Let me get right to the point. As you know I bought a Genos two weeks ago and it exceeded my expectations. A really great keyboard for sure.
Well, two days ago I experienced a problem with my Genos to which there is no solution other than shipping it up to Yamaha for repair and I wanted to relay the information to other people who own the Genos so they can be aware of the situation and avoid it at all costs. What am I talking about?

Okay, here it is. You are no doubt aware of the Auto Power Off function on the Genos. Over at PSR Tutorial there is a big write up on the topic where the Auto Power Off function on the Genos does not work properly. The situation I was facing was not that the Auto Power Function wouldn't power off the Genos at a set time but that the Auto Power Off function worked when it wasn't supposed to work. What do I mean? I was in the process of transfering files (midi and style files) from a USB thumb drive to the Genos USER drive. Now according to the manual it says when there is activity going on e.g. playing the keyboard and/or transferring files back and forth on the keyboard itself the Genos is supposed to stay on even though the Auto Power Off is set to a specific time to go off.

During the transfer of files to the USER drive my Genos suddenly turned off. I realized what had happened after I returned from doing something and the Genos was off. Realizing this shouldn't have happened I turned the Genos back on and noticed the folders of the files had transferred to the USER drive but when I touched the folders the files themselves did not show up. Okay, so I deleted the folders and proceeded again to transfer the files again to the USER flash drive. Again, the folders transferred okay but the files themselves still did not show up within the folders. I went ahead and called Yamaha US up in Buena Park, CA. - which is not too far from where I live by the way. I spoke to a nice gentleman, no, not Steve Deming and he said the files were likely corrupted which is what I suspected also. He said to copy a fresh set of files (ones that were not corrupted that were on the USB drive) to the Genos USER drive again and see what happens. After that piece of advice I told him I would do so and if I still experienced the problem I could always call back.

Still no go. The folders showed up but the files themselves did not.
Okay, so I purchased a new USB thumb drive, same model from the same manufacturer i.e. Samsung. What had happened was the previous thumb drive had itself become corrupted. So I put the files on the new thumb drive and proceeded to transfer the files again to the Genos USER drive. Unfortunately the same scenario played out. The folder(s) would transfer onto the USER drive but the files themselves would still not show up within the folder(s). Okay, this is serious folks.

What had happened was the Genos USER Drive became corrupted also and the only remedy was to replace the USER drive on the Genos. I asked the Yamaha tech if it was possible for me to buy a new drive and replace it myself and he said no, the flash memory drive is attached (hard wired) to the mainboard essentially and was not replaceable by someone other than Yamaha. To make a long story short I had no other choice but to return my Genos to GC for a refund. It's a good thing too because if I had waited three more days I wouldn't have been able to return it. I explained the situation to the Guitar Center store manager and he agreed to refund the whole amount.

So I wanted to give Genos owners a heads up about the potential serious condition so other Genos owners won't experience the same situation I had encountered. Again, the Genos was NOT suppose to shut off when activity was going on on the keyboard itself. In fact, I had the wireless LAN on the Genos connected to my router and that little bit of signal variation kept the Genos from going off even though the Auto Power Off feature was set to go off at a specific time. I obviously presumed the Genos would not go off when transferring files to and from the Genos but I was wrong. You've heard of Tesla cars "bricking" themselves when the battery on them drains completely? The only remedy in that situation is replacing the battery at the tune of tens of thousands of dollars.

At this point I think I'll put my Genos ambition on hold until Yamaha addresses the situation and provides a solution. If I purchase another Genos I would definitely disable the Auto Power Off feature until I had assurances from Yamaha that the matter was resolved. But until that time I'll probably hold off or just wait until Genos 2 which will hopefully resolve the polyphony anomaly. Do you realize that the Yamaha P-255 keyboard has "256" note polyphony allocated across the ENTIRE RANGE OF THE KEYBOARD and it only costs $1,299? Yet the $5,499.99 Genos only has 128 note polyphony for the preset voices and 128 note polyphony for the expansion voices? Sad, very sad.

Have a great weekend, what's left of it!

All the best,

MIke

Mike...well at least you got to try one out,....sorry to hear about this problem with the file transfer I would be livid if after paying so much money for a keyboard that I would have to get aggravated with stuff like this as you mentioned, glad you were able to return it with no problems to the store,......I wonder how many owners are also experiencing this problem with GENOS? that being said what is your over all opinion/review of the Genos? and what will be your next purchase for an arranger KB if at all or?

I have never used the "auto power off" feature on any of my keyboards so I can't comment on how well it works or not. I have not found a reason to do so. That said, I have played my Genos daily for hours at a time with absolutely no issues so far. I have used several different thumb drives - transferred files to and from the user drive many times all with no problems.

The ONLY complaint I have so far is this. The over-all sound of the Genos is outstanding -but, the OTS voices and the various style parts are not as well balanced as they were in the Tyros line of keyboards. On live gigs it is often necessary to reach for the sliders for a quick adjustment. The problem with that is the way the sliders work - they have to be moved up and down or down and up to make the adjustment pending on if you need more or less volume. It is also not easy to quickly locate the correct slider while playing live.

The good thing is the adjustments to the styles can be made and saved easily and the problem is fixed - it just takes time.

Deane

Wow, usually the trouble occurs 3 days AFTER you can return it!

The Auto-Off provision was created with the PSR-S950. The default setting is 30 minutes. I really never found a good use for it, but someone must have thought it was a good idea to have the keyboard shut down after a half-hour of non-use.

Now, why not just turn off the Auto-Off feature and not send the Genos back. They will likely fix this with a software update - it's not a hardware problem.

Gary

Gary,
He was told by Yamaha that the USER drive might be corrupted. I wonder if he did what I did once. I transferred files to the Genos and all went well until I opened the folder and they were not there. It was NOT a Genos issue but a user error on my part. If you want to find styles you have to be in style mode. If you want to find registrations you have to be in registration mode etc.. Dah!

Deane

In My Genos I did transfer all my files, and I can say that I am a "heavy" user, meaning tons of files....and NO problem at all.

I think you forgot to hold and press the first note(Lowest) while turning the Genos on, Before you begin to do any transfers, this procedure takes out the turn off feature, at least is the easiest way.

I do assist to resolve some issues that some PSR S/Tyros 5 that some users have, and I can say that 98.99% is a user issue, not the instrument.

My 2 Cents

Manuel

Sorry to hear about your problems, i am quite sure a future software patch will repair this for all other users.

But then, thats why i never buy any electronic equipment thats software based in the first 6 months after release. problems like this are just going to excist no matter how good the intentions and the quallity of the Company and product.

I still don’t understand people that require their keyboards for gigging and making their living jump on a new keyboard like a child jumps on its christmas presents.

"I still don’t understand people that require their keyboards for gigging and making their living jump on a new keyboard like a child jumps on its christmas presents."
This is some great advice. I haven't always heeded it though, and sometimes it will bite you if you jump too soon.
Yamaha does have a good history of having things ready to go when the models are released though.

I have had mine for 6 weeks and have not had any of the issues you are having

seems kind of odd to me .

done lot of downloads ect.

sounds like user error

I played big show last night new sounded so good .

I think you should look to see what you did here.

it ussaly the puttey and not the putter

I am in so cal if you need any help.

be happy to help you .