My mpc4000 crashed, please help

Hi all,

Problem: When I turn it on, I get a blank screen (though it is lit) , every LED on the unit is lit, and nothing happens. The thing was running OS 1.45 I believe, with the default 16MB of RAM. I've had the unit for a few months, and I used it all weekend just fine until a few minutes ago.

I'm probably on my own concerning fixing this, as I live in Brazil and there's unlikely to be any service center qualified to help me. I bought the unit used from a friend from the USA. I'm a computer programmer and know my way around hardware, so I can do whatever it takes to fix it. I've googled for some info but nothing I found matches my problem. Any ideas?

Robert

have you opened it up yet?

Aside from the OS version, I'm wondering how you could pull off using only 16 megs of ram?

You have HDD inside? If yes then maybe thats the issue.

I just bought the thing used, and I really just started to use it this past weekend. I was planning on doing all the upgrades, then it died ;-( .

I found the service manual pdf, and I opened up the unit. I gently pressed all the connections - its still in this same state. I removed the 16MB of RAM, the hard drive connections, and the cdrom connections. Still in the same state - fan turns on, screen gets lit, all the LEDS light up, and then nothing. Its got an hitachi deskstar hdd, 82.3GB capacity, but its now disconnected.

Any ideas on what else I can try?

I took the cover off too, and its dead! Maybe the motherboard is fried? I wrote vstservice.com for help, any other recommendations?

<rant>
I must say that I'm new to the akai world, I only bought the mpc4000 because it was cheap - US $800 - and it was already thru customs which is a big pita in Brazil. I searched the forums for help and wow, what a hell of a vortex I got sucked into! The people in the forums are generally great, from what I've read - no problem there besides the typical forum problems. However, akai must be the worst company ever. I mean, I liked the mpc4000 for the few hours I played it, but man, the history of this company is just awful! If I can't fix my unit, I think I'll run like hell from akai to like, any where else! No offense to the people using the mpc4000 - I really did like it. But man, akai is one hell of a cross to bear. </rant>

The MPC4000 has 16MB of RAM hardwired on the motherboard -
even with the two DIMM slots for RAM expansion EMPTY, you should still have 16MB.


Now, check one thing for me please:
are you SURE you haven't just twisted the CONTRAST knob for the screen all the way round, so that the screen looks blank when you boot up? It's easily done...
Make sure the contrast knob is somewhere near the middle...

Thanks for the reply feline1. Turning the contrast knob was a good idea - but nothing happened. I remember hearing what I thought was a hard drive sound when I booted it while it was working - and the thing is completely silent now when its turned on.

Also, I don't remember - is it normal for every LED on the machine to be lit immediately when its turned on?

I didn't look at the memory specs of the stick I took out. There was one memory stick, kvr100x64c2/256 which is 256MB. Its out of the unit now, as my understanding is that the mpc4000 should boot without it.

iksrazal wrote:Hi all,

Problem: When I turn it on, I get a blank screen (though it is lit) , every LED on the unit is lit, and nothing happens. The thing was running OS 1.45 I believe, with the default 16MB of RAM. I've had the unit for a few months, and I used it all weekend just fine until a few minutes ago.

I'm probably on my own concerning fixing this, as I live in Brazil and there's unlikely to be any service center qualified to help me. I bought the unit used from a friend from the USA. I'm a computer programmer and know my way around hardware, so I can do whatever it takes to fix it. I've googled for some info but nothing I found matches my problem. Any ideas?

Robert

Sorry to say but your MPC has a major problem. Replacing HDD, DIMM's, OS, or CD drive is not going to help.

Speak with someone at VST. They have the experience and knowledge to diagnose your problem.

you might have a ground problem

Checking the ground was a good idea, but it didn't help - I tried several different power sources.

I called vst and talked to Dave - nice guy. Basically, I'm ****! He told me this is the "worst" possible problem. The unit is stuck in the boot block, ie the first instructions in the boot loader before the OS takes over.

Anyone have a link to the mpc4000 power supply as a replacement part? I'd like to at least confirm the voltages from the spec sheet. I have a multimeter, but it wasn't clear to me from the schematics in the mpc4000 service manual what the voltages coming out of it are supposed to be. I googled on sps-80 and mpc parts resellers but I couldn't find a match.

The other option - motherboard - is even worse. First, they are no longer being made. On top of that, it'd take a lot of effort to take it out, and send it to the states for a possible reflash with a Z4/Z8 . Sending the whole unit to the states and back again would cost more than I paid for it.

Well, unless something unlikely happens it appears my time in this community was very short lived - I'll surely buy something else after what I've subsequently learned about akai. Wonder what I'm going to do with this thing - throw it off my 19th floor apartment ? Any market for an mpc4000 canabalized?

Not much that could have been done - but thanks anyways all.

aw man, that sucks

Hi man, you're not alone.

My 4K worked well but just minutes ago it crashed. What's worse, it's just like what you said: LCD is lit but nothing, all leds are lit, fan works. That's it.

I remember the last action I did before it's dead is that I chopped a long phrase and tried to assign the chopped up pieces to the pads. Pressed some pads and the samples went looping automatically. went out of control, a long and loud hiss, crashed. Re-boot and it never come back to life again.

I use OS 1.51. I pulled off CD rom, HD, ram but it doesn't work.

Did you try Forat?

Same here but I found a workaround, well at least for now. When finally came back to life after few turn ons, I now choose empty drive (CD-R drive) in the load screen instead HDD and switch back to global screen and then power the unit down. I don't know if it's because of this but it works and I haven't got a single crash since.

iksrazal wrote:Hi all,

Problem: When I turn it on, I get a blank screen (though it is lit) , every LED on the unit is lit, and nothing happens. The thing was running OS 1.45 I believe, with the default 16MB of RAM. I've had the unit for a few months, and I used it all weekend just fine until a few minutes ago.

I'm probably on my own concerning fixing this, as I live in Brazil and there's unlikely to be any service center qualified to help me. I bought the unit used from a friend from the USA. I'm a computer programmer and know my way around hardware, so I can do whatever it takes to fix it. I've googled for some info but nothing I found matches my problem. Any ideas?

Robert

RObert did u try the CONTRAST NOB ......?