Is my motherboard dying? Dead?

Just recently my MPC has gone on the fritz. When you boot up the MPC the autoload folder loads and then it begins playing samples (by itself) in rapid succession. Kind of hard to explain without an example so here's a brief vid I took on youtoob:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX9HEigJ6Ks

I had this problem before and it seemed to "work itself out". I would leave the sampler on for a half hour or so and come back when it calmed down. Everything would work but the mode button was a little off. Now the mode button flickers and you can't select anything, also when you hit mode it selects some random function on the MPC. Pretty much everything has gone haywire.

Here's what I have done to try to fix it...

• Reseated the RAM
• Reset MPC to factory settings.
• Uninstalled and reinstalled the OS
• Checked and made sure it wasn't the flash memory card.
• Took off the top of the MPC case, checked inside for cracks, anything loose etc.

Does this sound like a motherboard problem? I'm willing to buy a new one. I bought this MPC used and it worked perfect for the first month or so.

Thanks in advance!

maybe a tack switch is sticking, sorry my dude

Thanks, anything will help. I've been racking my brain trying to figure it out.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

You may have a button stuck that is triggering one of the switches. Have you booted up the MPC with the top case removed?

Have you turned off autoload to see if the problem goes away? There may be a corrupt file in the autoload folder.

Are any of the tact switches broken or shorted? You would need a multimeter to check the switches while the MPC is off.

What OS are you running?

Wow, that's crazy. I've never seen or heard anything like this.
Bad ram usually just crashes the os, but just for the hell of it, try running it without the ram.

MPCHunter wrote:Are any of the tact switches broken or shorted? You would need a multimeter to check the switches while the MPC is off.

^^^More than likely it's this.

I would remove the right op board from the assembly and check the switches and traces for any shorts. You can do this by running a continuity test with a multimeter. If you don't know how to do this, just search google or youtube and you'll find plenty of tutorials.

For the tact switches, check any two termination pins with the multimeter probes. If it rings continuity while the switch is not pressed on than you have a stuck switch. You can also check the traces to see if there's a short between them using the same test.

Thanks everyone for the great advice.

I think I'm going to replace the right side PCB Board and see if it fixes the problem. If it doesn't fix it, at least I have new parts (since I bought this used).

http://www.mpcstuff.com/mpc-1000-right- ... d1000.html

That PCB board has been on backorder for a significant amount of time and may not be available anytime in the near future.

You may want to see if you can diagnose the issue and repair it yourself. If it's a tact switch that needs replaced you can fix that very cheaply. If you don't have the tools, your local repair shop can probably solder a new switch in for you.

I lucked out and got one, it shipped a few days ago.

Well that didn't fix it. Maybe my motherboard is in the sh*tter?

Does the machine glitch out when you have your compact flash card in the slot?

Got pretty much the same problem and I think i figured out the reason. At least on mine the blue cable under the pads seems to be damaged. If I bend it back it works for a while and then starts playing notes randomly again.

Here's pictures, it's the cable with blue on lower right side of first picture. You can see on the second picture that the flex cable is damaged on the left side.. Anybody got an idea where I could get a new one and how to change it?

Yea that ribbon cable is pinched. See if you can find one for parts and get the cable.

In the service manual the ribbon cable is listed as follows:

Reference #: 24
Part #: EW - 821887X
Description: CORD FFC P1.00 L210 20P

mpcstuff.com might have them, give them a call. Here's their page for the cable.
http://www.mpcstuff.com/1a821887x.html

As for replacing it, the connector is two pieces with one piece fixed to the board while the other piece can be moved to unlock and lock the cable in place. I take a small flat tip screwdriver and carefully pry the connector open to unlock the cable.
When putting it back together, make sure the cable is all the way in the connector. Use one hand to hold the cable in place and carefully lock the connector back in place with the other hand using needle nose pliers.

px4000 wrote:Got pretty much the same problem and I think i figured out the reason. At least on mine the blue cable under the pads seems to be damaged. If I bend it back it works for a while and then starts playing notes randomly again.

Here's pictures, it's the cable with blue on lower right side of first picture. You can see on the second picture that the flex cable is damaged on the left side.. Anybody got an idea where I could get a new one and how to change it?

It happened to y system as well..seems like its a common problem then!