Capacitors!! Again and again and again

some12b · Post by **some12b** » Thu May 24, 2012 2:23 am

I'm really at the end of my rope, not only I've search the korgforum vastly; I've searched blogs, youtube, other forums, and I haven't found a single conclusive answer to the questions:

WHICH ARE THE CAPACITORS THAT FAIL IN THE M50?
WHERE ARE THEY LOCATED ON THE BOARD?

Not a Pic or a circuit diagram or a video; the only thing close to an answer is the post made by alfredokiwi in

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... c&start=30

Changing a capacitor is fairly simple (I even found a video in youtube). And I have no idea why does everyone insist in paying $100+ to a tech guy for something that you can easily do? It's almost ridiculous. I'm not cheap, is just that I would like to do it myself, BECAUSE IT'S NOT HARD.

So I'm putting up this new topic to see if anyone cares, if it helps to rock Korg's boat in product suport beyond warranty coverage.

I'm tired of reading the same BS: If not under warranty, pay a tech. Frankly, I don't even care if anyone reads this, I just want to shake Korg into posting the answer. I know that they don't have anything to do with this forum, but somebody has to know the answers.

If anyone cares post something, so we may do something...

Stargazer · Post by **Stargazer** » Thu May 24, 2012 11:23 pm

Great idea. Also, the above mentioned post says a few words about passive cooling. It would be nice to have some definitive directions in the cooling area for those that still have M50's in working order, to preserve the freezing.

kikedeolivos · Post by **kikedeolivos** » Fri May 25, 2012 1:33 am

Guys, we are musicians, not technicians. We should be making MUSIC not replacing faulty capacitors by ourselves.

We shouldn't be tampering with our gear, that's why there's "engineers" that should figure out EVERYTHING before they release a product to the market. They made a mistake? Come to the clear and solve the problem for the user base and admit it: WE MADE A MISTAKE, We weren't aware of faulty components.

Korg people lurked and posted on this site to support the sale of a product, in this case, the M50. When problems started to arise, they VANISHED. They are salespeople, nothing else.

kimu · Post by **kimu** » Fri May 25, 2012 1:26 pm

well... i do not know any big organisation in the business that release DIY procedures for their gears even when there is a wide spreaded fault.

i will appreciate more korg providing for free repair for this problem

3nglenn · Post by **3nglenn** » Sat May 26, 2012 7:30 pm

Yes I agree with the above concerns. I just purchased an M50 a couple months ago and this came to my attention. Guess I should have researched this model more than what I did. Don't get me wrong it's working fine right now, but....

kimu · Post by **kimu** » Sun May 27, 2012 9:43 am

consider that probably the failure is related to first batches of production.
i expect that the newest M50 won't suffer of freezing problem

Stargazer · Post by **Stargazer** » Sun May 27, 2012 10:09 pm

kimu wrote:consider that probably the failure is related to first batches of production.
i expect that the newest M50 won't suffer of freezing problem

Would be nice, as this is, AFAIK some semi-official explanation from Korg people on forums that circulates. But than, why the same repaired M50's, with new capacitors, fail again after some time? As I read on some forums, even newer boards have such freezing problem related to capacitors. Of course not all M50's do so, even from first ones, so, it would take a measure of a luck to get a healthy one.

I think that, like OP suggested, we got to come to some universal solution.

Alp · Post by **Alp** » Fri Jun 01, 2012 7:30 am

The problem with electrolytic capacitors (like those that get replaced when the M-50 freezes) is that they eventually dry out or leak. They then have to be replaced.

If you have to replace your capacitors (electrolytic) you want to put in the best, quality caps you can. Might add a couple of years between repairs.

BTW, I have M50 (61 key) serial number 006414. Purchased about 2010, fall.
I had to have the caps changed a few months after I bought it.

if someone posted pictures of where these caps are, and someone tried to do the job themselves and made things worse, who's fault is it?

Alp

michelkeijzers · Post by **michelkeijzers** » Fri Jun 01, 2012 9:06 am

Strange, I have my M50 also for about 3 years and never had to replace anything.

