Its been happening for over a year (intermediately) - when I switch on the G70 SOMETIMES the screen goes immediately blue and just doesn't boot up at all (no other buttons light up - JUST the screen goes blue and thats it).

Usually, I just switch back off and on - sometimes it may take 3-5 goes before it eventually decides to boot up.

Sometimes the screen stays blue for a few mins and THEN boots up...

As of yesterday, it completely will not boot up at all... just stays on the blue screen after pressing the power button on.

I am running the last / latest version of the OS. I have tried a factory reset, I have removed the compact flash adaptor, there is no floppy in the drive etc. still no go.

Last year I was advised to replace all the Capacitors on the Power Board, which I did myself in hope to rectify it.

Anyone else had this issue or heard of it happening?

I had a BSOD (blue screen of death!) early on when I first got my G70 (still under warranty) and I hate to tell you this, but they swapped out the entire motherboard and I think power supply to fix it 😱

Now, it WAS under warranty and parts were still being made when this happened, so I never found out which component had failed, they just replaced the boards, iirc.

Who advised you about the capacitors, and was that after it had been tested and a fault found? If they are an experienced Roland tech, perhaps they have good diagnosis gear. This isn't something I'd want hacked at, I'd get someone with a couple of decades of experience if I were you...

Who knows, maybe it IS something minor, but my experience was that it's not trivial. Did you have a Roland tech check your work after recapping the power supply?

I just took a look back in our archives for that period. But I can't find a post I may have written about it. At that time I mostly participated in the RolandG70.com forum, which I think morphed into the Roland-arranger.com forum, both now sadly long defunct.

If I remember correctly, my issue happened just about at the end of my one year warranty period (initially, G70 were sold at the CK dealers, the mom and pop high end digital piano line stores, and they offered a one year warranty, whereas the MI division generally only offered 90 days!), so I was EXTREMELY happy when Roland fixed it for free (just the bench time of our local tech) by replacing pretty much all the main motherboards!

There is no reason to replace caps without knowing exactly what the problem is, you could be creating more problems in addition to what you already have. Plus Techs don't like to repair things that inexperienced folks monkeyed around with...

The best thing is to take it to a Roland repair shop. They might not have an original part, but those Roland technicians know what they are doing and they can always rig something up. Roland usually does its best to keep those old gears going at a reasonable price, at least that's what my experience was with the Roland Repair shop in Toronto, Canada.

Sometimes gear has a "diagnostic mode" where you hold certain buttons during boot and the instrument will diagnose itself. The service manuals that describe these procedures are closely held by authorized service centers and not usually released to the public. Hopefully an experienced tech can figure out what's wrong and get it working reliably again.

the cap replacement was advice from my uncle who was an electrician all his life (over 40 years). But he had never worked on any electronic keyboards and he also said its potentially just a starting point. I did it over a year ago and nothing changed so I am "assuming" no harm was done...

Yesterday i rang a repair shop that is local to me (they are famous for repairing vintage Roland and Yamaha synths. over the phone the guy told me it is most likely a "digital issue" and his first assumption was the main board would need repairing or replacing. it was a minimum 2 hour charge to diagnose it at $120 AUD per hour.

there is currently a main board for sale on ebay second hand out of the UK which is up for AUD $1000 plus shipping!!

I haven't actually contacted Roland yet which I am going to do tomorrow... last time I did contact the spare parts department they still had some G70 stuff left but I never checked if they had a main board (because I didn't need it at the time)...

I want to fix it but I don't want to spend thousands on it... there is actually a G70 for sale on ebay in Australia right now for AUD $895 a few hours drive from my house.

I think if I can get away with it getting fixed $500-$600 AUD ill be happy...

I think my Roland tech told me the cost of my replacement boards if I was outside warranty would have easily been $1200+ 😱

In fairness, it's the main motherboard, so a large part of the $3500 I paid for the G70 new...

If you can find an excellent condition used G70 for that sum, I think I'd go for that. I can't see how diagnosis and repair (if even possible) would come to less. And you'd still have your old one for other spares (screen, buttons/sliders etc) should that be needed.

But I might also keep an eye open for a used BK9. Some of the stuff on that (the massively improved B3 section, the chord sequencer, the SN sounds, the 5 MFX, the audio loops and playback, the MUCH lighter construction etc., etc.) is a big step up from the G70. Only 128 entries in the G70 UPS (BK9 has 999!)

Some things are a step back... the action is good, but not G70 good! Only 2 UPR & 1 LWR & 1MBS, no touch screen. No slider control of Makeup Tools...

But after a readjustment period, I would never go back to gigging with the G70! I still have one, but it rarely gets played any more.

I have a BK9

I bought it second hand about 5 years ago and I have literally never seen one for sale again in the entire country... it makes me wonder how many actually sold in Australia when they were released!

So you are going to buy a main board? when all the problem might be a tiny SMD on the Main Board, or worst it might not even be on the Main Board, and you'll end up with two Main Boards...

A Roland Tech at a Roland repair center can pinpoint the problem in no time, they even have access to schematics that most local repair shops don't.

By the way there is a difference between an electrician and an electronics technician.

But hey, if you take my advise you do whatever you want...

If you're going to buy replacement boards before a tech has pinpointed the problem, I'd start with the power supply board. A lot cheaper. It might fix the issue, it might not. If it does, you've saved a lot of money.

With brick and mortar music stores becoming increasingly rare, finding Roland technicians qualified enough to diagnose the motherboard of a rare 20 year old keyboard is getting harder and harder to do.

Quite honestly, even 20 years ago when my G70 was current, my Roland tech felt more comfortable replacing entire boards than tracking down individual components on a very complex motherboard with huge custom CPU's and IC's. If you're close to a major metropolitan area, maybe there's an old guy with 30 years experience, but kids aren't exactly lining up to learn how to fix incredibly rare archaic hardware!

As willing as people are to ship overseas these days, I wouldn't worry too much about a scarcity in Australia. It's a universal power supply on the BK9, it'll work anywhere, so a European or American seller will do just fine, and at 20lbs (9kg) it won't cost a fortune to ship.