New Member MPC3000 RF type interferance HELP

Whats good everybody, new member here. i might have had an account here many years ago when i had my 2000xl but dontvremember the username. Anyway ive decided to get back in the game and get an mpc3000. Its something i should have done a longvtime ago but I'm having some issues. first off im pretty sure ive blown the scsi fuse already so I'm using floppys which isnt the end of the worod. So day one my scsi board is out ajd day 2 I'm getting some odd short wave radio tuning sci-fi noise that is originating in the audio inputs of the mpc. I'm sampling from a very clean source with good cables. if tested different cables etc. its for sure starting from the mpcs inputs. there is a bit of static as well. Ive also switched outlets and surge protectors and switched entire rooms but its still the same. the first night i used it i was at a friends house and didnt have any problem with it. I'm going to test it again at his house as soon as i get a chancen butmy question is, is it possible that the scsi board being blown that its creating some odd power/ground situatio. thats causing the noise? if had countless other samplers and workstations in my house and never had this stupid sound in tye audio. The sound is actually being recorded by the mpc into my samples. When i get off work tonight i will try to load up an example. any deas? bad audio inputcard??? Sorry for the typos I'm on my cell. Thanks

Have you tried removing the ram and reseating it?

Have you removed the ram expansion board if you have 32mb SIMM's?

Have you checked and replaced all faulty fuses?

Have you removed and reseated all cables and removeable chips?

Have you broken out the compressed air and given the circuits a blast?

Just some suggestions...

I got off work too late to do any testing, i will resume testing when i get back tonight. it is expanded to 32mb. i have not touched anything in it at all yet. You mentioned blown fuses, as stated in my original post i do believe ive blown the term power fuse on the scsi board with my zip drive. that is the one thing that happened between it working fine and now wont sample without the horrible noise. So is that something commom? Will a blown scsi fuse cause noise in the audio signal? i was just going to use my floppy drive but if this is the case then its killed my entire mpc. Thanks

SCSI fuses can be replaced, and any number of other things could cause interference with your samples. That's why you need to troubleshoot and check everything possible. These are old machines and your is almost 20 years old, so maybe a good service is in order.

Most RF issues are caused by an issue with grounding. Without a readable list of what is in your setup, it is hard for anyone to help you diagnose your issue. As clint suggested it could be any number of things causing interference.

The problem could be in the electrical wiring in your home or it may be caused by something in the signal chain. Laptops and electronics that use switching power supplies are notorious for adding noise. Your cables may be picking up noise if they are too long and not shielded.

If you have a ground issue, you will have to ring out the grounds in your setup with a multimeter to see if you can find the discontinuity. If you don't know how to use a multimeter find an adult that knows what they are doing.

A blown SCSI fuse should not cause any audio issues. Iomega Zip drives supply termination power so you should still be able to use your Zip drive with your MPC even if the fuse is blown.

MPCHunter wrote:Most RF issues are caused by an issue with grounding. Without a readable list of what is in your setup, it is hard for anyone to help you diagnose your issue. As clint suggested it could be any number of things causing interference.

The problem could be in the electrical wiring in your home or it may be caused by something in the signal chain. Laptops and electronics that use switching power supplies are notorious for adding noise. Your cables may be picking up noise if they are too long and not shielded.

If you have a ground issue, you will have to ring out the grounds in your setup with a multimeter to see if you can find the discontinuity. If you don't know how to use a multimeter find an adult that knows what they are doing.

A blown SCSI fuse should not cause any audio issues. Iomega Zip drives supply termination power so you should still be able to use your Zip drive with your MPC even if the fuse is blown.

Thanks for the input and ideas. My goal here was to find out really if therebwere any known issues withe scsi fuses being blown also causing audio interference, and or any know issues with the audio inputs going bad or anything that could help explain it. i have also thought it may be in the house electrical, there has been a couple of problems over the last year. Thats why I'm going to retest at a friends housethis weekend. also you noted the iomega zip drives supply there own term power but from all of what i have researched on the blown term fuses, its shown that the mpc will not recognize or "find" the zip drive anymore after the fuse is blown. thats is also the case with mine. it will not recognise the drive and its the same drive i used with my 2000xl several years ago. itjust searches and searches for it. i did hook it up when it was on not knowing about the issue of blowing fuses so I'm guess thats what it was. otherwise the source is very clean going through shieleded mogomi cable. if tested the source using the same cable by itslef and its crystal clear. there is nothing else breaking the signal chain. Without anything hooked up you can still hear static and the rf noise (not the regular high gain noise if turned up). Man I'm baffled. ive owned 2 small studies and several small hoke setups over the last 12 years, i am very aware of things like keeping the gain as low as possible to reduce noise/static, etc, etc. this one is verry odd so I'm seeing if there is anything that is a known issue. ill try once again to upload the sound that its making when i get in tonight, thanksn

Hello,

It sound`s like the exact problem I got with my 3000... For me, the ram was the problem. The holder (I don´t know how it's called in english, the slot where you put the ram sticks?) had a loose contact.
So this would be the first thing to check out. Like cling246clint said, put them out, and hear if its gone. If not, than you have to also check the other things clint suggested.

