Sudden & multiple failure

I've got an MPC 2500 SE which I bought from new about four years ago. It's running the original OS that the unit came with. Except for the down-cursor button & the 8 on the numeric keypad being a little bit sticky, I've never had any trouble with it. Until today.

This morning it was working fine, playing sequences and samples, and sequencing external gear via MIDI. I turned it off for about an hour and when I turned it back on again after lunch I set the tempo & pressed play to get my xoxbox running and my delay in sync. So far so good. Then, when I tried loading some sequences from the CF card I found that the pads weren't working. I've tried them all & none of them work, either in the MPC or sending MIDI note signals. There's been no gradual deteriation in their function, they've gone from all to nothing in a matter of hours.

As well as that, when I turned the volume up on my desk I noticed that the MPC was booting out a lot of noise on the main outs, which continued when I turned the volume down on the unit itself. A quick check of the individual outs revealed that they're also spitting out noise.

I've pressed every button & pad on the unit, all the pads are dead and every button still works except for the 16-levels button. I can change sequences, tempo, track and MIDI channel with the jog-wheel, but I can't change between drum/midi or change program. I've tried doing a factory reset by holding erase as I switch on, but that doesn't make any difference.

I've trawled through this forum too, but haven't found a problem quite like mine. Dead pads seem to die gradually, apparently, and I've never opened her up or changed the OS myself.

Does anyone here know what might be the problem or what I could do about it?

Cheers.

Hello

Not sure what country you are located in? I bought my MPC 2500SE Brand New about 4 years ago too from http://www.HTFR.com/ (They are located in the UK and I am located in the US). It appears they no longer sell MPC's. I have read in certain forums that some MPC 2500SE's that were made overseas had some bug issues with them.

I use my MPC 2500SE from time to time, I also use an OG MPC 60 MKI, ASR-10, Ableton Live 8 & 9, Pro Tools 10 & 11 and Logic Pro 9. I just fired up my MPC 2500SE the other day and noticed that the Main Window button was a little sticky and it was acting a bit buggy (keep in mind that I have barely used it in the 4 years that I have owned it and it has been well taken care of, always covered when not in use). I am going to use it a bit more and see if more issues pop up. I am also using the OG MPC OS 1.24 (I always liked the Direct Record function and that wasn't available with any of the JJOS's).

It appears that we both may have the MPC 2500SE's know for having issues. If your issues continue and you are located in the US, i would check out these 3 repair shops. I have used them all and they all do great work. We both may have to send our MPC 2500SE's out for a little look over/tune-up/repair. Here are links to the 3 repair shops. Hope this helps and keep me updated on how you make out.

http://www.vstservice.com/t-serviceandrepair.aspx

http://www.forat.com/service/

http://www.eprelectronics.com/service.htm

you can also try re-loading the Akai OS, before you consider sending it out for repair.

Download the Akai OS 1.24 here...
http://www.akaipro.com/index.php/produc ... #downloads

Then follow these instructions. Once again, hope this helps and let me know how you make out.


BEFORE YOU BEGIN Please make sure to back up all contents of the internal hard drive BEFORE upgrading the OS. After upgrading, it is recommended that you format your internal hard drive.

How to copy OS bin file to CF with MPC2500 and Computer
*Required Equipment: Compact Flash (CF), USB mass storage class supported computer (Windows XP/ME/2000 or Mac OSX, OS9.x)

Download the file MPC2500v124.ZIP from www.akaipro.com to your computer
Your browser should automatically unzip the file and you should have a file called MPC2500.bin on your computer if it does not, you will need to unzip the downloaded file using one of the following free programs:Winzip (Windows) http://www.winzip.comStuffit Expander (Macinsosh) http://www.winzip.com

Insert Compact Flash into the MPC2500

Switch the MPC2500 ON

Go to LOAD mode [MODE + PAD2], then press USB [F4]

Connect a USB cable between PC and the MPC2500 (display will change from ‘Status=Not Connected’ to ‘Status=Connected’)
Your PC/Mac will mount the CF card of the MPC2500 as a drive on your computer
Copy (drag) OS .bin file onto the CF card's ROOT DIRECTORY (ie: DO NOT PLACE IN ANY FOLDER)

Once the file has been copied, safely dismount the MPC from your computer, and disconnect the USB cable

HOW TO UPDATE MPC2500

Power the MPC OFF (leave the CF card in the MPC)

Press and hold down the [WINDOW] button on the MPC while, you power the MPC back ON (this will launch the OS Bootloader)

The MPC should show you a screen which reads:MPC2500 OS UPDATEFile: MPC2500.bin

Press DO IT [F6]

The MPC should now start the OS update (it will first erase the Flash ROM and then write the new OS to Flash ROM)

Once the OS Update is complete…the MPC will automatically restart itself

Power OFF the MPC and wait 30 seconds

Power ON the MPC while holding down the [ERASE] button (this will reinitialize the MPC)

Again...it is recommended that you format your internal hard drive, and then reload your files back

NOTE: DO NOT SWITCH OFF THE MPC2500 WHILE IT IS UPDATING THE OS

Thank you for your suggestions. I tried re-loading the OS - fortunately I've got a card reader, because what with the pads being dead I can't access the load screen in the MPC - but that hasn't fixed any of the problems.

I'm located in the UK so I'll have to find a repair shop here somewhere, ideally in Wales or south-west England.

What I can't understand is why the pads should die and the unit start spitting out noise so suddenly, with no warning. Is it just bad luck that two components die simultaneously or is there something more fundamental going wrong? It's also curious how I can use the cursor keys & jog-wheel to change every parameter that I can get access to, except for the drum/midi and program select in the main menu.


Something I forgot to mention in my original post is that after doing the factory reset (which was a little while after I'd made that video) the autoload function was enabled, meaning that there would be samples, programs & sequences in memory. However, when I press play no music comes out, just that same incessant noise.