Format/Erase the MPC to remove bugs?

I thought my MPC was pretty good, noticed some volumes moving without my interference and some freezing every now and then while sampling. Ive been using the whole machine lately, and Ive noticed more and more problems. Knobs, sliders, mutes, and samples move without me activating anything (knobs and sliders are also slow to respond). I can change from sequence to sequence and programs won't play (lag). Obviously frustrating.

My question, the machine has been laying around since 2010 (2.0), and have never been restarted. I have a lot of stuff saved on it (thats been backed but I don't want to erase the machine if it is pointless) Thx

Formatting the hard drive isn't going to fix OS bugs. A faulty drive might cause other issues though, i.e. in DISK mode and audio track recording, but it isn't going to impact things like buttons activating themselves. It might cause system instability if the drive itself or the connection to the main board is faulty, so the first thing I would do is open her up and remove the drive. Reboot and see if that fixes any of the problems. Remove the memory while you are at it. Assess how the MPC5000 functions with just default memory and a CF card. Some of the problems you have could just be dirty buttons (the tact switches underneath), and dirty sliders. Try spaying the tacts and slider with deoxit.

Remember 2.0 is buggy as hell, so don't expect miracles, some of this will be OS problems. You could of course revert to a 1.x version of the OS - that might magically fix some things, but you'll lose features. and 1.x had its own bugs.

Ftr, nothing is physically slow (the machine is in great shape).. It is all digital.