First post, by Galahad
Please note: I originally posted this thread 2 days ago on the forum, but I think I may have accidentally posted it in the wrong sub-forum, and so I am just now reposting it here as I believe this sub-from may potentially be the most relevant to the topic at hand. Thanks!
Hello and greetings! I apologize in advance, since I know it has been quite a while since I lasted posted here on the forum. Question please: my CM-500 is currently behaving quite unusually in Mode B, and so I was just curious, can anyone kindly please help or advise if it is hopefully fixable or repairable?
The Mode B (also Mode A and D as well) technical issue being experienced: every time I turn on the CM-500 in Mode B, for the first few seconds, everything works fine, but then, suddenly, the volume level increases substantially, and the green light keeps flashing, continuously and indefinitely 🙁 When I load a classic PC game that uses Mode B, the issue appears to temporarily go away, but as soon as the game exits, it comes back full-force. Mode C appears to be blessedly unaffected. However, nothing I have tried to do to fix the Mode B has seemed to work out, including sysex reset, powering off and then powering back on the CM-500, manually loading a sysex reset in the Van Basco MIDI player or Windows Media Player, etc. The underlying PC system is a classic, ISA-bus PC that is connected to the CM-500 using an MPU-401/AT ISA card interface; i.e., a true MPU-401 interface, not running DOSBOX.
This CM-500 is really the crown jewel of my classic Roland synth collection since it is in excellent / mint / near-mint physical condition, so if it can hopefully be fixed in some way, I would much prefer to go that route if at all possible, if someone could please advise what might be the best course of action? I do have spare or extra/backup CM-500 devices that I could use in lieu of this unit in the event it is unable to be fixed, but since none of the other ones have the level of outstanding physical appearance of this device, again my most optimal preference would ideally be to get this unit back to full functionality if it can be done. Just for example, would an authorized or official Roland repair shop still be able to fix an older classic device like the CM-500? Or can it potentially be fixed in another way without having to go to a Roland repair shop, such as flashing or resetting the CM-500 BIOS, or something similar? Thanks!
