emusonacid!

My fully loaded e6400 ULTRA just bit the dust last night.
When I power it up, only the fan turns on in the back, no lights whatsoever.
I made a call to eprelectronics.com today and the gentleman on the phone was very helpful (cant remember his name).
So I thought I would pass along a few things.

1. EPR are OUT of the larger 65w PSUs -- they are currently looking for another source.
2. you can identify the 65w PSUs by checking to see if there are TWO heatsinks in it. *EDIT: THIS INFO IS INCORRECT*

I have an e6400 classic sitting around, and EPR explained that the power supplies are compatible between the classic and the ultra.
Tonight I will be swapping them out to try and fix this puppy.
I'll post back with my results.
I'm not sure if I will ditch my rfx card to keep the ultra running longer or not.

Thanks for this forum BTW.
You folks made it possible for me to go to sleep last night.

OK, I've got a question for the more technically minded (and skilled) folks on the board...

What causes a power supply to "burn out"? Is it inevitable, or are there steps we could take to minimize the risk?

loopcycle wrote:2. you can identify the 65w PSUs by checking to see if there are TWO heatsinks in it.

ive just discovered this information is incorrect.
my psu is a powdec pte43-31 43w psu and it does have two heatsinks attached to two voltage regulators.

hey loopcycle, im in the same boat as you in that i need a new power supply for my poor emu ultra
i called EPR yesterday too and the guy said that someone else had just called about EMU Ultras power supplys right before me....maybe that was you....anyways theres someone selling a bunch of the powdec pte43-31s on ebay for like $7.99US....im gonna buy a few to tide me over til i can get track down one of the 65 Watt power supplys.

vermis_rex wrote:OK, I've got a question for the more technically minded (and skilled) folks on the board...

What causes a power supply to "burn out"? Is it inevitable, or are there steps we could take to minimize the risk?

The lower spec power supplies are prone to failure when options are added, such as a hard drive or RFX.

thanks for the tip on the ebay seller GOOWIE!
my e6400 is loaded with the RFX, 8 output and ADAT expansions and HD.
the e6400 was purchased new by its previous owner.
the sampler ran fine with the 43W PSU until now (i am ASSUMING it is the PSU) -- so that would be about 7 years or so.

i can DIY a triple power supply but it probably would not sit inside the case.
i dont know if im willing to use an external powersupply.

the other option is to sell the RFX and expansions and be happy with a basic sampler.

art wrote:

vermis_rex wrote:OK, I've got a question for the more technically minded (and skilled) folks on the board...

What causes a power supply to "burn out"? Is it inevitable, or are there steps we could take to minimize the risk?

The lower spec power supplies are prone to failure when options are added, such as a hard drive or RFX.

Ah... so the risk is directly proportional to the amount of power being drawn through the PSU (more power = more heat in the PSU = greater risk of burn out).

So the next question would be... is there a PSU with a higher maximum power threshold that would still fit in the e6400 Ultra cases? Or would changing the fan mitigate some of the risk?

Oh, heck... let's just re-engineer the whole damn unit (tee hee hee... momentary insanity prevails)

vermis_rex wrote:Ah... so the risk is directly proportional to the amount of power being drawn through the PSU (more power = more heat in the PSU = greater risk of burn out).

So the next question would be... is there a PSU with a higher maximum power threshold that would still fit in the e6400 Ultra cases? Or would changing the fan mitigate some of the risk?

there WAS a larger-capacity PSU that emu began installing in post-september 2001 e6400 ultras (powdec PTH65301). it is no longer made by powdec. the hope is to find some stock sitting around somewhere, or to find an equivalent PSU that will fit inside the case. EPR is still trying to source a larger PSU.

search the forums here for PSU, you will find a lot of info.

update: replaced the 43W psu with the same and everything starts up fine now...except for the HD. im afraid it may have been damaged when the psu died.

one of the large capacitors on the dead psu looks bloated.

unplugging and reconnecting the hd solved the problem.
i plugged in the rfx card and it is identified on boot.
looks like everything is ok.



however...i know i cant run the rfx card, options, and hd on this 43w psu forever.
...will probably sell rfx32, adat and 8 output expanders.

Glad to hear you've got power back (and without blowing the place up, which is always good). One of these days I'll have to haul my e6400-Ultra (and the e6400 classic) out of my rack and open them up to examine/identify the power supplies. Neither system has any of the options, so I'm currently at less risk of burnout, but better to know what they are now then after they catch fire (obvious exaggeration... well, I hope it's an exaggeration )

I have a question about the RFX-32 card... How would you rate it's usefullness? I've heard some opinions that it's nothing special, others that it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

And what about the EOS version? I thought I had it pretty much figured out, that the RFX worked a charm in 4.62 but started to vomit noise and slewing the pan around in 4.7... but just this week I've heard people say they have no problems at all with the RFX under 4.71... which is another thing: is the latest version the 4.7 beta or is there a newer 4.71... the version I'm running now identifies itself as 4.70

OK, so the RFX questions are slightly off topic for this thread... it just happened to catch my attention and spark a thought...

And as long as I'm straying slightly from the subject... Apart from the power supply, does anybody know if there are other components of the Ultra systems that were changed later in the production run?

I am running a emu e6400 ultra, with rfx expantion, and the latest 4.7beta from the emu page. And it works for me. I havent camed across the outburst yet. The panningproblem is said to be an multiversion bug.

I am not using the rfx card very hard. But i must say that card impress me quiet much so fare. And it got heaps of capacity.

But it might me the reverbs that gives the outburst?? anyway.. i haven't heard it yet.

hey,
i just saw the topic today, and its been very helphful,
because my e500 ultra is havin some trouble just now,
and i'd like to fix them....
so here is my config:

-e5000 ultra
-RFX 32
-8 analog outs/4 analog ins option
-80 Gig IDE HD

so here is the problem:

My EMU been crashing from now and then for over a year now but
and now its got some serious problems booting up at all.

disconnecting the HD and/or the RFX seems to solve the problem,
so i guessed that my PSU was either damaged or not powerful enough...

still i can't really figure out the exact model of my PSU,
could someone explain where i can see that?

i really like the RFX 32, but above everything i can't work without its optional outputs, so i cant just sell the option card and forget about it.

any help much appreciated.

this forum is been here for years and is definitely the best EMU troubleshooting resource.

best regards.

drsdncodex wrote:hey,
i just saw the topic today, and its been very helphful,
because my e500 ultra is havin some trouble just now,
and i'd like to fix them....
so here is my config:

-e5000 ultra
-RFX 32
-8 analog outs/4 analog ins option
-80 Gig IDE HD

so here is the problem:

My EMU been crashing from now and then for over a year now but
and now its got some serious problems booting up at all.

disconnecting the HD and/or the RFX seems to solve the problem,
so i guessed that my PSU was either damaged or not powerful enough...

still i can't really figure out the exact model of my PSU,
could someone explain where i can see that?

i really like the RFX 32, but above everything i can't work without its optional outputs, so i cant just sell the option card and forget about it.

any help much appreciated.

this forum is been here for years and is definitely the best EMU troubleshooting resource.

best regards.

Have you tried removing the hard drive only? An 80gb hard drive is too big for the power supply to handle. Any 7200rpm drive, or any drive with more than 2 platters is going to draw more than the max 1.7 amps rating recommended by E-MU. Consider a single platter 5400rpm drive, or a laptop drive.

ye man,
already tried that...
it just doesnt handle anything anymore.
it 'sometimes' boots up with the RFX, but thats it.
any other ideas?