2kXL buzz?

Hey, so I just picked up my first MPC off eBay, a 2kXL. It came a little banged up in the mail as the shipper put in in a plastic bag with a couple of foam peanuts. Oh well no biggie, a couple scrapes but all fixable. I clean it up then go to turn it on - and there's a loud buzz coming from the unit. Nothing I do (save turning it off) makes any difference. Having never actually used an MPC in person, WTF is that? Is it normal? It sounds kind of like an electrical hum. The shipper offered to take a return but shipping back to Florida would cost me $70 and a few weeks so I'd rather not. I can upload a video of the buzz if that would help
Thanks!

yes please do... because

-is it coming from the machine itself or from the outputs
-does the machine have a floppy, zip, or hard drive
-maybe more questions... the mpc shouldn't make noise as there usually isn't moving parts other than drives.

damn... knowing how delivery men throw sh!t around, i can only imagine what could happen to an mpc that was put in a plastic bag with some foam peanuts.

it's coming from the machine itself... it's got a floppy drive but no disk at the moment. The sound is more of a tone than a floppy drive buzz, if you know what I mean. I'll see if I can get a video up, but in the meantime I'm going to talk to the seller and figure out a return. Sucks cause I waited a month for this, and now it's going to be two more before I could get another.

it's weird though, cause even though it's making funny noises everything else is working properly... I went through mem tests, pad tests, checked all the buttons, jog wheel, everything works fine. I haven't tried the outputs or floppy drive yet though

The sound you are hearing is probably a faulty motor controller on the floppy drive.

Remove the floppy drive from the machine or disconnect the power plug to the floppy drive and see if the sound goes away.

Replacement floppy drives are cheap. You can use a regular PC one in your MPC 2000XL -- you do not need a special overpriced "MPC compatible" floppy drive.

Yeah you're right, that was all it was. So does this mean I need a new floppy drive? Thanks! a new one should be cheaper than shipping it back anyways

biw wrote:Yeah you're right, that was all it was. So does this mean I need a new floppy drive? Thanks! a new one should be cheaper than shipping it back anyways

not new out the package new... new as in, not that one... they are cheap... check computer junk stores. Check craigslist... you might even be able to score one for free.

Does your 2000XL have the 8-outs installed on the rear?
I know i got a buzzing noise when recording samples because the 8-outs card wasn't grounded correctly to the frame of the MPC.

JUKE 179r wrote:Does your 2000XL have the 8-outs installed on the rear?
I know i got a buzzing noise when recording samples because the 8-outs card wasn't grounded correctly to the frame of the MPC.

the thought passed through my mind... but he means an audible physical noise in the room when the machine is on (not through audio outs or anything)

yeah it was definitely the floppy drive. I took off the bottom panel and unplugged the drive, and no more noise. The sound was pretty loud and didn't at all sound like a floppy drive, which was throwing me off. Gonna try and find an old comp to snake the floppy drive off tomorrow, thanks for the help

biw wrote:yeah it was definitely the floppy drive. I took off the bottom panel and unplugged the drive, and no more noise. The sound was pretty loud and didn't at all sound like a floppy drive, which was throwing me off. Gonna try and find an old comp to snake the floppy drive off tomorrow, thanks for the help

sometimes the motor idles... one word of advice once you get a new one in there... after loading or saving or what ever and you continue to use the machine... (if your machine is left powered on) eject the floppy.. either leave it hanging or remove it entirely until you are about to save again.... if you leave the disk in there it can get screwed up..

if you load up a project and leave the disk in sometimes after a while (maybe 20 minutes, half an hour or so) you might hear it all of a sudden spinning again randomly even though you didn't go into the disk menu... well often that causes the disk to screw up and if that happens cause you forgot I suggest you eject that disk and put in a new one to re-save everything.

biw wrote:Hey, so I just picked up my first MPC off eBay, a 2kXL. It came a little banged up in the mail as the shipper put in in a plastic bag with a couple of foam peanuts. Oh well no biggie, a couple scrapes but all fixable. I clean it up then go to turn it on - and there's a loud buzz coming from the unit. Nothing I do (save turning it off) makes any difference. Having never actually used an MPC in person, WTF is that? Is it normal? It sounds kind of like an electrical hum. The shipper offered to take a return but shipping back to Florida would cost me $70 and a few weeks so I'd rather not. I can upload a video of the buzz if that would help
Thanks!

I had the same exact problem, the tone was coming from the Floppy drive. I would suggest that you either replace the floppy drive with another one or get a MCD.

Yeah I replaced it today with an old drive I scavenged of an old comp, the drive works now. I actually figured it out from Midway's thread, thanks dude

debauch, you're saying the floppy drives occasionally eat the disks?

biw wrote:debauch, you're saying the floppy drives occasionally eat the disks?

well, no... not like a cassette player eats tapes... or a vcr eats tapes..

it's just that, when you go into the load save screen it spins and reads.. it stops, then spins again when you make an action. However sometimes in the main screen or a place other than in the load/save area... it may start idling/spinning for no reason and that screws up the data. if you right there and then turned off the mpc and turned it back on... then went to load everything back up... it would say disk error. I dont bother trying to re-format, I ditch the disk if I hear it idling cause I forgot to eject... then re-save on a new floppy.

yeah that's what I meant by "eating" the disk: corrupting the data and making the disk unusable. Damn floppies are pretty out of date, I even had a hard time finding some in a tech store