coniglius
Well-known member
This is a revised version of a thread I started on GS. I got some helpful suggestions from a couple of users there, but no progress so far.
I recently acquired an H3000B with the common issue of freezing upon bootup. I see that most people have had luck by simply cleaning or reseating ICs and/or replacing the battery backed RAM and doing a restore. I've read as much info as I could find on the Eventide pages and the forums and nothing has worked for me. I've got nothing left. Keep in mind when you read this that I've never actually used one of these before, so don't take for granted that I've done anything that's "standard" operating procedure apart from pushing buttons. Here's a description of the issue:
Unit powers up. Now either the screen will freeze on "** THE H3000 ULTRA-HARMONIZER V2.17 **" or it will boot up to the 100 DIATONIC PITCH SHIFT setting and freeze there. There's not really any way to predict which it's going to do, but usually if the unit has been left off for a few minutes and turned back on, it will make it to the preset display before it freezes. What I mean by "freeze" is that none of the controls will respond. Nor does it process audio. Nor does it respond to midi program changes. However, when you run audio through it, the meters will light up accordingly, but will behave inconsistently (powered on one time they'll behave "normally", then the next time they'll be peaking, then next time they'll be very low, and sometimes they don't do anything; all with the same audio source and input level). If I power on with the FUNCTION button held, it will ask to Remove all presets and reset the OS as normal. The "Yes" and "No" buttons will respond, the unit will proceed through the reset procedure and then freeze afterwards; sometimes it will make it to the preset menu afterwards, sometimes it will just freeze on the splash screen. Sometimes when you press Yes or No to the "Remove all presets?" prompt, it will display the Reset the OS prompt but, pass through it without giving you time to make a selection, and then freeze. Now I've also found out that if you hold down any of the soft keys or other buttons upon power up, it will actually enter into those menus before freezing. For instance, if I hold down the LEVELS button upon power up, it will enter the LEVELS menu before freezing, or if I hold the soft button corresponding to the (l voice) on the DIATONIC SHIFT setting it will enter that menu, etc. Holding the LINE button will produce a weird Matrix-like cascade animation of random characters on the screen. Then it will stop responding in all cases. However, the jog wheel and white numeric button pad have never produced any response.
I've tried the following things (all with proceeding Remove/Resets where applicable), none of which yielded any different results whatsoever:
1) Normal hold function and Remove all preset, reset Operating System procedure. All 4 combinations of "Yes" and "No".
3) replaced the original battery backed RAM with a Maxim DS1225AB-150+ (Mouser part # 700-DS1225AB-150) and did a restore. *** Is it possible I got a bad IC from Mouser? ***
3) completely swapped out all the B EPROMs for the D/SE CONKIT EPROMS.
4) tried every combination of B or D/SE OS EPROMs with B and D/SE presets and algorithm EPROMS in all available sockets, including either OS EPROM only with no presets chip. In that case it would bootup and naturally display "No Programs"
5) swapped out the 8464A-10L chip below the RAM.
6) removed, de-oxited, and reseated all socketed ICs (and sockets)
7) removed, deoxit, reseat the ribbon connector
8 ) removed molex power connector and soldered it directly to the board upon suggestion of GS members
9) removed, deoxit, reseated the tape control board, and also tried starting up the unit with the board completely disconnected.
10) re-heated all power supply solder joints
11) Replaced filter caps: 2x 3300uF 25V, 4x 6800uF 16V
12) tried to see if it would respond to midi program changes
13) changed the value of the resistor associated with the optical wheel as described on the Eventide page.
I've also recently acquired the service manual thanks to the thread here, but the only tests that remain point to the voltage regulator "LT1084" or rectifier bridge "BR805D" so I figured I may as well just replace them (haven't done that yet). I've asked about where to get these, in particular the LT1084, but the currently available version I've been pointed to does not physically match the ones on the H3000; it's mounted and heat sinked on the outside of the chassis. The one on the H3000 is the "oblong flying saucer" looking type whereas the ones available on digikey etc are the "3-legged probe droid" looking type. There's also a "self diagnostic" EPROM mentioned in the service manual that's available from Eventide. Does anyone have one of these by any chance?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is my only H3000 right now and if I can't get it working then I plan on getting another one eventually. Of course there's taking it to a professional, but if I can't get it diagnosed for a minimal fee (to see if it can even be repaired) then it's not going to be worth it. This was a gamble; I got it for what would have been a great price for a unit that could have been fixed with the RAM and/or EPROM swap (I already had a D/SE CONKIT), but it's also not in the greatest cosmetic condition so it would definitely not be worth putting more than say $200 into all told. However, I know there are people like Jim Williams who perform upgrades to these units. If I could leverage some repair time off of the upgrade benchtime then that would definitely be worth my while and worth me spending more than said $200 on. If I can't get this working on my own, then hopefully this post will at least serve as a non-success story warning to would-be H3000 DIY-ers.
