Hi
My MOTIF ES RACK is NOT POWERING ON.
DID ANYONE FACE SIMILAR ISSUES? ANY RECOMMENDED SOLUTIONS? THERE IS NO YAMAHA SERVICE NEARBY
PLEASE ADVICE

Re: Power ON Problems

I had a similar problem after inadvertently bumping the power connector while plugged into the RackES.  Like you, I first checked the power supply in a friend’s unit, and it still worked just fine.  In my case, the unit would power up if I torqued the plug to one side, which indicated that I had either a bad power recepticle, or a bad solder connection inside the unit.  Even though I’m close enough to Yamaha-authorized service folks, I couldn’t be without my RackES long enough to have it serviced (plus my warranty expired quite awhile ago).

The next portion of my reply is only applicable if you’re familiar enough with electronics to diagnose and repair your own gear.  If not, please disregard the rest, particularly if your RackES is still under warranty…

Although, the RackES is kind of a pain to get into because of all of the screws and ribbon cables, etc., once inside, they’re pretty straightforward.  If you’re handy with a soldering iron and a volt-ohm meter, you should check to see if you still have continuity between the tip/sleeve of the power recepticle (part number V814980R) and each of its legs.  If not, you’ve damaged the recepticle and it needs to be replaced.

If the recepticle is still OK, check the continuity from each of its legs to the associated next solder-point on the circuit board.  If you’re lucky, you’ll just need to resolder one of the legs.  However, in my case, one of the solder anchors (laminated to the circuit board) had separated, and resoldering would not guarantee contact.  So, I inserted a jumper wire on the backside of the board, between the offending leg of the power recepticle and the next solder-point (which, in my case was one side of the connector leading to the front-panel’s power switch).  I made sure to use the same gauge and color of wire used for the power switch so that there would be no confusion.

Everything works great now, but I’ll need to be much more careful with the power connector until I get a deeper rack case.  Hope this helps...Merry Christmas!

Re: Power ON Problems

I had the exact same problem on a unit I purchased on eBay. I found a broken circuit board trace near the AC power connector. Just like GregH, I soldered a little jumper across the broken trace and the unit works fine.