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PLEASE NOTE: While the photos here are representative for this procedure, they may not be of the specific equipment you are repairing. Important Disclaimer: This information is intended to assist you in repairing your keyboard, which is presumably no longer under warranty. Doing this type of work will almost certainly void any existing warranty coverage. Syntaur offers this information as a free service, and makes no warranties of any kind regarding its use. You are solely responsible for any damages, problems, or injuries resulting from opening up and working on your equipment. Unless otherwise indicated, the keyboard should be powered off and unplugged while these procedures are being done; otherwise, you can be exposed to potentially fatal voltages. If you do not feel comfortable or competent in performing these tasks, we strongly recommend taking your keyboard to a service center. This page and its contents are copyrighted by Syntaur Productions, and may not be copied or distributed without written permission.

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Diagnosing an Ensoniq Power Supply

If your Ensoniq keyboard is dead - no display, no LED's, no apparent activity whatsoever when turned on - then this indicates a likely problem with the power supply. The earlier Ensoniq units used an external fuse mounted on the back panel, so first open this fuse holder, and make sure that the fuse is still good. If all is well there, it's time to open up the keyboard and check whether any fuses on the power supply are blown; this is most easily done with a continuity tester (found on most multimeters). Set your meter to beep when it detects continuity, then with the keyboard powered off and unplugged, touch the two meter leads to the opposite ends of each fuse on the board. Beeping means the fuse is fine; no beeping means it's time to replace the fuse. Be sure you use a new fuse of the same rating! The fuse ratings are sometimes specified on the power supply circuit board; if not, check the Service Manual. If fuses are blown, does this mean the power supply is bad? Well, it depends... Replace the blown fuses, then unplug all of the plugs from the power supply except those directly from the transformer. Then turn on the power and see if the fuses hold. If any fuses blow now, then you will need to replace the power supply or have it repaired. If not, then it's a good idea to test to make sure that the voltages are correct - both those from the transformer, as well as the output voltages from the power supply; refer to the Service Manual for the specifics. But if you don't have the equipment or skills to do this voltage testing, you can proceed anyway. If the power supply works okay "unloaded" (i.e. with no other boards plugged into it), then something farther down the line is probably the source of the trouble. So you can now start to plug in the other cables that run to the power supply, one at a time - those that feed the main board, the display board, etc. Plug in one cable, turn on the keyboard, and see if fuses blow. If not, plug in the next cable and try again. When and if fuses do blow, you know that the trouble is with whatever board you just plugged in.