Thanks in advance.
I recently acquired an H3000B with the common issue of freezing upon bootup. I see that most people have had luck by simply cleaning or reseating ICs and/or replacing the battery backed RAM and doing a restore. I've read as much info as I could find on the Eventide pages and the forums and nothing has worked for me. I've got nothing left. Keep in mind when you read this that I've never actually used one of these before, so don't take for granted that I've done anything that's "standard" operating procedure apart from pushing buttons. Here's a description of the issue:
Unit powers up. Now either the screen will freeze on "** THE H3000 ULTRA-HARMONIZER V2.17 **" or it will boot up to the 100 DIATONIC PITCH SHIFT setting and freeze there. There's not really any way to predict which it's going to do, but usually if the unit has been left off for a few minutes and turned back on, it will make it to the preset display before it freezes. What I mean by "freeze" is that none of the controls will respond. Nor does it process audio. Nor does it respond to midi program changes. However, when you run audio through it, the meters will light up accordingly, but will behave inconsistently (powered on one time they'll behave "normally", then the next time they'll be peaking, then next time they'll be very low, and sometimes they don't do anything; all with the same audio source and input level). If I power on with the FUNCTION button held, it will ask to Remove all presets and reset the OS as normal. The "Yes" and "No" buttons will respond, the unit will proceed through the reset procedure and then freeze afterwards; sometimes it will make it to the preset menu afterwards, sometimes it will just freeze on the splash screen. Sometimes when you press Yes or No to the "Remove all presets?" prompt, it will display the Reset the OS prompt but, pass through it without giving you time to make a selection, and then freeze. Now I've also found out that if you hold down any of the soft keys or other buttons upon power up, it will actually enter into those menus before freezing. For instance, if I hold down the LEVELS button upon power up, it will enter the LEVELS menu before freezing, or if I hold the soft button corresponding to the (l voice) on the DIATONIC SHIFT setting it will enter that menu, etc. Holding the LINE button will produce a weird Matrix-like cascade animation of random characters on the screen. Then it will stop responding in all cases. However, the jog wheel and white numeric button pad have never produced any response.
I've tried the following things (all with proceeding Remove/Resets where applicable), none of which yielded any different results whatsoever:
1) Normal hold function and Remove all preset, reset Operating System procedure. All 4 combinations of "Yes" and "No".
3) replaced the original battery backed RAM with a Maxim DS1225AB-150+ (Mouser part # 700-DS1225AB-150) and did a restore. *** Is it possible I got a bad IC from Mouser? ***
3) completely swapped out all the B EPROMs for the D/SE CONKIT EPROMS.
4) tried every combination of B or D/SE OS EPROMs with B and D/SE presets and algorithm EPROMS in all available sockets, including either OS EPROM only with no presets chip. In that case it would bootup and naturally display "No Programs"
5) swapped out the 8464A-10L chip below the RAM.
6) removed, de-oxited, and reseated all socketed ICs (and sockets)
7) removed, deoxit, reseat the ribbon connector
8 ) removed molex power connector and soldered it directly to the board upon suggestion of GS members
9) removed, deoxit, reseated the tape control board, and also tried starting up the unit with the board completely disconnected.
10) re-heated all power supply solder joints
11) Replaced filter caps: 2x 3300uF 25V, 4x 6800uF 16V
12) tried to see if it would respond to midi program changes
13) changed the value of the resistor associated with the optical wheel as described on the Eventide page.
I've also recently acquired the service manual thanks to the thread here, but the only tests that remain point to the voltage regulator "LT1084" or rectifier bridge "BR805D" so I figured I may as well just replace them (haven't done that yet). I've asked about where to get these, in particular the LT1084, but the currently available version I've been pointed to does not physically match the ones on the H3000; it's mounted and heat sinked on the outside of the chassis. The one on the H3000 is the "oblong flying saucer" looking type whereas the ones available on digikey etc are the "3-legged probe droid" looking type. There's also a "self diagnostic" EPROM mentioned in the service manual that's available from Eventide. Does anyone have one of these by any chance?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is my only H3000 right now and if I can't get it working then I plan on getting another one eventually. Of course there's taking it to a professional, but if I can't get it diagnosed for a minimal fee (to see if it can even be repaired) then it's not going to be worth it. This was a gamble; I got it for what would have been a great price for a unit that could have been fixed with the RAM and/or EPROM swap (I already had a D/SE CONKIT), but it's also not in the greatest cosmetic condition so it would definitely not be worth putting more than say $200 into all told. However, I know there are people like Jim Williams who perform upgrades to these units. If I could leverage some repair time off of the upgrade benchtime then that would definitely be worth my while and worth me spending more than said $200 on. If I can't get this working on my own, then hopefully this post will at least serve as a non-success story warning to would-be H3000 DIY-ers.
Thanks in advance.
