Nord User Forum

Hello everyone.
I recently purchased a used C1 on Craigslist. I got a deal and was very happy for about 2 days. I’ve noticed on several occasions that the controls will “glitch out”. Settings will change, the draw bars are stuck, and the led lights will start spinning around like Linda Blair’s head in Exorcist!! Every time is different, and if I shut it off for a minute it will revert to normal, but is unpredictable as to when it will happen again. Any thoughts or help would be appreciated. Thanks!!’

If there's a component failure of some sort, I can't help, but it has a sniff of power instability to me. Use a known good mains lead, check it's a positive fit in the C1's mains socket and in the mains outlet. Do it from a wall outlet and test the combination on a another bit of kit if you can. If it's not dying totally, it may be just a tiny contact where it's possible to lose the power connection for almost no time at all... You'll know if your mains supply is generally solid, or not. Hope that gets you going - when I worked IT we fixed over 90% of PC faults by cleaning and replugging everything we could find.

Thank you, Tacitus. Your nose proved correct!
I decided to open it up, since it wasn't under warranty, and see if I could see anything specific. On the circuit board connected to the power outlet, there was some kind of resin that had accumulated on some of the components. After carefully cleaning that out, the organ seems to be back to normal working function!!! I have exercised the demons!!! Thank you for your reply.

"Some sort of resin .. on some of the components" - could that have been electrolyte from a defective capacitor? Are there electrolytic capacitors where you cleaned and should their "heads" have domed up? Just an idea.

Or do you know where that "resin" might have come from?

Hi FZiegler,
What you described sounds accurate to what I saw. I looked up electrolytic capacitors and that is what this substance had accumulated on. It looked like glue, but it easily separated from the capacitors. I hadn't thought much about where that came from but I have been using the keyboard with no problems since removing this substance. Do you know if I should still be concerned and look into replacing those parts? Thanks for any help!

I'm not a technician, but it might be the case what I asked: electrolytic capacitors have only a certain lifetime. In a power unit, they have the job to get DC smoother after power rectification. It might work without, but there could be issues for the instrument - either some risk for the processors or some hum in your audio part. I'm not sure.

But that's exactly what I meant: Ask someone who knows about that a little more.
Edit: As far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't run it before having asked. Switching on without that capacitor smoothing power might blow electronic parts - to be clear.

If it's any electrolytic capacitor, get it fixed before using it too much (or at all). Depending on where it sits, you could risk other components gets stressed out and die.

It's usually an easy fix by a repair technician.

Sent from my phone in brevity