Ensoniq eps classic "error 18"

[Floops]

I'm trying to repair this synth, but I'm not having much luck. Maybe someone here can help!

I have gotten it to boot probably 3 times total. Sound was EXTREMELY distorted.

Every other attempt at booting goes "loading system", I see activity on the floppy drive emulator, and then "error 18"

What I have done so far -
Recapped psu, replaced floppy with a floppy emulator, cleaned all socketed chips, replaced floppy and keyboard ribbon cables, tested all of the 41256 ram chips and replaced one, reboot the thing a million times hoping it will work.

Does anyone have any ideas about what I could try? Lots of info on the hardware here: http://zine.r-massive.com/ensoniq-techn ... chematics/

[Hyde]

When I was fixing my EPS I talked with a guy who said he had a bunch of EPS units because the main boards can just go bad. He wouldn't sell me a main board. He must of really relied on the EPS. I eventually found a main board through one of the domestic companies keyboardcountry.com or syntaur.com
Like you, I opened up & tried to fix it so many times, before I gave up. Then waited for a main board to pop up. Luckily it did.

[meatballfulton]

When Ensoniq was still in business, if anything happened to one of the boards, it had to be replaced in it's entirety. Most likely the "new" board was one that had been repaired and refurbished at the factory. They did not support component level repairs at service centers, probably having figured out that the labor cost of the extra time to debug and repair was greater than just replacing the board. With today's electronics, this is now the standard method of repair.

Sorry, this doesn't help with your problem

[crafter57]

I've had many Ensoniq EPS and ASR samplers and got rid of them because of compatability issues. Just a thought, Are you running the latest firmware and OS, because it may be a compatability issue with you emulator. I don't recall ever seeing error 18, its not listed in EPS16 either.. if not running latest firmware, can you revert back to your floppy to see if error disappears?
good luck

[Rasputin]

Assuming you've tested the PSU thoroughly for both voltage and ripple requirements:

Borrow another DOC II chip, or look in that area of the mainboard.