Roland D-10 issues and Repair

Synth Repair
1

Hey. This is my first time paying but I’m a big fan of synth wizards. I just bought my first vintage synth. It’s a Roland D-10. I am extremely disappointed because I got it home and it seems to have some major issues. I was told that there were no problems. I am unable to get my money back so I have to attempt a DIY repair because I am low on funds.

Here are the issues:

  1. Some of the buttons sink in when I push them and I have to dig them back out. I am told that this is an easy fix by replacing the adhesive on the bottom board. Please let me know anyone has anymore insight on this.

  2. it seems that the velocity is messed up on one key. When I press it a few times it will randomly play at max volume and blow my ears off. I am also told that this can be fixed by cleaning the rubber pad that the key makes contact with. Let me know if anyones has more insight into what to use for cleaning or any tips.

  3. it freezes at random times. I am told that this is due to the CPU being loose and this was such a common issue that Roland made a bracket of sorts that clamped down on the CPU and keeps it tight. These brackets are apparently almost impossible to find now. A temporary fix, I was told, is to open it up and push the CPU tight against the socket until it inevitably comes loose again. Please let me know if anyone knows where to get one of these brackets or knows a better fix for this issue.

  4. The synth seems to be stuck in split key mode. I have been told that factory resetting the synth will probably fix this. However, I have zero experience with this. I was able to track down the factory patches from Roland. It is a MIDI file. I also found a sysex package with the factory patches. My question is, will just replacing the patches with the factory patches reset the synth entirely? This is what I want to do but I am unsure how to do it and whether these files I have are what is needed.

I was also told that I should buy the two replacement EPROM chips with the latest OS update. If I buy these, do I just swap the out and then power back on the synth? I emailed the shop selling these chips but they never got back to me. Sorry for the long post. I was excited to own this synth so I would love to get it running smoothly and make some music with it. Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

1 Like
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Hi, I’ve repaired 3 of these units with varying faults. To cover all 4 faults some significant dis-assembly is required

  1. To get to the button, remove the main motherboard and the corresponding switch panel underneath as well. The buttons are compressed between the switchboard and the chassis. They will require some double-sided tape. Personally, I’d probably replace the switches at the same type but this requires soldering.

  2. This requires cleaning the contacts on the rubber contact strip and the contacts on the keyboard PCB. Again if I remove the keyboard I’ll do all 61 keys at once - same myself trouble down the line.

  3. Remove the CPU, and use isopropanol to clean the contacts, it’s oxide on the contacts that’s causing this.

  4. The synth can be RESET completely (look on sweetwater.com site), be careful this isn’t a button switch that isn’t working - see point 1

Think the latest OS for D10 was 1.06, it’s not essential to replace these. However, if you really want to …