Hi everybody...

here a short update concerning OS Update of PSR2000. On Jan., the 17th I sent my PSR2000 with the help of my local musicdealer to Yamaha Rellinghausen, Germany, for a OS update free of charge. Seems to be no problem here in Germany.

But keep in mind, to solder Chips e.g with a VQFP-Package (Very thin quad flat pack, many pins, pin-to-pin distance < 0.2mm) this is really difficult, even if you are an expert with the right equipment (as I am). I would guess at least 50% failure rate!!
Ok... and here are the news... my local dealer told me on Monday that my mainboard in the PSR2000 is completely broken, no replacement or repair possible... (this was the official statement of Yamaha ;-) )... and ... fasten your seat belts... I will get today an absolute new PSR2000... free of charge!!

What a shit... no download in Flash-Memory and no easy replacement of the ROM-Chip, cause it seems that there are no sockets, they are soldered directly on the mainboard. Saving for Yamaha about 5 Cent...

Datablues

PS.: I know, I'm a lucky man, but let me first test the OS-Version ;-) and let me see if this board is OK...

hmmmmm, sounds fishy to me. Maybe thay are just going to replace all the compaints, rather than admit trouble. Many casual users will never know the shortcommings of the o/s, and this will be an easy, cheap "fix" for the big guys, that will satisfy all the owners with problems. Maybe? Hmmmmmmm.

Hi Datablues,

First of all, Congratulations on receiving a BRAND new PSR2000 replacement. WOW !

If what you're saying is true (50% chip replacement failure rate), I'm quickly beginning to think that this whole chip update scenerio is going to be a huge 'can of worms' for Yamaha. I had thought of taking my keyboard (for the chip replacement) to a local authorized Yamaha repair center, but they warned me that Yamaha may (end up) not covering the entire upgrade expense so required (to protect themselves from possibly getting stuck with the bill from Yamaha) that I put down a deposit. They said they had experienced problems like this in the past.

Datablues, with your news of the risk & difficulty of replacing this 'permanently soldered in chip (afterall, it was never designed to be removed, because it was supposed to be flashROM upgradeable in the first place), I'm wondering now, how many indepentantly owned repair stores would even be willing now to take on such a risky (50% failure rate) project. At this point, it seems the safest bet would be to ship our keyboards back to Yamaha and have THEM deal with it. Now I wished I had kept the original keyboard box.

I'm sure Yamaha is realizing this might end up a huge financial disaster for them, especially because the PSR2000's price point is so low to begin with.

[This message has been edited by Scottyee (edited 02-08-2002).]

Fair is fair. After so many negative things, here's a positive post:

I just got a call from Yamaha(Steve)and he assured me that the company will NOT charge for any updates that need to be performed. He mentioned the many of us that have been in contact with him, and said, very plainly - The updates needed WILL be performed at no cost under warrentee. The flash RAM issue is not an option anymore, whether your keyboard has it or not, because there will be no units that have that support in the future. So even if you HAVE the flash RAM, you'll need the update to be done in hardware form. They are not going to release an update that will not work on every unit.
The way he explained it to me, it seems that Yamaha Japan and Yamaha US had a few differences of opinion on the devlopment of this unit, and only the first very few runs had the Flash RAM. So - forget the issue - it's dead.
They WILL stand behind the service of the units, but the repairs to correct the bugs are going to have to be done at an authorized service center. There are worse things, for sure.
There is no date scheduled for the release of this new "chip" to update the unit, but it IS in the works as we speak. So ..... we wait.

Question:
Yamaha warranty is 90 days LABOR and 1 year parts, right? If this is true, and you purchased your PSR2000 before 11-8-01 (or more than 90 days before the actual day you take your KB in for the chip upgrade replacement), would that mean that Yamaha would only cover the part (chip itself) and that you would be responsible for paying the labor charges?

And... can it be done at by a local authorized service guy..or have to be sent back to Yamaha?

Scott,

it may be that you would have been better off having bought your keyboard from some dealer in Europe At least then you would be on the hook for a known amount of shipping charges.

On the other hand, I hope that Yamaha will fess up and do what is right, and provide chip replacements for all the people who need it. Of course, the underside is that in the future they will be truly reluctant to issue updates, and will deny the existence of the problems we report. So let's hope that this update does incorporate Don's vocalizer fix, because there is no more upgrades coming.

Regards,
Alex

there's no way the average local dealer is going to be able to replace surface mount flat pack chips as Datablues describes them. You need the reworking station at the factory, or a pretty sophisticated repair facility. He is right about the failure rate, manufacture takes place by robot placement, manual replacement is a skilled job.

Scott,

This is an aside, but didn't you get the Survival Package, the cheap headphones, cheap sustain pedal, and worthless software that comes with an extended 2 year warranty - parts and labor - for your PSR2000. I asked my dealer and got this survival pack with my keyboard. Basically, when you buy the Survival Pack, in exchange for sending them a card that includes questions about income, gender, etc., they give you the extended warranty.
I would suppose that Yamaha would cover this for you Scott, but you might want to ask Yamaha whether you could get the extended warranty at this late date if you purchase the Survival Pack.

The two year warranty is perfect, because Yamaha comes out with a new keyboard every two years. And if you bang on this keyboard as much as I do, they can break. One of my PSR-740's broke three times the first year. Two were simple solder jobs for the A/C input, but one was a complete malfunction of the keyboard that required 6 weeks in the shop.

Larry

I have some encouraging news for everyone here. I just got off the phone with the 'head' supervisor of Yamaha USA's technical support group, the same guy (Steve) that Uncle Dave spoke with earlier today. I felt that Steve went the extra mile to be both friendly and helpful. He assured me that Yamaha definitely WILL make good and cover the cost of the ROM chip update (under warranty) for us. He also assured me that the chip replacement will be covered by Yamaha, even if the 90 day warranty labor period has already expired (I purchased mine: 11/11/2001). He says the chip should be available within a month.

Steve also acknowledged that he is aware of (and reads) our Synthzone forum here. I think this shows the enormous influence we have made as a worldwide internet arranger keyboard community. Long live the Synthzone forums arranger keyboard forum !

Feeling a lot more optimistic NOW ! - Scott

[This message has been edited by Scottyee (edited 02-08-2002).]