Old keyboarder but new to Emax - static noise and no sampling

[EmuAndRoland]

Dear all,

Newbie on the forum, glad i have found it. Newbie to the Emax as well, after the Roland D20 and a brand new 300NX.
Just got it on eBay, very good deal so I guess I took the risk of something may not be working properly, the item was as is, and no disks.
Have its own OS disk with it, boots fine (no issues with the floppy thank God), buttons and everything works fine.
I should get a floppy with a bank and presets to try, as I can't listen to anything yet but a static noise.

Reading through the forums before posting, I learned the ribbon cable issue, if I mess with it, depending on the position and tightness, the noise goes away.

The more troubleing thing is that the slider doesn't move when I try to speak into/sample with the microphone in Sample in.
So I signed up before contacting EPR electronics, may be some easier troubleshoot? Dead jack? Dead circuit?

Any advice is highly appreciated, i have seen a similar topic, but it has ended, anyone with similar trouble before?
thanks a million guys !

[seamonkey]

Are you talking about the slider to the left of the yes/no buttons? and you're saying the slider doesn't move any parameter data in the lcd window, correct?

[EmuAndRoland]

Nope, sorry cor the confusion.

The little digital "slider" or line on the LCD doesn't move or kick to the right at all when you set up Sampler, and then try to speak in the mic to check if there's anything going on, before setting up threshold, sample time etc.

it's like no sound coming in at all into the keyboard.

Data slider and all the functions of all the buttons are working correctly.

[seamonkey]

ok, that's what I thought but wasn't sure.
I had a similar problem when I first bought mine. I had to take mine in to a tech and you can read about it here.
http://eiiiforum.com/index.php?topic=1489.0
the vca chip was blown and replaced and the IC in the circuit after that was shot as well.
The tech believed it was from a severe overload into the input.

[EmuAndRoland]

I must say fantastic forum guys. Thanks so much.

I talked to a tech here in our keyboard store, there's one with all sorts of electric gadgets. (Would be hard to ship to Florida to EPR electr.)

I'll tell him what you suspect, and go from there. I think this is one issue and then the other is the static noise due to the ribbon cable, but may as well be that the two issues are related.

Great help thanks so much!

[seamonkey]

One question, when you go into (5)threshold) in the Sample menu, is the line to the far left? And did you try setting the db amount in the top of the window? use the yes button and it should increase. If it does try going to +20-+30 and see if you get the input meter jumping.
 
Btw welcome to the forum and thanks for your kind words for all the members here.

[EmuAndRoland]

Well, thanks for the effort that you and others are doing. 

For the rest of the forum - we're trying to figure out if my Emax at least plays sounds, and doesn't sample, or the issue is more serious.
I got an email response from a tech here, who may or may not be experienced with Emax - es, he sounded like changing the whole board which we concluded we don't see too often, reading through the forum.

I also emailed EPR electronics what is their guess - but I suspect something really similar to a VCA chip blow and such.

what is the little condenser looking guy right next to the ribbon cabble on the board (not the analog, the other one). He's a big brown round item that warms up - which is usually also not a too good indication?