Micro BR freezes on startup

[RGX]

Hi there

Been using a friends Micro BR for a few weeks now to record down song ideas for my band, and up untill today all was well.

This afternoon I turned on the unit to find the screen lights up, displays

BOSS
MICRO BR

...and thats it. It sits there doing nothing else except lowering the backlight after a while. On top of this, it wont power off without me ripping out the batteries. I've searched around and found a few other people with the same problem, but no solution. Please tell me there's some kind of factory reset or something I'm missing, the manual's crap and I've run out of options. Even if I have to wipe it to fix it, that's fine, but I need to do these recordings and I don't think my friend will be happy if I hand it back knackered.

Any ideas?

[Geir]

Have you tried taking out the sd card?

[Oldrottenhead]

might be worth trying a new sd card. i have had problems like that with a faulty card, when i used another card problem was sorted. in fact you might try reformatting the card if you have a card reader on your pc, back up data on the card 1st then reformat it and try it in mbr.


 pm 64guitars he should be able to advise.

[Sprocket]

Call Roland's tech support...they should be able to advise you.
Im really curious what they say, so please report back if you can.

[RGX]

It does exactly the same thing whether the SD card is in or out, I might be able to get hold of a different one later this evening and try that. I get the feeling its not even going as far as trying to read the card, but oh well.

Have sent Roland a support email, I wont be able to ring them untill tomorrow unfortunatley. I will def. post the response though.

Thanks for the quick responses so far, any other ideas?

[Oldrottenhead]

if you dont have a sd card reader on your pc, try connecting via usb, and reformatting the card that way.

[64Guitars]

On top of this, it wont power off without me ripping out the batteries.

Sounds like the Power switch might be stuck in the On position. If it's under warranty, you may need to send it in to Roland for repair. If it's out of warranty, you could try opening the case and having a look at the switch. Just be careful. I've never opened a Micro BR but I know that electronic gadgets tend to have little plastic clips in unexpected places which break off easily. Also, pay close attention to how you take it apart so that you can put it back together properly. It might help to take digital photos of it at each stage of disassembly. On the other hand, you might prefer to send it to Roland for repair even if it's not under warranty.


Not sure if it will help, but here's the factory reset procedure:

       Power on while holding UTILITY. Press YES twice.

Of course, that probably won't work either if the Power switch is stuck.

[Sprocket]

On top of this, it wont power off without me ripping out the batteries.

Sounds like the Power switch might be stuck in the On position. If it's under warranty, you may need to send it in to Roland for repair. If it's out of warranty, you could try opening the case and having a look at the switch. Just be careful. I've never opened a Micro BR but I know that electronic gadgets tend to have little plastic clips in unexpected places which break off easily. Also, pay close attention to how you take it apart so that you can put it back together properly. It might help to take digital photos of it at each stage of disassembly. On the other hand, you might prefer to send it to Roland for repair even if it's not under warranty.


Not sure if it will help, but here's the factory reset procedure:

       Power on while holding UTILITY. Press YES twice.

Of course, that probably won't work either if the Power switch is stuck.

I would HIGHLY recommend the FACTORY RESET first!

And secondly, 68, Ive read a couple of your posts that suggest taking the Micro BR apart. I would strongly urge you to stop recommending that and instead suggest they goto Roland for support. As I had an out of warranty unit replaced free of charge, no questions asked...Im not even the original purchaser, I even told the service rep that, I was willing to pay to have mine serviced.
If its broke you wont likely be able to fix it(micro technology), hell, Roland probably wont even be able to fix it...leave it alone and call Roland teck support...its always obvious when something has been tampered with, which is surely a deal breaker.

I probably wouldnt be enjoying all the fun with the rest of you if it werent for Roland tech support.

[64Guitars]

And secondly, 68, Ive read a couple of your posts that suggest taking the Micro BR apart. I would strongly urge you to stop recommending that and instead suggest they goto Roland for support.

I usually only suggest taking a BR apart if it's out of warranty, the owner doesn't want to pay for expensive repair work, and the repair is potentially simple (broken switch, connector, etc). And I usually add a caution that users who aren't handy with this sort of thing should send it to Roland instead. But paying for repair work can be quite expensive. With an inexpensive unit like the Micro BR, it might be more practical to buy a new one. And some users might not want to be without their BR for several weeks while Roland repairs it if the problem is something simple that they can fix themselves.

As I had an out of warranty unit replaced free of charge, no questions asked...Im not even the original purchaser, I even told the service rep that, I was willing to pay to have mine serviced.

I think you got lucky. I very much doubt that Roland does all repairs for free! Still, there's no harm in calling Roland Customer Service and asking for the repair cost. If they say it's free, that's great! But I don't think it should be expected if the unit's out of warranty.

I have nothing against Roland's service department. If a user is prepared to pay a potentially high repair bill, then having Roland do the repair is probably the best bet. But if you tell people that Roland will replace their out-of-warranty recorder for free and they get a big bill instead, they won't thank you.

Also, this community is international and Roland's policies and procedures may be quite different in other countries.

[RGX]

Well, you're not going to believe this but...

I tried everything I could think of yesterday, swapped SD cards, tried the factory reset (you were right 64, it was worth a shot but didn't respond) hunted around for an SD card reader, found one, couldn't get the drivers to work with the 3 computers I tried it on, and eventually resigned myself to going through my songs by memory and writing the individual parts down so I could at least present them to the band today and play them live. I left it on for hours at a time, swapped batteries, reset it maybe hundreds of times, just trying to get some kind of response out of it.

Then I went to the pub and got drunk.

This morning, as I was packing up my gear to head to the studio, I idly pressed the power button...and the ******* works again.

My conclusion: Beer fixes BOSS products.