Korg MS2000 Bricked by Firmware Update
March 16, 2010 – 7:23 pm by John Keston
ACB readers are sure to be aware from previous posts that my Korg MS2000 is one of my favorite and most indispensable synths. Embarrassingly I seem to have turned it into a drink stand during a firmware update. I used the firmware upgrade utility on korg.com to attempt the update. The process failed part way through and now my beloved instrument is a brick, well more like a cement block, that shows a blank back-lit display after turning it on. I’ve tried resending the update at all the available speeds that the utility allows with no impact on the results. I also tried a factory reset to no avail. I’m going to try again tomorrow with a different MIDI interface, but I’m afraid that this isn’t going to be an easy fix. I’ve searched the forums for a solution, but haven’t found anything. If anyone has any suggestion, please let me know. I’m desperate to get this thing up and running again.
8 Responses to “Korg MS2000 Bricked by Firmware Update”
Well, I don’t know much specifically about the MS2000, but if it’s like any other embedded device there should be two components, the bootloader (probably on some kind of ROM) and the OS (probably in some kind of Flash memory). That bootloader serves exactly one purpose, loading the OS, and it is probably just fine (unless of course this FW update modifies the bootloader as well…in which case this can get tougher).
It can be done. At the factory they have to have a way of getting that bootloader and OS into the various embedded devices, the trick is going to be figuring out how to replicate that where you are. I’ll poke around a bit and see if I can figure out what’s inside that thing. What I’ve done in the past is create a cable, usually some kind of JTAG, that you can connect up to the chip to program it. You may have to get some info from Korg though…as there are typically override jumpers and pins that need to be enabled before you can do this…
By Grant Muller on Mar 17, 2010
Thanks, Grant. I’m gonna give it another shot with my MIDISport 4×4 interface. For some reason I want to blame my M-Audio Firewire 410.
UPDATE: I think I have found a solution, but will have to wait to try it until this evening (or perhaps tomorrow depending on St. Patrick’s Day festivities). Apprently there’s a 10 entry limit for MIDI devices in the Windows XP registry. It’s likely that I’ve exceeded that on the old laptop that I dug up to do the update. The fix is to remove the unused registry keys then reapply the firmware update. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Here’s the thread:
http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=41588
Article from Cakewalk on the Windows registry problem:
http://www.cakewalk.com/support/kb/reader.aspx?ID=20090210
Utility from M-Audio that automatically fixes the registry:
http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.drivers&k=driver&s=8&o=%20Windows+XP&f=84
By John Keston on Mar 17, 2010
might be simpler than that what app are you uploading the .syx files with ? i hade issues updating my evovler and ended up being solved using midi-ox(pc and free) hope it helps.
By trainspotter on Mar 17, 2010
http://www.midiox.com/?http://www.midiox.com/moxdown.htm
By trainspotter on Mar 17, 2010
Ooooooh! Sorry John I thought you were doing this with a Mac! I’m actually well aware of that shortcoming with Windows XP…I would have pointed that out.
Let us know if that actually works.
BTW, MIDI-OX, the tool trainspotter mentioned is invaluable for tracing MIDI problems on Windows. If you’re still having trouble you might capture a log with that and post it up here.
By Grant Muller on Mar 18, 2010
Thanks Grant and Trainspotter. I have brought it back to life. Seems I was a victim of the 10 MIDI entry limit in XP. Odd thing is that manually deleting the entries in the registry then applying the update with my M-Audio FireWire 410 didn’t work. However when I used the utility to clear the entries and swapped the 410 with a Midisport 4×4 it did. I think there’s got to be a bug in the MIDI support for the 410. I have had midi sync problems with it too.
By John Keston on Mar 20, 2010
What utility did you use to clear the registry?
By GB on Mar 25, 2010
Utility from M-Audio that automatically fixes the registry:
http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.drivers&k=driver&s=8&o=%20Windows+XP&f=84
By John Keston on Mar 25, 2010