Dead Andromeda. Great...

plikestechno · Joined: Nov 11, 2009 Posts: 17 Location: Canada

So a couple of years ago I bought a used Andromeda off my friend for an ok price locally. I would never have the guts to ship one in. He took a little less than the going rate because it was missing a knob and because he said that program changes froze it up sometimes but it was ok if you used the soft buttons. It is from 2001.

Well once I got it home it wasn't even working that well. Once you turned it on it let you switch a few programs but then would freeze up on the third or fourth program change regardless of the number of resets or power ups. Each time you turned it on though the last patch loaded would load up and you could use it again from there.

I lived with it because I really wanted an Andy and most of the time I would just start with an initial patch and go from there and record it when I was done.

I just fired it up tonight after about a year and it won't load at all now. It just comes on, flickers back and forth two or three times in the first 30 seconds and thats it and hangs up on the A6/16 voice synthesizer opening screen.

I read about people having success reseating the cables so I finally got the guts to open it and reseat all of the ribbon cables. No change at all.

Bootloader 1.20.37, OS 1.40.12

It seems to have suffered from progressively quirky behaviour to the point it no longer boots up. Could that be a power supply issue? a battery issue? Was the main board progressively failing?

When I try to do reset soft button 3 or soft button reset 4 it asks me to press the store button and then once I do it instantly just gets hung up on the A6/16 Voice Synthesizer screen as before. It doesn't show the voice calibrations or anything. It will do the soft button 2 reset and let me test the led and lights and buttons and stuff but it will not let me do the soft button 1 default/mix reset or soft button 5 reset mod/ribbon recalibration. At least I think it doesnt let me do 5. I dont know if it gives me a screen or just recalibrates them.

So thoughts? I don't mind if its quirky or has a dead voice or two but right now I can't use it period and it really sucks.

If I do try to re-flash the bootloader and the OS what is the best way of going about it? I have RME Babyface and Focusriter I/P Pro 26 for my interfaces. Windows 7 Professional 64 bit computer.

LamerDeluxe · Joined: Jul 08, 2008 Posts: 38 Location: Netherlands

Try turning it on/off/on quickly and see if that makes it boot. If so, you have the same problem I have. Seems to be related to a chip on the logic board. I already ordered a new chip but I'm not confident soldering SMD chips on expensive/irreplacable boards.
EDIT: It could also be a bad connection on the flatcables, I have to try that on mine. Mine also has a problem of the digital effects not decaying on two of the voices.

hrastprogrammer · Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 6:23 am Post subject:

LamerDeluxe · Joined: Jul 08, 2008 Posts: 38 Location: Netherlands

Yes, that should be the one. I hadtthat information from thesservice manual as well.

OJS · Joined: Nov 15, 2014 Posts: 1 Location: Netherlands

I have an Andromeda that won't boot begond the splash screen. Any ideas who I can turn to for repairs?

plikestechno · Joined: Nov 11, 2009 Posts: 17 Location: Canada

If you find out, let me know. My problem not solved still either.