A few weeks ago, at a gig, after 10-15 minutes of playing, when changing betwin sounds, the keybord stopped working (I was playing notes, but no sound came out-the connection between the mixer and the keyboard was fine). I did a couple of slides, up and down the keys, it worked, I could hear every note, but when I immediatly played a chord, no sound. I swiched it off and on, no sound.
I went to the local yamaha service, after 15 min of normal playing, it did almost the same thing: this time all the C notes and F sharp notes accross the keybord were not working(the other keys worked propperly this time), although it was more like a fading of the sound...when pressed reptedly, the same key sounded softer, or louder, or not at all; some notes had sustain on for 3-4 seconds(with no sustain aid form the pedal, or sound settings).
I was told it was a matter of contact strip replacement(all 76 of them), and that yamaha does not have on stock the specific contacts, and that they stopped making them for the XS series.
A second opinion(not yamaha staff) was that it’s a proccesor issue, and that the main processor would have to be replaced. Again, I was told that it was a job that only yamaha services can do.
Are any of these observations valid? is it the contacts? is it the processor? is it something else?
Thank you in advance

If you have problems with the same keys in every octave, it points to the processor that scans the keys.

Either way, just take it to an authorized Yamaha service center.

Welcome to the forum.

The FSX keybeds used in the XS are also used in the XF, and therefore the contact strips should be available. However, based on the intermittent nature of the problem, and that different keys are affected at various times, it’s unlikely that the key contacts are the major issue, if at all.

Problems such as you’ve described often are due to bad connections. That can be caused by corrosion at the cables that connect the key contact boards to each other and the key matrix processor, or corrosion of foil traces or vias on the contact boards themselves. Those issues tend to occur more frequently in areas of high humidity and/or “salt air”, such as close proximity to a sea or salt mine.

The C and F# keys all share the MK15 and MK25 lines to the key matrix processor. While that could indicate a processor problem, bad connections due to corrosion is more common. If you’re lucky, cleaning of the keybed cable interconnections will resolve the problems.

Thank you for your fast reply

Today I linked the XS to a small controller via midi. Where the motif had the same bug with the keys(this time it was a E flat), the midi controller had none. Would this rule out the processor issues?

Is it possible I can get a service manual for the Xs series? I tried asking at our local yamaha service, but they could not help

nitugeorgian@gmail.com - 23 May 2016 01:04 PM

Thank you for your fast reply

Today I linked the XS to a small controller via midi. Where the motif had the same bug with the keys(this time it was a E flat), the midi controller had none. Would this rule out the processor issues?

That would not rule out the key processor. MIDI note-on/note-off/velocity messages from an external controller entirely bypass the built-in key processing of the XS.

nitugeorgian@gmail.com - 23 May 2016 01:09 PM

Is it possible I can get a service manual for the Xs series? I tried asking at our local yamaha service, but they could not help

Click here.

I experienced the same problem, but I decided to reset to manufacturing settings couple of times (ofcourse i lost all my edits :( ). But it solved the problem in my case.

nitugeorgian@gmail.com - 23 May 2016 06:28 AM

A few weeks ago, at a gig, after 10-15 minutes of playing, when changing between sounds, the keybord stopped working (I was playing notes, but no sound came out-the connection between the mixer and the keyboard was fine). I did a couple of slides, up and down the keys, it worked, I could hear every note, but when I immediatly played a chord, no sound.  I switched it off and on, no sound.
I went to the local yamaha service, after 15 min of normal playing, it did almost the same thing: this time all the C notes and F sharp notes across the keybord were not working(the other keys worked propperly this time), although it was more like a fading of the sound...when pressed reptedly, the same key sounded softer, or louder, or not at all; some notes had sustain on for 3-4 seconds(with no sustain aid form the pedal, or sound settings).
I was told it was a matter of contact strip replacement(all 76 of them), and that yamaha does not have on stock the specific contacts, and that they stopped making them for the XS series.
A second opinion(not yamaha staff) was that it’s a proccesor issue, and that the main processor would have to be replaced. Again, I was told that it was a job that only yamaha services can do.
Are any of these observations valid? is it the contacts? is it the processor? is it something else?
Thank you in advance

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Having the same problem on my motif xs6!  First the C’s and F sharps and then other keys went in and out intermittently. Cleaned it very well and it was a lil better but FAAAR from performance ready. Any news or luck on your baby? Good or Bad?  This is going to be an ordeal for me if its the mainboard. Hoping its just a lesser component such as the emks-fd or one of the MK boards.

I have been referring to this thread for quite some time since I had the same issue. My Motif XF7 had an issue where my Bb and E are sometimes partially muted, cutting off like they are acting crazy for a moment and goes back to normal again. It took me months to figure it out and based on this thread I started working on the keys to the daisy chains/flat cables but nothing solved my problem..UNTIL updated my firmware to the latest one (Mine is also in 1.5.XX and the updater was 1.5.2. I ignored the warnings that it can only upgrade those OS lower than 1.5) Guess what? It fixed the problem finally!

here’s the link to the official firmware update i used:
https://usa.yamaha.com/files/download/software/4/312764/moxf150-3.zip

please follow the instructions carefully. it comes with a readme.txt in English and Japanese.

Greetings from the Philippines