[KL] Is my K2VX a boat anchor?

[[e-mail] [KurzList]]

Hey All,


Sorry, been lurking here for a long time, unable to post because of Yahoo BS, but anyway...


I have seen many threads about the Kurzweil BSOD and I am not sure if that means my K2VX is beyond saving. Here is what happened.


For years, I experienced boot up issues, where my screen display got weaker and weaker, until it no longer displayed anything. So with no on screen visual, there was no way to really use the machine. It sat there waiting for me to gather the money to have it fixed.


Its now been years since it last powered up. I have no idea whether it can actually be fixed or where I could have it fixed. Do I need to send it to Kurz? Can a local guy do it? Thoughts?


I hate to think that this machine I paid $2K+ for is now a boat anchor. Or a piece of wall art. Any thoughts?


Oh, more bad news. When I finally realized that there were batteries inside the board and I went to remove them it was too late. They blew acid inside the battery compartment. Even more fun.


Any thoughts folks? All help appreciated.


Gene

[[e-mail] [KurzList]]

The Blue Screen Of Death is a K2500 issue, 99% of the time on keyboard versions only, that results in the flash memory being erased. K2000 does not have flash ram.

The LCD back light in the K2000 is 1980 technology. It gets weak over time. It can be replaced with newer designs that use LEDs or the original display can have it's backlight replaced.


The default (zeroing) of contrast is adjustable internally. It is affected greatly by the 5V Digital voltage regulator's setting. The 5V Digital voltage will changes slightly when the K2000 gets hot, causing the contrast to change. This is normal. Proper calibration of contrast adjustments, both hardware and software can make this less annoying.


The software value for contrast is stored in the battery backed memory and will default to "0" if batteries fail or you do a hard reset. If the hardware "zero" is incorrect or the 5V digital is wrong, the screen can be difficult to read. .


Holding ENTER button down while rotating the spin knob will change contrast temporally so you can navigate the Master menu to change the software contrast setting. This does not fix a wrong calibration of the hardware default setting.


To calibrate, you set the 5V digital to 5Volts first, then in the master menu you set the contrast to zero, then you adjust the default contrast pot on the audio board so than the contrast LOOKS nice and balanced.


Very early versions (Calvin and Hobbs) had no hardware default adjustments for contrast. So we slight adjusted the 5V digital, up or down, sometimes as little as hundredth of a volt, to correct those early unit form 1991 and 1992.with out of range contrast. Ideally, zero in software should be half way between dark and light.

[werner schoenenberger [e-mail] [KurzList]]

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The Blue Screen Of Death is a K2500 issue, 99% of the time on keyboard versions only, that results in the flash memory being erased.  K2000 does not have flash ram.
The LCD back light in the K2000 is 1980 technology.  It gets weak over time.  It can be replaced with newer designs that use LEDs or the original display can have it's backlight replaced.    
The default (zeroing) of contrast is adjustable internally.  It is affected greatly by the 5V Digital voltage regulator's setting.   The 5V Digital voltage will changes slightly when the K2000 gets hot, causing the contrast to change.  This is normal.  Proper calibration of contrast adjustments, both hardware and software can make this less annoying.  
The software value for contrast is stored in the battery backed memory and will default to "0" if batteries fail or you do a hard reset.  If the hardware "zero" is incorrect or the 5V digital is wrong, the screen can be difficult to read.    .
Holding ENTER button down while rotating the spin knob will change contrast temporally so you can navigate the Master menu to change the software contrast setting.  This does not fix a wrong calibration of the hardware default setting. 
To calibrate, you set the 5V digital to 5Volts first, then in the master menu you set the contrast to zero, then you adjust the default contrast pot on the audio board so than the contrast LOOKS nice and balanced.     
Very early versions (Calvin and Hobbs) had no hardware default adjustments for contrast.  So we slight adjusted the 5V digital, up or down, sometimes as little as hundredth of a volt, to correct those early unit form 1991 and 1992.with out of range contrast.  Ideally, zero in software should be half way between dark and light.      

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Jon Hartmann [e-mail] [KurzList]]

take it to a local pro for an estimate.

On Thursday, February 1, 2018 12:13 PM, "werner schoenenberger ***@yahoo.com [KurzList]" <***@yahoogroups.com> wrote:


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The Blue Screen Of Death is a K2500 issue, 99% of the time on keyboard versions only, that results in the flash memory being erased.  K2000 does not have flash ram.
The LCD back light in the K2000 is 1980 technology.  It gets weak over time.  It can be replaced with newer designs that use LEDs or the original display can have it's backlight replaced.    
The default (zeroing) of contrast is adjustable internally.  It is affected greatly by the 5V Digital voltage regulator's setting.   The 5V Digital voltage will changes slightly when the K2000 gets hot, causing the contrast to change.  This is normal.  Proper calibration of contrast adjustments, both hardware and software can make this less annoying.  
The software value for contrast is stored in the battery backed memory and will default to "0" if batteries fail or you do a hard reset..  If the hardware "zero" is incorrect or the 5V digital is wrong, the screen can be difficult to read.    .
Holding ENTER button down while rotating the spin knob will change contrast temporally so you can navigate the Master menu to change the software contrast setting.  This does not fix a wrong calibration of the hardware default setting. 
To calibrate, you set the 5V digital to 5Volts first, then in the master menu you set the contrast to zero, then you adjust the default contrast pot on the audio board so than the contrast LOOKS nice and balanced.     
Very early versions (Calvin and Hobbs) had no hardware default adjustments for contrast.  So we slight adjusted the 5V digital, up or down, sometimes as little as hundredth of a volt, to correct those early unit form 1991 and 1992.with out of range contrast.  Ideally, zero in software should be half way between dark and light.      

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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[Gordonjcp [e-mail] [KurzList]]

Post by ***@yahoo.com [KurzList]
For years, I experienced boot up issues, where my screen display got weaker and weaker, until it no longer displayed anything. So with no on screen visual, there was no way to really use the machine. It sat there waiting for me to gather the money to have it fixed.

I changed the EL panel on mine and it's nice and bright now. Have you
tried adjusting the contrast? It may be that the 5V supply from the
(old-fashioned, linear) PSU has wandered off a bit. For some reason the
display the K2000 uses is *incredibly* sensitive to this.