MPC turning off on its own

Hey I need somebody to please help me out. I've had an old MPC 2000xl for a while that needed a new screen, buttons, plus I got a lot of error messages. Instead of getting it fixed I bought a new 2kXL on Ebay with the efx board, cf card reader etc. (which i've wanted for a while) and pretty much everything new on it which was worth it for the price.

Since the moment I started using it, the MPC randomly turns off in random intervals. It'll sometimes take 5 minutes before it shuts off, sometimes hours. I tried using the original akai power cable from my other MPC, no luck. I saw a thread from 2004 where the guys says he had a problem like mine and it had to do with the power supply soldering. Can someone explain where I have to look and how to identify if I have faulty soldering. Could I just skip the soldering and fix the problem by getting a new power supply? Could the cause of the problem be something else?
Thanks to whoever answers

Welcome to the forum.

What up Lamp???!!!!
I've been welcoming people to the forum.

backhandslapr wrote: Can someone explain where I have to look and how to identify if I have faulty soldering. Could I just skip the soldering and fix the problem by getting a new power supply? Could the cause of the problem be something else?
Thanks to whoever answers

Finding a new power supply is not a simple task for the XL.

The problem you are describing is too vague to troubleshoot without physically looking at it. With that being said, in a city like Montreal, there is no shortage of audio equipment technicians for you to take the unit in to get a proper diagnosis.

I will however say that it is not common for a power supply to die so what I would also suggest doing what is logical: open the XL, re-seat all of the connectors, make sure the board is clean. Then when you have done that, run the XL without the bottom lid on so that in the event that it resets / turns off, you can have a look underneath and see if either of the two main dsp / cpu units are very hot.

Thanks for all the help. I'll try everything you guys have suggested and I'll also swap the power supply with the one from my other MPC to see if that is the issue. If nothing works I guess I'll have to send it to a audio equipment technician. Can someone point out precisely where I would have to check for faulty soldering. I found this thread from 2004 where the guy had the same problem I have and it was due to faulty soldering. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19499

I just don't know where to look, I don't know much about circuitry or fixing audio equipment. If I can locate faulty soldering I'll get it done by a professional to make sure I don't mess up my MPC.
Also Lampdog, I can't return the MPC as it was indicated that the seller wouldn't take returns. The seller services MPC's and told me he never had a MPC turn off on it own like mine. I guess its possible he never noticed as it can take a long time before it shuts off on it own.

If you already have a spare power supply to test, why not actually try it then? It would have answered a lot of questions you already asked in your initial post.

backhandslapr wrote:Thanks for all the help. I'll try everything you guys have suggested and I'll also swap the power supply with the one from my other MPC to see if that is the issue.

This woud be the first thing I would try cause it's the easiest thing as far as I can see from looking at pics fron an opened 2000XL. No soldering needed. Just a few screws and connectors.

I would swap the power socket and the power button too.

peace

I would look at the 7805 voltage regulator. If it's getting hot and then dropping voltage below 5 volts it can cause the unit to be unresponsive. These regulators blow all the time especially with older equipment that was once or is currently left on for daze. They are easy to replace and cheap as chips but buy from a trusted vender. I have bought some off eBay and they were all faulty leading to more confusion and false positives. Also power supplies do go bad on lots of equipment from this era. It's almost 25 years old and most mpcs are from neglected homes. It's usually just the regulator but replacing the the caps on the psu isn't the worst idea since you're right there.

So I thought the problem had magically went away (it didn't close on me for a little while). A couple days ago it started doing it again, and yesterday it closed and wouldn't open at all. I swapped power supplies with my other MPC. The power supply isnt the issue because my other MPC turns on with the other power supply. The 7805 voltage regulator is on the power supply right? (if it is than that isn't the problem... if not where can I find it? The inside of the MPC has no dust at all so that isn't it either. I removed the memory as suggested by someone but that isn't it.

Last thing I guess I can try before taking it to a repair shop is changing the power button and power unit but it seems a little more tricky than swapping the power supply (I'm far from being an electrical engineer)
Thanks for any input!

Also, you guys think a repair shop will be able to find what the issue is even if they've never worked with a 2kxl?

Just swapped the whole power supply, socket and buttons between both mpcs and now they both work. I'll have to wait and see if the the issue shows up again!

backhandslapr wrote:Just swapped the whole power supply, socket and buttons between both mpcs and now they both work. I'll have to wait and see if the the issue shows up again!

It won't unless the wiring needs to be re soldered

ye now the one that used to work wont turn on anymore and the one that was broken works perfectly. It has to do with either the power supply, socket or button soldering (because thats what I swapped). Im going to take it to the store for further diagnostic. Thanks for everybodys help