been a wonderful keyboard...but I do understand that they don’t last forever.

Thanks for any recommendations!

Moonglow wrote:I have an original Kronos 88 that has performed almost flawlessly over the past seven years or so. Only one, maybe two, error messages upon startup in the entire time I’ve had it, and no lock-ups, freezes, stuck notes, etc. It’s been an incredibly stable, reliable workhorse of a machine for my gigging purposes.

The presenting problem is that one key (G#4) has a few small nicks along the sides (damaged from my ring) that I am thinking about getting replaced. If this note were not smack in the middle of the keybed I would probably just deal with it, but it can be a distraction at times. So when I take it in to the shop, since they will have the thing opened up, I was wondering if there were any “routine maintenance” issues anyone would suggest? Checking the SSD SATA and 24-pin RAM connections, along with a thorough cleaning, come to mind.

A larger issue is if I should be concerned with any “life expectancy” factors? The unit is getting rather long in the tooth, so I’m wondering if I should be worried about any component failure issues? If this is a concern, the intervention would be to get a new machine (Kronos 2). I’d rather not do this...as mentioned it’s been a wonderful keyboard...but I do understand that they don’t last forever.

Thanks for any recommendations!

I have the same exact. No problems.

IMO, a possible life expectancy item is the key bed. Or it might be a felt pad, I am not certain. You would know if your keys are super noisy.

Either way, the keys and mechanism get the most direct wear. That should be assessed. If I were you, try a Kronos 2 , 88 key to get some comparison/perspective.

I have no data on ' expected component ' wear. And I have watched for it. Thats actually fantastic news for our 7-8 yr old Kronos'.

I don’t have a crystal ball, but I would hope that if you treat your Kronos well it should last a long time. I had a 19 year old Triton that was working perfectly when I sold it. I know they are different instruments, but I think the lifetime is based on how it’s treated and how often it’s played.

28 year old Korg 01/Wfd - still in incredible condition. Korg usually builds these things to last. The only problem I've had was with the M3 - after about 5 or 6 years the touch screen digitizer went bad and I had to replace it. It was easy b/c there were dozens of other instances right around the same time of other people's touch screen digitizer failing, so it was a well known problem that had an easy and inexpensive solution. I haven't heard of such problems from the Kronos, perhaps Korg fixed the design flaw with the Kronos?

When I opened up my X61 to put in a second SSD, I replaced the button cell battery on the motherboard and the fan with a Nanoxia Deep Silence Fan 60mm 2000rpm Cooling fan, NDS60-2000. I had to extend the wiring harness that came with the fan.