my 60 broken down again

Hi guys , i guess it's my bad luck but my 60 is broken again (after i fix it a month back) , with the same problem :

the LCD was full of dark blocks with a frame of light at the sides.I shut the 60 and restart it many times.Most of the times the LCD was just dark blocks but some times a series of letters that don't make any sense appeared


I sent the baby to the doctor again , we talked over the phone today and he said that when he powered up the 60 it worked fine.And he did it many times!!!!
I don't know what can i say , it's a random thing (and my bad luck).he said he will run some tests (when the unit is hot and when it's cold) in order to see the malfunction and to find the reason.Has this sh!t ever happened to anyone before?

you should try and reseat the ribbon cables,...they often come loose during transports

.toon

have him resolder the ribbon connector pins. i had the same issue until i resoldered them.

Thank's for the replies.But what do you mean by "resolder" ?Stick them together again maybe?

makin' em "stick" permanenty
.toon

soldering means :

yeah, see the pins can sometimes get a cold solder joint over time,or from wear, which adds resistance if not cut the connection. If you remove the ribbons, you can see the pins, turn the circuit board over and the solder point that hold the pins in should be reheated with a soldering iron and new solder should be applied. Also some kind of metal cleaner like deoxit could be used on the pins themselves and inside on the metal contacts of the ribbon connector as well, as it could be slight corrosion on the metal that is interfering with the power and innterrupting, but the movement to the shop would have knocked loose or whatever.

The MPC60's are all pretty old these days - You're gonna have some down time on a regular basis if you plan to keep using them. I started keeping 2 units around in about '96. One for working and a back up for when the darn thing crashed and ultimatly parts...You can find used 60's cheap these days. It's worth every penny to have a spare around.

Not really, they don;t break down very often at all, and 3.10 doesn;t crash much at all. in 96 were you using a 2.xx OS?

The age related problems are somewhat limited, floppy, backlight, etc. The other stuff tends to be simple off the shelf replacements. The rare parts on the 60 aren;t that many and are not prone to failure. Re-capping the power supply and resoldering the connector pins can be a good idea, but i didn;t do it until it became a problem. I actually rebuilt the entire power supply board for about $15.

I replaced two screens and beat the hell out of the pads on both units as well, something went bannanas with the velocity sensitivity - while overdubbing any overdub in a measure would change the volocities of the entire measure...near the end it started crashing pretty frequently when sending it breath controller data as well as the data wheel became "loose". I loved those 60's but I just wore em out I think....

yeah it sounds like you were heavy on them. Lots of controller data and such can clog the midi stream, not a limit of the 60 as much as midi, but newer machines would handle overload better.

I thought my 60 was crashing once but it was because I had Aftertouch and Sysex being recorded with everything, once I deleted it and made sure to filter SYSex and AT unless I was using it it never happened again.

I got my 60 of the tech today.He did the resoldering that Elmacaco mentioned , it was working fine , but when i got there to take it , the screen started malfuctioning again.He checked some things he resolder some chips that have to do with the screen and all is good for now.But i don't know when it will start malfunctioning again.I am thinking of selling it or something and buy a 2000 or 1000, i don't know i love this unit.
Anyway thank's again for the help you are great.

Do you live by the sea? the salt air causes corroson on the pins more easily. Clean those with something that takes care of oxidation. If you have a problem. The ribbon pins I mean.

I wouldn;t sell it, you don;t know what you got til it;s gone

No i don't live by the sea - i wish i could though.Additionally my 60 started malfunctioning AGAIN!!!!.I open it up and i use some physical violence then i started pushing the power switch on & off for about 20 times.Then it started working properly again.I think i will follow your advice once again Elmacaco and clean it with something that takes care of oxidation , but the technician did that already.
I don't want to sell my 60 - i love it - but it continiously gives me such a trouble .And when it comes down , i just want to do my work and have fun .You know.
I haven't even bought a new floppy yet , so the drive crashes sometimes too.

sell that 60 and buy another one. Or...keep that 60, save some money, buy another 60, and keep the shoddy one as a spare for parts when.