Greetings,

Elias

Elias wrote:Hello,

It sound`s like the exact problem I got with my 3000... For me, the ram was the problem. The holder (I don´t know how it's called in english, the slot where you put the ram sticks?) had a loose contact.
So this would be the first thing to check out. Like cling246clint said, put them out, and hear if its gone. If not, than you have to also check the other things clint suggested.

Greetings,

Elias

your english is fine thanks for the info! I'm still getting held up on testing but it will be done hy tonight for sure. I'm glad to hear its sounds like something you have expereinced. tell me did the sound come amd go or was it always there? because i swear the first day it wasnt there. i will have to open it up, re seat the ram and see what happens. if its still there ill jist take it out as suggested. i hate to even open it up. ive installed ram before in equipment but this thing seems so fragile now that I'm scared its probably hyper sensitive to static charges. ill do my best to make sure ive discharged all the static out of my body. Rubber gloves should stop the possibility of static charges right?

Ok havent got much done as usual.. i think ive found that its not actually being sampled in the audio, its happening moslty on playback.. i just tested the inputs by playing a sound through and there was no wierd noise. Then i sampled the sound and hit the playback button and still no noise. But when i assigned it to a pad the noise started back everytime i played the pad. from that point on the noise was back anytime i played audio through on any screen so it probably is the ram. I'm hoping its just the chip needed to be reseated and nothing worse. This explains how it fooled me on its source and i thought it was gon once. if its been off for a little while it wont make the sound until you sample and or assigb the sound.i'm about to record and youtube the sound for you guys here in a min.

What your saying^ just makes me more sure it's the ram. Because its not on sample play through, it happens when the sample is transcribed to the digital format (hitting the ram). I think you should just try the ram reseating before posting anymore or making videos, then go from there. Man up and open your machine!

m56p87 wrote:What your saying^ just makes me more sure it's the rainkm. Because its not on sample play through, it happens when the sample is transcribed to the digital format (hitting the ram). I think you should just try the ram reseating before posting anymore or making videos, then go from there. Man up and open your machine!

Lol yea now that i see its not being sampled i too think its the ram. I'm hoping its not the actual chip seat itself, i didnt install this so who knows. but it could have gotten jared in all the movement from the sellers house to mine i huess. I'm mega busy and didnt expect to have to fix the machije right after i bout it but these things happen. well i at least got the sound recorded. i wanted to do it anyway for other people in the futre who may be experiencing the exact same thing. Also in the case that its not the ram and somebody else recognizes the sound. so hear it is. i cracked everything up to make sure it could be picked up by my phone, check the link below. I'm seriously getting ready to reseat the ram now ill let u know what happens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08QwD6xbgt0

Ok ive pulled the ram, compressed aired everything out, yes i was grounded before i touched anything. i reseated the ram but the sound is still there. the only thing i could tell about the chips were they were "made in japan" didnt recognize any outher markings. is it ok to pull both chips and test it with this model? I'm guessing it has some built in ram like other equipment but i want to be sure before i do that so i will await somebodys reply, thanks for everybodys time.

Ok I'm screwed, just pulled the ram again but this time tested with it out i couldnt stand to wait. Sure enough the sound is still there while the ram is out. and i also noticed it was making static and the noise even when i wasnt hitting a pad or had anything sampled. just opening the audio inputs preparing to sample you can hear it but its kot all the time it does that so its been fooling me. its definitely inside the mpc i dont think its interference . Unless amybody here recognizes this sound and has a miricle cure i just lost over a grand FAST. I'm going to have to shelf it until i can send it out for repairs. might just buy another one.. thanks to all that helped out.

Is it as bad as it sounds? From what I can hear your samples are like a nudge away from going completely into the noise floor! I wanna say I remember reading another thread about the 60 where someone's samples were doing the same thing, and the more they used em the more they were degraded. If anyone knows what I'm talking about....

That sounds pretty bad, if you changed the RAM and it's still same you might wanna consider bailing out and getting a refund. Where did you get that machine, and did you get to test it first or what?