Phantom Button Presses On Virus Classic?

[m00dawg]

This post is not about my MidiBox stuff but more of a general troubleshooting thought, maybe anyway. The edit button on my Virus Classic registers phantom presses. At one point it made the synth unusuable but after replacing the tactile switch, it's better now, but I'm not sure if that was really the cause. I'm still getting a phantom press every 10 seconds to a few minutes or so. So my next thought was to replace the shift-registers on the control surface. They seem to be somewhat non-standard so before I did that, I was trying to think if there was perhaps another explanation or what folks that have seen similar behavior have done to troubleshoot this sort of thing?

[dreamer]

Did you try to contact access about the issue maybe they can help / guide you. Maybe they can even deliver you a new tact switch.

[m00dawg]

I did the last time I tried to fix it but heard crickets back. Instead I've just moved forward with trying to replace the two chips that seem to be involved. One is a D-latch chip and I recall those are known to occasionally fail so I'm hopeful it has something to do with that. It looks like they are using some sort of button matrix but doing so differently than, say, the MB6582 as far as I can tell.

[lis0r]

Access are renowned for being uncooperative, aren't they? Hence the lack of service manual and schematics online? They'd much rather send you to their pet technician 

The audio input on my Virus C is dodgy, but when I went looking, I could find almost nothing about what might be wrong. A far cry from my great experiences repairing my Supernova 2!

[m00dawg]

Yep I feel the same way. I also find it a bit odd that the Ti/Ti2 platform hasn't changed much in a few years now. It's a glorious synth which I suppose doesn't have to change, but other synth companies have been doing some neat things lately. It's great to see other companies coming out with some true analog and hybrid analog synths for example.

The latter is the reason I want to fix my Classic instead of going with a Ti2 (or at least that's my plan). I'm thinking of maybe a Prophet '08 or Tetra for my next synth which sound glorious warm and analog - very much the sound I've been wanting for a while. I don't consider them as flexible as, say, my Virus Classic, so I don't think it would be a good main synth and I can't afford both that and a Ti/Ti2.

So I'm left with trying to fix my Classic. Replacement chips came in, and I have the pins desoldered from one of the chips though it's opting to be a bit stubborn. The pads are small so I'm trying not to do any damage to it to make my problem even worse.

As far as your audio input issue, you might just try swapping the jack if it's cutting out or you hear static or crackling (especially when you wiggle the cable) is the first thing that comes to mind, although I haven't looked at the audio path on my Classic too much to say if there may be something else at work.