I was playing a midi file from my laptop through the PSR-3000 and comping with my right hand when suddenly, everything stopped playing. The midi file stopped playing and the entire right side of the keyboard suddenly went dead. For a moment I thought the electricity may have blinked because it was a very windy day and electrical outages are not at all uncommon under these circumstances. I instantly selected a song from my MFD, and continued the remaining 20 minutes of the job without the aid of the laptop.

I brought the rig into the house when I got home, plugged everything in, and wallah, everything seemed to work just fine. However, after 20 minutes of playing the keyboard's right side began missing notes. At first I thought it may have been a worn out contact strip, but it was inconsistent. The next thing I did was unplug the USB to Host cable between the keyboard and laptop. Everything on the keyboard worked perfectly. A few minutes with an ohm meter and some wire jiggling provided me with the information I needed--the 5-year-old cable was shot. After connecting a replacement cable everything is back to normal. It's amazing what one, seemingly, innocuous cable can do to an entire system.

Food for thought,

Gary

The same thing happened to me at a gig. In the process of elimination, that was the last thing I suspected, as I had checked the cable connection immediately.

Like you, another cable did the trick.

Gary, I feel your pain.

We just had the same thing happen with one of our Bose L1's cutting in and out and clipping with low volume/input signal. It turned out to be a connecting chord! GRRRRRrrr!

These are things that just drive you nuts!

Last week a similar thing happened to me. The volume level really faded in the middle of a song. I turned up he master vol on the mixer and carried on. It came back after a minute or two, and I hastily had to turn the vol back.

The thing happened again later, and this time I jiggled with the cables into the mixer. And guess what, I had obviously, in my hurry to set up, not properly seated one of the speaker cables. Phew!

Guitar cables are always the first thing to check if something is amiss, now with Gary's experience, it's also a good reminder that cables should be the first thing to check on keyboards.


I'm glad it was a quick, easy, and inexpensive fix for you.

Great troubleshooting Gary. I always carry extra cables for just such an event. I usually just cut the ends off about a foot back and put the connector back on. Usually the open in the wire is at the connector.

Tom

The irony of this was that the midi to host cable is the only one that I do not custom make myself. I purchased the best quality cable I could find, just to be on the safe side. The factory made cables have been the only ones to ever fail.

Cheers,

Gary

http://www.gigcables.com/

I have all my cables "custom made" by Tom Mody..excellent quality.
Check him out