AN1x Continually Rebooting - Heat Problem?
2002-12-13 by Dave Silvester
Hi Everyone, Just joined due to a kinda emergency situation - I think my AN1x is dead! :-(((( What happens is that after a short while of being on, it will reboot itself, and then more-or-less continually reboot itself (between every couple of minutes and almost as soon as it has booted up). If I turn it off and turn it back on again, this still happens. If I leave it for half an hour or so, it seems to be OK for a few minutes and then starts rebooting all over again. I had previously thought that this was due to a midi error causing the reboots, but have done plenty of testing, and there is nothing going up and down my midi cables according to MidiOX. Also, the AN1x still reboots itself when there is nothing except the PSU plugged into it. I had also thought that it was due to a malfunctioning knob or wheel on the AN1x, as sometimes when it rebooted while I was recording a sequence, the mod wheel appears to have moved just before it rebooted. I've tried factory resets and all the usual problem solving techniques, and this problem is almost certainly something out of the ordinary. My friend (who is into overclocking PCs) seems to think that the rebooting may be due to the DSP chip getting too hot and being unstable. This seems to make sense, since if the DSP in the AN1x mirrors the behaviour of a PC processor that is running a bit too hot for a long time (but not hot enough to crash) then after several years the chip can become a lot more unstable and although it works OK some of the time, it's tolerance for heat seems to deteriorate. So, our theory is that the DSP has been running quite hot for the four years that I've had my AN1x, and that now it has reached the point of no return, where it needs cooling in order to be able to run stably. This behaviour pattern also seems to be displayed in the fact that if I turn it off and straight back on, it still keeps crashing. However, if I wait a while (in which the chip would cool down a bit) it seems to be stable for a few minutes before the crashing starts again. So, what we are thinking of doing is opening up the AN1x and attaching a heatsink of some kind to the DSP chip using thermal epoxy. I have a few old Pentium heatsinks lying around which I think will probably do the job, and my overclocker mate has plenty of other bits and pieces which we could use. I just have a few questions: Has anyone else experienced a similar problem to this? I've never opened up my AN1x - is there enough space inside for the addition of a heatsink, or is it all very closely packed in? Is it difficult to put back together again (am I likely to end up with a pile of pieces and a ruined synth if I take it apart)? Do you think my reasoning about the heat seems to make sense, or could it be something else that I've not thought of yet? Incidentally, if I do end up taking the case off and attaching a heatsink to the DSP, I'll probably document it with photographs and stick it online somewhere. Would that be useful? OK, here's hoping that all your AN1xs are healthier than mine! Cheers, ~Dave -- Dave Silvester Music Technology Junkie Web: http://www.mu-sly.co.uk/ Email: sly at mu hyphen sly dot co dot uk ICQ: 165159988