Hi guys - sorry, I haven't posted in a little while - family stuff.

Well my S900 is now about five months old and it has developed a fault for the second time.

About two months ago it developed a crackle and the screen was flickering. I took it back to the retailer who sent it on to Yamaha for repair and they fitted a new screen.

Yesterday the same thing happened again - flickering screen and crackling.

Luckilly I have a good relationship with the local retailer and they immediately gave me a new one and said that they would sort it out with Yamaha.

This is fine whilst the unit is in warranty, but I am a little worried that there is a pattern developing here and I will be left with a problem when the warranty expires.

Most of my gear in the past has been Roland and Korg, this is my first Yam unit - have I just been unlucky, or can I expect more problems - your experiences appreciated. The guy at the retailer maintains that Yam gear is reliable - am I being paranoid over a little bad luck?



I hope you dont mind Spike, but since my local retailer was so gracious and gave me a new unit without question I would like to place a link to them (I'm not affilliated to them, just grateful)
Swansea Music Station

Hi Simon
No problem with the link.
Yamaha are normally quite reliable although recent models have had more than their fair share of faults. I've heard of this fault on the S900 before, if the first repair to the screen went belly up then this suggests that the fault originated elsewhere but manifested itself in the screen. Hopefully by replacing the keyboard the problem will be solved. I personally think Yamaha (and many other companies) bring out their products too soon, there seems to be a rush to get them into the market place before sufficient testing is carried out. This is why I would never buy a new model on the day they came out, I always wait a year which brings the price down too. I think maybe you got a 'Friday' model first time, but I understand your concern as the model has been out a couple of years now - you'd have thought they'd have fixed all the glitches by now
Regards
Spike

Similar problem here. A couple of years ago I bought one of the first S900 keyboards on the market and it worked great, until (after the warranty expired) the display started showing the right side repeated 5 times, in an overlapping and unreadable mode. In other words, I cannot read the right side of the screen for a good 1 inch, starting from the right edge of the screen, any longer. Therefore, there is no way I can correlate the buttons at the right side of the display with its functions that are normally shown on the display.

Since I needed to use the keyboard for my music production and I could not afford to stop for a week or so, I quickly found a workaround and I connected the video output of the keyboard to a 14"inch CRT TV that I had in the garage. Unfortunately I consider this just as a temporary workaround, because it's a bit cumbersome for me. For one thing my old 14" TV does not display a complete picture (not well adjusted by the manufacturer), so I am still missing some info on the bottom of the screen. Also, it is not very straightforward to correlate the buttons at the right side of the keyboard display with the image I see on a different display (my TV), at a different location.

I have owned several Yamaha keyboards (low and high end) and it looks like my high end ones appear to be more prone to problems than the low end ones. While I don't know if this a trend or a coincidence, I'd like to say that it is very disappointing for a customer to experience problems on the most expensive gear and makes me think twice before I buy another Yamaha product again.

After reading the previous postings, now I am afraid that even if I replace the display the problem may occur again and, considering the warranty has expired, it may become a costly proposition. If, as Spike says, Yamaha appears to ship new units before they are thoroughly tested and burned in, I would like to see a better commitment from Yamaha in terms of a longer warranty period (2 years?). I hope Yamaha folks read this postings and do something about its gear and its costumers, because the latter may become alienated and move to different and more reliable brands!

GC

I think it was Roland who started this whole softare mlarky. I had a Roland G800 - solid as a rock, worked out of the box. THEN CAME G1000. It had more software bugs than you could shake a stick at. Eventually I, and Roland gave up, and I sent it back.
Since then I have always been cautious when buying as an early adopter - patience is a virtue, so they say!
My Yammy T1 had a duff screen, as did my T2 - and now T3 seems ok - fingers crossed.

Playing violin seems a much more easier way of life don't you think!

I understand that there is a little known EU regulation which dictates that all newly manufactured goods carry a 2 year manufacturers guarantee (some stores do not know this - others do know but don't admit it) your contract to buy is with the store not the manufacturer. There are instances when TVs have broken down within the 2 years and have been replaced because the purchaser insisted on this rule. You can actually take an article back within 6 years if you can prove the fault was in it when purchased.
It was in the Daily Mail last week so it must be true
Cheers
Spike