HEEEELP and hello again

[muratasil]

I was trying to understand what happened to the mackie d8b forum and found you guys here .
It's been such a long time that I've written to a d8b forum or used a d8b actually...

after moving from US to Europe i have decided to get together my studio again and took out all my toys from the storage.
all is working fine, samplers sound modules etc. but of course not my d8b ) tonight was my 2nd night trying to fix it. but i think this is over me. I'm getting very very frustrated. i think i'm getting old for this.

CPU boots up ok, board sees it without any error messages on the screen. but guess what ? no response on the board... when i move a fader, monitor stays the same. but the cpu is not crashed or anything (i can start plugins etc.with the mouse). one other bizarre thing is when I press on a record button on the board, i can see it on the monitor. it's like some of the buttons are functioning but some are not. i've connected my ipod to channels 1-2 to see if get a signal but nothing on the board or on the screen.


I've started checking from the CPU. (celeron 300 - 64+256mb RAM). checked all the bios settings and even changed the battery on the motherboard. Checked all the interfaces connected to the motherboard, cleaned some of them with alcohol ( no contact cleaner handy...)

then opened the back case of the board. started checking the ribbons one by one. all were connected ok. tried to clean the tips as much as i can although the looked really clean.
I don't know how many times i took out the ribbons and checked but nothing is changed.
I have tried 2 different console cables and big ass power cable looks ok. someone on the forum mentioned about the loose power cable even though it's screwed. that's the only thing i didn't try. Also i'm thinking to leave it on overnight to see if the heat changes anything.
moving d8b from NY to Istanbul and then putting her to a storage for a 2.5 years wasn't such a good idea i think. at least she's not really happy about it and behaving again... she was working perfectly fine before the shipment.

any ideas ? any comments ? I 'm not even sure if they can fix it here and if they can I don't want to pay for the service anymore.

thnx in advance.. OH, MERRY XMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all.
murat

[muratasil]

after leaving her on overnight, i 've restarted it and right now i have the all flickering board situation . it's getting better and better.

[Petersueco]

How are you dealing with the main ac power voltage diffrerence?

Are you using a step down transformer from 220v/60Hz to 110v/50Hz?

Maybe the transformer is not delivering the right voltage.

Peter Holmquist.

[muratasil]

hey peter , thanx a lot for the response.

i've tried both with the step down transformer (220 to 120) and also switched the cpu's power supply to 220v.

sorry i tried so many things . i forgot to write this.

as of this moment, as soon as I turn her on I have the flickering lights all over the board.
i will try to take the apogee card out and put it in again . I'm also dealing with a horrible flu and was in bed all day sleeping.

thnx for all the input and support.

murat

[Petersueco]

Hi Murat.

That flickering sounds like the dreaded rail cap failure. You will need to send the board to repair, I'm afraid.

I'm almost sure that the power supply is not switchable. Maybe the PC power supply is, but the internal big one is not. So the PC will still be working but the board is probably busted...

I hope you get better with the flu!

Happy New Year.

Peter Holmquist.

[muratasil]

Peter ,
thnx a lot. i feel better today. my wife says the day d8b broken, i got sick ))

today i booted her up and it went back to the first symptoms. it starts ok no error messsages but when i move a fader nothing changes on the monitor.

BTW i have found a tech support in Turkey. .

murat

[muratasil]

peter,
where is the power supply on the board ???

thnx

[Petersueco]

Inside the CPU.



More photos

Peter Holmquist.

[muratasil]

thnx.

happy new year

m./

[muratasil]

Peter,
Finally it's resolved.
Here's the story... I called the Mackie service here in Istanbul and after a 3 min. conversation, I kind of felt like the service guy wasn't that comfortable with this model of mackie and also it might be very costly for me if they take care of it. Also I needed to take it to their shop (

And than I met someone just by chance who led me to this electronic tech guru. He came to my apartment and fixed it right in my studio.

Anyway, it was what you have mentioned. 220V /120V difference. Although the tech guy didn't know anything about this model or the mixers, after checking the power supply boards, he said that this specific model is designed for 120V and switching it to 220V from the main transformer didn't do the trick. So I clearly caused this whole thing by switching the transformer to 220V.

On the photo you sent there's this second transformer on the left bottom corner which supplies the power for the faders. And surprisingly there's a little fuse in this transformer. When you peel the isolation paper/plastic rolled on it, you see this little capacitor like fuse. The tech guy made a fuse from a piece of wire and soldered it to the transformer.

After the replacement we booted it up again. Audio signal was finally there but the trims were still not responding. And to reset the whole thing, I 've decided to format the HD and install 5.1 again.

After the system installation, it started working.

With all the diagnostics and the work he spent 1.5 hours and changed nearly $150. Right at my home... i think it's a bargain.

I wanted to share my experience with everyone here so if they move overseas, it's a good idea to buy a good step down transformer instead of using the switch on the computer part of d8b.

Thanks for all the help and support.

murat