If either Local DMX output stops, or the desk does not react to keys or touch screen

If you try to update the Motorola firmware and the desk stops at  “sending block 1”

• Periodic Service for some parts
  
  Battery : every 4 years
  Hard drive : every 3-5 years. If disk becomes noisy earlier, change it immediately (MOST IMPORTANT). If you replace the hard drive, don’t forget to change to the hard drive holder
  Encoder : When the encoder shaft becomes wobbly. Also look here
  Fader : When the fader signal begins to jitter at the 0% and 100% area

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• If either Local DMX output stops, or the desk does not react to keys or touch screen

You might have a problem with the power switch.
Check the system monitor for the following message :

If you see the line POWER ???? in between other messages and the desk is still switched on then apply the following hardware changes to the CPU Board:

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• If you try to update the Motorola firmware and the desk stops at
  “sending block 1”
  
  You have a contact problem on the FLASH Card, a bad flat ribbon cable between FLASH card and CPU board. or your power switch has a problem
  Clean the golden ISA contacts and/or change the flat ribbon cable or apply the power switch patch

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• How to tell which NIC is installed
  
  Watch the BIOS messages. A table of PCI devices appears. If the line “Network controller” appears, you have a 100Mbit card installed.If not you have either a 10Mbit card installed or you your 100Mbit card is faulty.

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• I try to run my brand new desk with software version lower than V5.65 and my desk does not boot up.
  
  Due to new hardware (AOpen andf DFI ATX board), older software versions are not able to  boot up the desk. They cannot recognize the new hardware.

Be aware that you need to update the recovery disk with the new version available on the MA web page.

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• My touch screen does not react to “touches” and the mouse arrow seems to be frozen in some corner of the display.
  
  You have either a contact problem with the touch screen connection or the touch screen itself is faulty (most likely some liquid).
  In the first case remove the heat shrink seal of the connector, clean the contacts and re-seal it. In the second case you can only replace the touch screen.

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• My desk reboots when I turn a encoder
  
  The encoder has transcended its lifetime and causes a short circuit between the 5V line and the encoder housing.Replace the encoder (to be sure always replace all encoders).

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• During boot-up I get a BIOS message “PXE… Error”
  
  Your 100Mbit Intel NIC has a problem. This message appears on grandMA FS, light and RPU rather than on ultra light. This problem is caused due to a corrupted Boot image on the NIC.
  You can try to boot up your desk to DOS and try to disable the boot agent with an Intel  software tool. Or you simply replace the NIC with a new one and send the faulty card to MA for further inspection/repair.

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• My grandMA micro is locked in a “boot loop”.
  
  In most cases the CF-card is faulty. Change the card.
  Sometimes this fault is also caused due to contact problems between the CPU Card and the I/O board. Remove the CPU Card and clean the contacts.

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• I boot up my desk and some displays remain dark.
  
  Check the fuse on the inverter PCB.

 If the fuse is blown replace it. MA Lighting provides fuses which can handle a higher inrush current.
Otherwise replace the inverter PCB.

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• My desk stops boot procedure during hard drive detection in BIOS or at IDE0 disk check while booting VXWORKS.
  
  You have a faulty hard drive. You can only replace the drive with a new one.

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• My desk crashes suddenly during operation.
  
  You might have dirty RAM contacts. Open the desk and boot ist up. Gently move the RAM device backward and forwards. If the desk crashes, simply clean the RAM contacs and you’ll be fine.

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• I have black or coloured vertical lines on my TFT display.
  
  This is a defect inside the TFT display itself which can only be repaired other by replacing the TFT itself.
  In most cases there are only a few line on the right side of the display. If the lines don’t expand over the whole display it is only a cosmetic annoyance. If they do expand you should replace the display.

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• When I change to another fader page, all motorised fader move with a different speed, some stop and the fader LED begins to flash.
  
  Over the time some dirt migrated inside the fader which slows it down. To remove the problem, replace the fader. Also change the series restistors R2-R21 for the motor driver chips from 10 to 1 Ohm.

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• After you’ve updated your software your desk hangs in a boot-loop.
  
  The bootrom.sys file on drive C: is fragmented. To solve the problem, boot up your desk with DOS and proceed with the recovery disk.

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• My desk suffered an over voltage connection. Which parts do I need to change?
  
  In most cases it’s just the PSU to change. The PSU itself cannot be repaired.

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Many thanks to Katrin and Qincy for this table

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• After boot up, TFT 1 and 2 have vertical lines the whole displays look kind of grainy

Your desk remained too long in BIOS, DOS or Recovery Menu screen. This is a kind of burn-in effect which will disappear after a certain time. The longer the the desk remained in these screens, the longer it will take the effect to disappear.

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• Which hard drive brand should I buy ?

MA Lighting recommends Fujitsu or Toshiba 2,5” hard drives.
Be aware that some desks don’t accept drives larger than 30GB or 40GB. Check Hardware changes grandMA for further informations.
grandMA full-size, light and replay unit need a FAT32 formatted drive. To format a grandMA ultra light hard drive ceck Formatting gMA ultra light hard drive

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• When I use the DMX-In Port on my desk the DMX signal jitters.

The DMX input jitter is caused by the DMX receiver chip.

Only Transceiver chips MAX1480BCPI are affected

A fast help is to change the following resistors on the CPU board :
grandMA full-size, light, replay unit : R24 from 220 to 470 Ohm (Pin15)
grandMA ultra light : R5 from 220 to 470 Ohm (Pin15 of receiver chip)

To remove this issue completely, the CPU board needs to be sent to MA Lighting for calibration

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• Will my grandMA boot up after I installed an empty but formatted hard drive?

Yes, if the operating system is still intact, it will create all the necessary folders and copy all the needed files to the hard drive automativally.
The only thing you need to copy by hand is the gobo library.

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• What do I have to keep in mind, when I want to build up the opearting system from scratch ?(empty Flash and hard drive)

When FLASH and hard drive are empty and you build up the operating system with the recovery disk, you need to create the folders “new_gma” and “temp” on the hard drive (drive D:)

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350 MHz up to :
gMA FS : 91-171
gMA light : 127
gMA RPU : 22

450MHz up to :
gMA FS : 414
gMA light : 220
gMA RPU : 27
 

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