After all the help I got before, I'm hoping someone might know what to do here. After resetting the SE-50 to factory specs (the old 3 fingered salute deal), it reverts to the junk that the previous owner programmed after the next power up. I tried removing the battery and then resetting, no dice. Do I just have a nice paperweight now?

Are you sure?
When a SE-50's battery goes, it will randomize the patches and the patch names.

Sounds to me as if you need the battery replaced, not a difficult, but a fiddly job.
Good news, the batteries are very cheap, as it's basically a lithium watch battery.



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The Sonic Energy Authority - a sound investment

I think it's a CR2032 lithium battery (the same used on a lot of other Roland equipment and in most of computer Mobos...)
Are you sure this the previous owner junk or the previous factory preset junk?

Mgomes

TheSonicEnergyAuthority... thanks for the tip. Will grab a new battery tomorrow. Mgomes, I'm thinking it's the factory preset junk! (now that I know about the battery deal). Nice to know you guys are here... it's great... this is one of the absolute best BBS services I have yet seen!!

I have been using a SE-50 and
the display shows nonsense letters and
numbers for patches. I then reset the
unit, and the factory patches word fine.
But after I turn the unit off and on
again, those garbage nonsense patch names
come on again.
Do you think replacing the internal
battery will also cure this problem?
Thanks.

Vquestor, replacing the battery did the trick. Not exactly the easiest thing to do..(getting it in was no problem, getting the old one out was a pain), but the unit was reset to the factory presets, and now works just fine.

I had the battery replaced on my SE-50 and the annoying jibberish went away. It's almost like when you see the read-out look like that ... it is warning you that the battery is going.