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Subject: RE: [chromapolaris] weird memory disruption

From: Thomas Rizzi <rizzitech@...>
Date: 2010-04-02

It may be a heat issue also in addition to vibration. As chips heat up they may make the connections (if compromised) more susceptible to intermittent disconnection. 
I would take a loop (magnifying glass) in a well lit area and see if any traces are broken where they connect to the sockets. Of course observing all anti-static procedures.
Good luck

--- On Thu, 4/1/10, Paul D. DeRocco <pderocco@...> wrote:

From: Paul D. DeRocco <pderocco@...>
Subject: RE: [chromapolaris] weird memory disruption
To: chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, April 1, 2010, 7:30 PM

 

> From: wasteking1
>
> over the past 3 weeks my polaris has had an odd memory loss
> problem. While playing a song, particularly a section on the bass
> notes, the keyboard just stopped making sound. and wouldnt
> respond to pushbuttons, I restarted the polaris and changing to
> other programs showed that all the sounds had changed and even
> the 6 voices didnt play sounding the same-- autotune would bring
> the voices back, but i had to reload the memory from the cassette
> to get the sounds back corectly . this has now happenned 3
> times--- but with plenty of normal operation in between. the
> only thing I can think of as a cause could be related to how a
> couple months ago i did a memory chip upgrade---with new chips
> from digikey--- every thing was fine it seemed---but in pulling
> the old chips i had to pull pretty hard and i definetly was
> flexing the PC board. could i have broken some traces or solder
> joints?? and that i could loose battery power for a split second
> thus screwing up the memory? im trying to figure this one out,
> any ideas? The odd thing is the inconsistancy , but i think i
> was playing the same song with a rocking bass part on the low
> octave black keys when it just died---perhaps vibrating it. does
> this make sense?

Could be. These are often tough things to diagnose. Sure sounds like a
hardware problem. If something causes the CPU to crash, it can scribble
randomly throughout the memory, including the battery backed-up part.

--

Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco
Paul mailto:pderocco@ix. netcom.com