JerseyMac · Post by **JerseyMac** » Sun Jan 11, 2015 3:45 pm

I have my M50 88 for 5 years and never had any problems until now. Freezing problem started few weeks ago. Serial is 002415

JerseyMac · Post by **JerseyMac** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 4:21 pm

Looks like I fixed freezing problem with my Korg M50 88.
I spoke with Korg's serviceman, he told me that in 90% of cases with M50's freezing problem is caused by wiring harness connectors from center circuit board to right or left panel circuit boards. Wires are often too loose in those little plastic plugs but sometimes are too firmly pressed and cut.
So, I unplugged all plastic connectors on these three PCBs, then I turned around connectors to make more tension on wire harnesses. My M50 didn't freeze since then. Looks like it fixed the problem.

michelkeijzers · Post by **michelkeijzers** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 10:05 pm

JerseyMac wrote:Looks like I fixed freezing problem with my Korg M50 88.
I spoke with Korg's serviceman, he told me that in 90% of cases with M50's freezing problem is caused by wiring harness connectors from center circuit board to right or left panel circuit boards. Wires are often too loose in those little plastic plugs but sometimes are too firmly pressed and cut.
So, I unplugged all plastic connectors on these three PCBs, then I turned around connectors to make more tension on wire harnesses. My M50 didn't freeze since then. Looks like it fixed the problem.

I did a similar thing and worked a few years ago. However now I have the following situation:

I seem to have the same problem. My 3 scenarios when I switch it on:
- Screen showing 'updating left panel, updating right panel, please switch off synth'
- No buttons and joystick work, but all keys does (so I cannot change from program I-A000)
- Everything works but for some seconds, than the previous scenario shows up

I tried to reconnect most cables but without any improvement.

John01W · Post by **John01W** » Sun Nov 20, 2016 12:22 am

Alp wrote:The problem with electrolytic capacitors (like those that get replaced when the M-50 freezes) is that they eventually dry out or leak. They then have to be replaced.

If you have to replace your capacitors (electrolytic) you want to put in the best, quality caps you can. Might add a couple of years between repairs.

BTW, I have M50 (61 key) serial number 006414. Purchased about 2010, fall.
I had to have the caps changed a few months after I bought it.

if someone posted pictures of where these caps are, and someone tried to do the job themselves and made things worse, who's fault is it?

Alp

Generally caps should last or run 15 to 20 years before needing to be replaced....That's normal. ALL electronics with electrolytic caps will need a cap job every 15/20 years. No excuse for a synth as young as the M50 having problems with bad caps.

alfredokiwi · Post by **alfredokiwi** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 10:37 pm

John01W wrote:
Alp wrote:The problem with electrolytic capacitors (like those that get replaced when the M-50 freezes) is that they eventually dry out or leak. They then have to be replaced.

If you have to replace your capacitors (electrolytic) you want to put in the best, quality caps you can. Might add a couple of years between repairs.

BTW, I have M50 (61 key) serial number 006414. Purchased about 2010, fall.
I had to have the caps changed a few months after I bought it.

if someone posted pictures of where these caps are, and someone tried to do the job themselves and made things worse, who's fault is it?

Alp
Generally caps should last or run 15 to 20 years before needing to be replaced....That's normal. ALL electronics with electrolytic caps will need a cap job every 15/20 years. No excuse for a synth as young as the M50 having problems with bad caps.

I`m a synth and audio equipment technician. Here I have a Korg M50 with a "DSP FX WRITE ERROR". Checking the caps I noticed that some of them were decolorated maybe a sign of overheating ??. Replacing the caps was not the solution because the same issue remains but after measuring each factory capacitor there were all fine in values meaning that the caps can last a long time before going into failures.
The same situation appears with a Korg Kross, I replaced the caps because one showed signs of overheating, but again on measuring all caps were fine. Conclusion we need to discard that a bad capacitor is the main issue on Korg M50 boot failures.

Below an interesting post about the Pa3Xle with boot issues

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... p?t=103596

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Capacitors!! Again and again and again

Capacitors!! Again and again and again

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