“Powers on, but gives a ‘check internal battery’ error. I’ve tried replacing the battery several times, but no success. It doesn’t retain any sounds in internal memory. Also, the 4 buttons (Upper/Lower/Value/Local) next to the X/Y joystick don’t work.
It is possible to load and play patches one at a time into RAM via SYSEX or MIDI and the Roland D-50 Librarian software on a PC (see picture 8), so the keyboard does work. All the keys work and respond to velocity, and the rest of the front panel functions, including the bender and after-touch.
It sounds lovely with a low noise floor and all outputs seem to be functioning correctly as well as MIDI in/out/thru. I haven’t tested it with a memory card as I don’t own any to test with.
I tried to fix the problems myself by replacing several capacitors, diodes and chips on the main board, having taken advice from an engineer, but to no avail. My soldering is not neat but the replaced components appear to work correctly.
The exterior of the keyboard has various scratches and scuffs, some of the keys have chips/marks, all consistent with age. (See pictures)
Given the above problems I am selling the keyboard strictly for SPARES OR REPAIR, although I recommend repair to be attempted only by a professional electronic musical equipment repair technician. I will not consider selling individual components separately. This auction is for the whole keyboard. No power cable included, but uses a standard IEC kettle lead. UK Voltage 220V-240V.” Click here to search for synths on eBay