Freezing/crashing Matrix-6

Post by **prinsen** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 12:11 pm

I sold a perfectly working Oberheim Matrix-6 last week. I've always taken care of it and kept it free of dust and smoke and was selling as an item in perfect shape and condition. Sadly the guy who bought it from me returned it a few days ago because it keeps freezing. This never happened before, so I'm guessing the old Ober didn't like the move - even though the buyer was local and picked it up at my place.

I'm thinking/hoping that some of you experts here would be able help with a diagnosis before I'm sending it off to a technician.

Symptoms:
- Freezing. Seems to happen five to ten minutes upon powering on. When freezing neither buttons nor keys on the M-6 respond at all and only powering off/on will bring it back to life... until it freezes again that is.
- Random letters in certain patch names have been replaced with "@". E.g. a patch called "STRINGS" may now read "ST@@@@S" in the display.

All insight and ideas will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Post by **Maschinengeist** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 3:01 pm

Yes, it's probable that the Matrix 6 didn't like the trip. Especially if it was working fine before.

The freezing/scramble of the LCD can result of a deseated chip or connector. Make sure everything is deep into place.

Warning: it's recommended to wear an anti-static wristband. If you don't have one, touch bare metal (unpainted) for a few secong to discharge yourself of static electricity. And then push all chips/connectors gently into their socket.

Also, you can follow the Processor Reset & Initialize procedure outlined in the service manual (page 3, available online). This way we'll know if it were those things bugging doen the Matrix 6. Otherwise, it could be a failure from the PSU/CPU/ROM. Which I doubt.

Hope it'll help

matrix · Post by **matrix** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 6:44 pm

My Matrix-6 freezes if I use any other power chord than the original for some bizarre reason. My guess is the way it's seated. Maybe some connections got lose somewhere during transit.

Post by **prinsen** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 9:12 pm

Thanks Machinengeist and Matrix.

Did the Processor Reset & Initialize and loaded a set of patches from an old cassette. Everything seems fine now - no freezes and no strange patch names this far. I guess I should've figured that out myself.

I'll hold on to it for a while now and make sure the M-6 really is cured.

Never had any power chord problems. I guess my M-6 isn't as picky as yours, Matrix.

Thanks again!