Share your knowledge on these two classic MPCs
By pitir Wed Mar 26, 2014 9:13 pm
I ordered the OS 3.10e upgrade from Roger Linn. Afted I carefully installed them as instructed, the mp doesnt start. The red diods lights up and i can see the display is on (even if the backlight is broken) but slowly fades out.
I took photos and emailed Roger to comfirm I installed them
correctly. He send me new chips right away which he personally tested on a mpc60, but same thing happened.
The strange thing is when I reinstall the old chips it works as usuall.
Roger Linn tells me he have no idea what it can be and has only heard of this once before. When he got the chips back and retested them they worked just fine.
He mentioned that it could be some kind of marginal timing in the circuitry that makes the mp only work with some chips and not others, even if its unlikly and extremely rare.
He has been really helpfull and I can send the chips back and get my money back. But i really want the upgrade so bad! :/

Has anybody heard of this problem before and what can i do?

Sorry for my bad english. Its not my native language and tired as hell!

Best
Last edited by pitir on Wed Mar 26, 2014 10:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
By pitir Wed Mar 26, 2014 9:56 pm
Yes, im positive. I have no idea how to upload a photo here, otherwise I could show you. Chip no 1 at the top and then 2, 3 and 4 at the bottom, with the sidemark on the pin pointing to the right. Ive sen photos of the chips installed as i did.
I was VERY carefull with the pins aswell. I have reinstalled the chips about ten times to made sure.
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By mr_debauch Wed Mar 26, 2014 10:55 pm
how odd... I wonder if roger would allow you to send him your mpc.. not sure if you'd want to do that but maybe he would be able to know what the problem is..
By pitir Thu Mar 27, 2014 12:40 am
I will ask him. Even if he seems very nice, I doubt that he would do that.
I think he doesn't see the greatness (musicality maybe is a better word..) in the old mp's. He actually suggested I rather be looking at current product then depending on anique ones. I understand him, but I rather keep work around the limits then doing that.
By MPCHunter Thu Mar 27, 2014 12:47 am
There may be a cold solder joint or a physical issue with the IC socket which can only be seen with the new chips. The pins on the new chips may have more physical resistance than the ones you have in your MPC.

These kind of issues can be a pain to figure out as sometimes the smallest thing can cause the most problems.

Some ideas to try:

Has your power supply ever been recapped? Any unnecessary noise on the 5V line can wreck random havok in digital circuits. Replace the electrolytic capacitors in the power supply and the electrolytic on the CPU board near the 80186.

If there is some kind of timing issue with the CPU, make sure the external crystal on the CPU board is running at the right frequency

Check continuity from the EPROM pins to the next point on the board to make sure there is not an open connection. You would be able to rule out most physical issues if there is good continuity.

Try reflowing the solder joints on the EPROM sockets.

Try replacing the sockets or stacking the new sockets onto the existing ones to see if you can replicate the issue with your current EPROMS. You may be able to pinpoint a bad socket and have to replace one instead of four.
By BongoPaul Thu Mar 27, 2014 3:17 pm
Hi Guys

I think it was me that also had this issue, i bought the upgrade around November 2013 and tried a number of times to no avail, Roger sent me replacement chips and they too would not load. I had to return them in the end sadly and although i was refunded i was out of pocket for the customs charge and sending back the chips.

But like you said every time i put the old ones back (mines at 2.02) it worked fine.

I never got to the bottom of it, i have recently had it serviced and no major faults showed up. i was considering getting 2.12 but with the stress from before i have kinda resided i am stuck with it as is.

If anyone else can think of a reason do chip in.

Oh and Hi Everyone, ive lurked here for years but never actually joined or posted, but picked up so much useful info, thank you .
By pitir Thu Mar 27, 2014 5:31 pm
Thanks for the thoughts! I will try to get hold of someone local who can take a look at my mpc. I will post here if I find the solution to this!

All thoughts and speculatipns of what it could be are very helpfull!

BongoPaul: I also run the 2.02 OS. When they serviced your mp, did they find anything at all? Like bad solder joints or scratched pcb etc?
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By mr_debauch Thu Mar 27, 2014 6:20 pm
ah man... I think even 2.12 would be a good upgrade if you find it for dirt cheap. It doesn't have the awesome stuff in 3.1 but it has a few extra things in the menus if i'm not mistaken...

yeah mpc hunter is an expert... the things he suggested you look into might be a good thing to copy onto a piece of paper so your guy who you bring it to can check into those things as well.
By BongoPaul Thu Mar 27, 2014 6:24 pm
Ive just re read the service notes and it looks like the power supply was changed as it wasn't earthed before, not sure if that was it, i wouldn't of thought so but you never know, other than that i had them replace the sensor sheet as some pads were a bit hit and miss.

When i tried the install i also tried one of the Floppy Emulators and that wouldn't work ether, i guessed due to it being 2.02 i assume you need the version 3 for it to work??

I was gutted it wouldnt work, i must of tried putting the chips in about 10 times each set, and like you followed the install to the letter, id say im pretty competent at changing chips as i have a Drumtrax and a DMX i switch sounds all the time and never broke anything yet.

Maybe Our MPC's just want to stay Ol Skool haha
By Clint Thu Mar 27, 2014 7:16 pm
For what its worth I've experienced this issue more than once, except that my machine would power up, but some other function (floppy drive once, display once) would stop working correctly. These were not brand new EPROM's in my case, but genuine EPROM's transplanted from other machines which were working fine.

I've had the maestro Jazzcat with me at my house on two occasions this has happened, and trust me, he looked at and tried everything to resolve the issue. No dice.

Both times I ended up parting out the machines. I'm not in the business of selling MPC60's with 2.xx software, and this issue really pissed me off.

So whatever is causing this issue, its hit and miss, but still quite rarer to my knowledge. Good that the OP decided to document his problems, I should really have done so too.
By pitir Thu Mar 27, 2014 7:16 pm
Hehe yeah we got two conservative grumpy machines :D

What does the 2.12 bring that the 2.02 doesnt offer?
The main thing why i want the 3.10 is the pad settings for mono/poly, mute two other pads and the longer time for soft start so i can do the "16 level softstart autochopp" trick. That would be great for try out different chops before fine trimming.
Other then that I dont really miss anything special. Maybe a releas function, but thats something not even possible in 3.10 so no biggie.

I will take what mpchunter said and bring it to some one who can help me. I dont dear to start solder/resoldering or even take it apart. If something bad can heppen, it will happen to me :D