Nord User Forum

Hi, new to these forums so hello.
I'm looking at getting a Stage 3 from a retail store that was an open box. I was wondering if anyone knows of a way to see the keyboard's total runtime (uptime in nerdy Linux speak).. to see how new it actually was. know it may be a longshot but assumed there was machine specs beyond what the onboard display shows somewhere. Thanks!

Hi and welcome. IF this information is somehow stored somewhere inside the board, it's not something that the end user has access to. I guess you'll have to resort to more empirical ways to assess the board's state. For example, whether all buttons and knobs and encodes work good, or to look at how many of those microscopic scratches you see, with the right lightning condition, over white keys. That'll give you a vague idea of how long the board has been actually played. Other than that, the serial number should give you an idea of the manufacturing time, although this isn't the same as total uptime.

Uptime has no meaningful value in the context of a keyboard as new as a stage 3. As long as everything is functioning, the number of hours its been on will have no relevant or meaningful relationship to the expected long term reliability of the keyboard.

cgrafx wrote:Uptime has no meaningful value in the context of a keyboard as new as a stage 3. As long as everything is functioning, the number of hours its been on will have no relevant or meaningful relationship to the expected long term reliability of the keyboard.

Agree and anyway even knowing the uptime, it could not be the only parameter to evaluate the status of an used keyboard; a synth never played or just for a few hours/days, but improperly stored (e.g. in a humid or dusty place) or used ("heavy hands" ) may be fantastic from an uptime point of view but...

The only exception could possibly be the OLED display. They have a relatively limited lifespan. You (OP) may want to check whether you see signs of burn-in.

Thank you for the info and suggestions - all good advice. I was mostly curious about "uptime" as I was being told the box was only opened previously for someone to test out the keybed differences between models for a couple of minutes. No real reason to dis-believe them but I figured if it had a low uptime then it was far less likely I was getting sold a return or display model that could have come with a discount. It looked in really good shape otherwise, so hoping to join this group more officially here in the next couple of days. Thanks all