For discussion about setting up your studio and advice on the gear and equipment within it.
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By J2kxl Mon Jun 23, 2008 12:17 pm
R.I.P.? :? My s900 may have just died. Anyone have any experience in fixing these monsters? I'm not sure what happened but now when I turn it on it makes a little click.... no lights or screen action, the motor on the drive seems to be spinning round. but thats not gonna help me sample.

It's funny, even though it's one of the oldest pieces of gear in my lab I thought it would be the last to go.

I'm gonna open it up tomorrow, of course I'm hoping it's just a fuse. If anyone had any pointers would be much appreciated.
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By J2kxl Mon Jun 23, 2008 11:26 pm
Fuses seem to be intact. It's usually fairly obvious when they blown right?
flowers these look wicked on the inside I can sort of see why these were worth so much back in the day. Mine has an original price sticker of 1899.00 pounds :shock:

I'm wondering if these symptoms would be consistent with a **** drive?
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By laban Tue Jun 24, 2008 5:15 am
Mine has no problems, but just wondering how is the replacement parts on these two old monsters? Is there available any replacement displays(I don't mean the el foil), knobs etc. for them?
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By ReckOne Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:53 pm
J2kxl wrote:Fuses seem to be intact. It's usually fairly obvious when they blown right?


I'm no electrician and it wasn't obvious to me when I blew one in my mpc60. I had some power, screen lighted up but nothing on there. I replaced one of the three fuses in there and that baby was up and running again. Fuses are pretty cheap so I'd try to replace them and see what gives.

That or buy another s950.
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By vinyl_junkie_1620 Tue Jun 24, 2008 9:08 pm
Could be a power regulator (usually black thing that looks like a transistor, has 3 legs with a heat sink on it some times) but just a guess, if you had a service manual or some pics of the inside that would be helpfull. Also try to re-seat all the modules and shit inside just incase something has worked a bit loose.
Armed with a service manual, multi meter and preff an osciliscope I don't see why you couldn't fix it.
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By J2kxl Wed Jun 25, 2008 1:46 am
ReckOne wrote:
J2kxl wrote:Fuses seem to be intact. It's usually fairly obvious when they blown right?


I'm no electrician and it wasn't obvious to me when I blew one in my mpc60. I had some power, screen lighted up but nothing on there. I replaced one of the three fuses in there and that baby was up and running again. Fuses are pretty cheap so I'd try to replace them and see what gives.

That or buy another s950.


WORD! On closer inspection one of the fuses although intact was slightly discolored, so I pulled up the connector next to the fuses. and one of the pins and connection is a bit fried and melted. I'm sure if I just replace the fuse it will run again, :mrgreen: I deff don'[t want to spend mucho dollero on it.

vinyl_junkie_1620 wrote:Could be a power regulator (usually black thing that looks like a transistor, has 3 legs with a heat sink on it some times) but just a guess, if you had a service manual or some pics of the inside that would be helpfull. Also try to re-seat all the modules and **** inside just incase something has worked a bit loose.
Armed with a service manual, multi meter and preff an osciliscope I don't see why you couldn't fix it.


Yeah this is could be the root of the problem, need to get a multi meter to recalibrate the pitch on my turnys anyways. Hopefully just a fuse will do tho.

Thanks for all your replies, sometimes it's just therapeutic to share lol.
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By Ridgestone Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:32 am
sorry for thread jack.

I just bought S950 and it says that is has 512kt's installed,
I thought that the basic memory it had was 750kt? whats up with this?
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By deck daddy Tue Jul 15, 2008 2:00 pm
I have a S900 with the exact same problem: nothing seems to be live except the floppy drive, which spins when I turn the unit on.

I hope that I have the exact same problem: then I will learn how to fix it when you get yours to work!

Maybe I shall change all the fuses myself? And reseat every cable? (I think I have already done this).
By fooddude Tue Aug 24, 2021 4:42 am
Just posting, as this might help someone else out with similar problems with their S900, S950 or other older Akai S-series samplers (probably other brands like Roland, E-mu, etc. too)

Was considering selling my S950 lately; so, I started it up for the first time since 2016 (about 5 years) this morning… only to find out it isn’t starting like normal nor booting up.
It was working perfectly in 2016 and before.

When hitting the power switch and trying to turn it On, the floppy drive lights up and constantly runs (very loudly) and the screen doesn’t show anything.
Videos 1 & 2.

I googled the problem and found a few threads on MPC-forums and GS (it seems relatively common). So, I will just post what I found here.

Of course, I was super worried… as, I don’t want to sell my S950 as “parts only” or “non working” and lose a lot of money.
The other option would be to have a professional repair it… and that would most likely be at least $200 to $500 or maybe even more.

Read a lot of advice on the threads I’ve found… So, I checked:
All fuses - all good.
Any burn marks on psu and fuse pcb boards, or any funky/bulgy looking components, capacitors, etc. - all good, no bulging caps nor burn marks on boards/traces.
Check underneath the fuse pcb board (unscrew & remove it first) for cracked, loose, broken solder joints - none… checked all joints with a metal pick or needle-nose pliers and all are very solid with no cracks.
Faulty floppy drive - unsure how to really check this… someone suggested unplug power cable to floppy drive; and if the unit turns on normally then the drive is bad.
Well, I unplugged the small, white power plug (it goes to the floppy drive from the fuse pcb board) and nothing turns On now. So, I’m guessing the drive isn’t the prob.

I’m thinking it might just be corrosion/dirt on the plugs’ pins, I hope.
From my past experience fixing my old music gear, brushing DeoxIT on the pins and reseating the plugs 20x in&out fixes most problems 90% of the time.
The other 10% is broken solder joints (already checked out to be good) or faulty components. (the former being much more common)

In the end, whew, I was right and got dang lucky. Plugs just needed to be lubed and reseated.
Videos 3 & 4.

If that didn’t work… my only other options were:
1. Sell as “parts only” and lose a lot of money.
2. Pay prolly $200-600 for a pro to repair it… then sell as working-condition… still losing money on repair.


What I did (after doing the aforesaid check-ups):
Brushed/lubed all the plug-pins with DeoxIt, and also all the fuse-ends (removing them first of course) on these 2 pcb boards (pics 1 & 2).
Then, re-seated plugs 20x to scratch/scuff off any corrosion.
I marked all the plugs (9 total) and fuse-ends with a green-dot for reference (pics 1 & 2).

After lubing and reseating all the plugs and fuses on the 2 pcb boards, it still didn’t turn On normally, and at this point I was getting worried, lol.

Then, I did the very last plug (pics 3 & 4) that was kinda hiding and on one of the main/big voice boards. Lubed it, reseated 20x, and then hit the power switch… it worked! Videos 3 & 4.
I guess that plug was corroded and not feeding power to the rest of the unit.


Anyways… hope this helps out.
I’ve read countless people that couldn’t fix nor power-On their S950/S900 (while the its’ floppy-drive lights up and runs), and then relegated them to Bricks.
Of course, they also might have much bigger and more complex problems too, that isn’t as simple as connections/plugs like mine. (I know connections are the first things people usually check out)





https://imgur.com/a/cf2vHzv

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https://imgur.com/a/WkxmJAV

https://imgur.com/a/oCqZiSy



https://imgur.com/a/Tj5WwtY

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