Hello Dan,

Thank you for saying that. It makes me feel good that so many other people from around the world have similar feelings. I am very proud to work for Generalmusic and even though I am only employed by the US distributor, I have great concern for all GEM owners.

Regarding the hard drive; just find the smallest capacity you can find, i.e. 20, 40, 100, etc. The Genesys will only format to the original capacity that the particular model was designed for.
Original Genesys (with speakers), 2GB
Original Genesys Pro, 4GB
Genesys S, Pro S, XP and Ensemble, 20GB
Hard drive capacities are continually being increased, so during the manufacturing of the Genesys (and any hard drive enable product) it is very likely that the true hard drive capacity is larger that the design of the instrument can acknowledge.
NOTE: If you have the original Genesys or Genesys Pro, there is a hard drive kit available consisting of additional circuitry, O/S patch and 20GB hard drive. To my knowledge this is only available in Europe so unfortunately this is all I can tell about this kit.

For the battery issue, I would download and install the latest software patch
Genesys Pro software patch version 1.06 and then leave the instrument plugged in and turned on for 24 hours and then check the battery voltage. After you have installed this most recent software, and have attempted to fully charge the battery and the Genesys still has to do a hard boot from hard drive then yes it is probably the battery. And yes it is soldered into place. But if you are handy with a soldering gun and realize what precautions to take when working with a soldering gun around rechargeable batteries, then you shouldn't have any problem replacing them.

Just something to consider, in the thread you linked me to about the battery, you said
"at startup, the genesys says to me : battery completely discharged and must reload all the sounds into flash." This message does indicate that the battery is at fault. However, the fact that the hard drive may have been in the process of dying and was not able to boot the instrument up properly may have something to do with this message. So again I suggest installing a new hard drive and the software patch 1.06 and then allow the battery to gain a full charge. Then again, if you already have the case open, you might just want to replace the battery anyway.

Best Regards,

Dave


------------------
Wm. David McMahan
Nat'l Product and Support Manager
Generalmusic USA
GEM Community Forums

[This message has been edited by WDMcM (edited 04-12-2006).]