Broken Yamaha DX7II-D Video

[JHatzia]

Well, I just came home to test this guy and decided it'd be much easier to make a video to display the problems.. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Esus]

You might also try the Yahoo! DX7 user group:

[email protected]

[Phollop Willing PA]

This sounds like a classic case of needing the internal battery replaced. It's the size of a watch battery and holds the memories of the presets etc. When the internal battery goes, the synth goes all wonky, like yours did. Ask the person you got this from if that was ever done.

Here's a youtube video showing the process on a DX7



If this is the problem, the fix ix less than $10.

[JHatzia]

Well I went in and replaced the internal battery. Turns out this is a E! Grey Matter equipped DX7II-D, and it's running verison 1.20.. But still, exact same problem, the LCD screen is all wonky showing Japanese characters and unusual text, and most the buttons seem to not recall any patches

[wildpaws]

Did you do a factory reset? The DX7II requires a factory reset after battery change (as do many synths), your symptoms describe needing a reset.
Clyde

[JHatzia]

No, I tried to do research on how to do this and there doesn't seem to be specific directions for factory reseting a DX7II-D. Do you know the method for doing this? I appreciate the response.

[JHatzia]

UPDATE: Since changing the battery, and doing a "factory reset" on the DX7IID all the buttons now work and the synth works great as a MIDI controller. However, it still does not produce sounds. I believe this is because once changing the battery all the patches are lost. I have done a fair bit of research on how to restore these sounds and it looks like you can do it via cartridge or USB to MIDI. The problem is, there is very little info on the net about the DX7IID and how to send the original factory presets to it. I have found a ton of info on how to do this to a normal DX7 thought.

Any help would be seriously appreciated guys, I'm so close to fixing this guy to be fully functional.

Also, since there is a E! expansion board on my DX7IID, does anyone know how to update its firmware?

[Esus]

If you're still having problems, there's a good thread going on the Yahoo DX7 Group with a guy who seems to have very similar issues. He has a DX7II as well. The thread is labeled:

DX7II with E! card. Help on reloading / reset synth after battery replacement

Good Luck

[DX21]

The ram stays in one state of corruption when you add a working battery, therefore you gotta Flush the ram with new data with either Rom Carts or You can reload stuff over Midi by Midi OX

Here's the stock DX7 carts I have:
http://www.mediafire.com/?y70brqv7eh2k6yu
Here's the program
http://www.midiox.com/zip/midioxse.exe

Open MOX and go to options > Midi devices, select your midi in and outs, then go to file associations, select sysex,restart MOX then click a set of my banks and it'll pull a bunch of hexidecimal up. Just click command window and "send sysex".

There's a bunch of cool features too, like the ability to select a patch via your computer screen from your PC Via View > Control panel

The Greymatter card uses UVPROMS (the brown ceramic toshiba or other brand chips with stickers) for its firmware which means that you'd need a copy of newer software, a chip eraser light box and a Rom Burner to do any sort of upgrade.

[JHatzia]

Thanks for the replies everyone. This project has been put on the back burner for me until recently. I have tried sending my e! equipped (ver 1.20) sysex info via USB>MIDI before and can't seem to get it to dump correctly on the synth. My problem is I just cannot find any directions specifically for an e! equipped DX7IID to receive these messages through MIDIOx. I know I have to prep the DX7IID to properly receive these messages. I would just like to load on all the original factory presets this DX7 comes with, and work from there learning how to program it once it is up and running.

Currently almost every patch appears as this and is extremely difficult to navigate with no sound coming out of it at all.

[synthparts]

Too bad you don't have a DX7IIFD w/E!. I could only reset mine properly by loading all the factory data from a copy of the original E! floppy disk (which is available on the net)...

[JHatzia]

I've been researching all day and have made some progress. I managed to successfully transfer patches to the DX7 after turning the memory protection off, all the patches are there yet I still cannot hear them (event with the total volume at 99) From time to time it makes this strange random sound, seen in the attached YouTube video. While it definitely received the patches it still is difficult to navigate around, a lot of patches still look like a garbled mess and every time I turn the DX7 off it essentially resets and memory protect is back on, patches are garbled again, etc. Just to clarify this is a DX7IID with a E! board AND floppy disk drive added on. However I don't have any cartridges or a floppy disk drive to burn data on a floppy. I'm getting very close to fixing it though, I can feel it.

[synthparts]

All you need is access to a PC with a floppy drive. You can then download the disk image and make the factory E! disk you can load into the synth. There's no other way I found to reset all the various settings to make it usable...

[pflosi]

If there's any corrupted patches left in any of the banks, it will do strange stuff. I find it most easy to just initialize everything. That's the procedure you guys are looking for I guess... (Will wipe your patches, but you can reload them easily.)

I only have a DX7 MK1 with E!, but the procedure is (IIRC):

Hit "function", then "operator select" twice to go to the memory menu.

Then hit "31" twice to go to the internal memory protection, turn it off with the "+ / -" buttons.

Then there are three things to initialize (don't remember what it all was), you access all three via "19" in the memory menu. So, hit "19", then twice "+", then "19" again and twice "+" and a final time "19" and twice "+".

Maybe that helps, not entirely sure whether it's the same on the II-D... If everything goes as expected, you should have initial patches on all banks - and they should sound (just a sine).

[JHatzia]

I'm trying to find access to a floppy disk drive in the meantime but pflosi I tried your instruction and can only manage to turn off the memory protect. When I hit "edit" (I'm assuming that's what function is because there is no specific function button on the DX7IID) it won't do anything if I hit any of the operator selects or buttons 19, pretty much only buttons 7-16 and 23-32 actually do anything in edit mode.

EDIT: So it actually does retain the patches sent to it afterwards, that was my mistake. It just has a lot of jumbled banks and what not, I'm feeling confident if I figure a way to clear the internal memory of the DX7 and E! board and then transfer it patches I would have better luck. The only thing is, when I try to initialize a patch I can't hear a sine or anything. The only sound I have gotten the synth to make is what you hear in the last video I posted. It does however work as a great MIDI controller for my DAWs.