While recording on my new DP32, I experienced a power outage. It wasn't a power surge, as none of my surge protected power strips tripped, but rather a GFI upstream from all the power strips did trip. It appeared to be just a simple outage with the power restoring immediately. After resetting the GFI and rebooting the unit, I could not re-load the song I'd been working on ... the screen read "File Error." Rebooting again didn't help, so I decided to abandon the recording and start over using a new SD card which I'd just "full" formatted. I was a couple of hours into it with several tracks successfully recorded when things went downhill incrementally and in a hurry. I noticed random blips/sounds of some of the instruments on the recorded tracks that I knew weren't supposed to be in the recording. Then, a piano track went crazy (didn't even sound like a piano but rather like random electronic noises) while other tracks played fine; then all of the tracks went hay-wire. After trying to record a digital sax part and stopping to listen to playback, I got another error message of "writing failure" (failed to record the sax). Eventually, none of the unit's buttons/functions responded, yet the haywire tracks kept playing, and I had no choice but to power off the unit while listening to the chaotic mess. The power outage may have caused two separate (perhaps related) problems: (1) File Error could be a full SD card (as I've read in this forum is a possibility, but if so, why would that happen only after the outage and not while I was able to record before it happened?); and (2) a problem with the unit itself not being able to record ("writing error") which seems to be directly related to the power interruption. I tend to believe that neither problem is caused by the SD card, since I was using a brand new one (and had successfully been recording on it) and instead think the unit is intolerate of a power outage (but why not? ... can you imagine a microwave or other appliance that is rendered inoperable just because the power goes off? ... that would be a fundamental product defect in my view). All guidance and suggestions are much appreciated. Thanks!!
Power outage - 2 possibly related problems
- Thread starter Ducky
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You did the right thing by starting with a freshly formatted sd-card. The machine updates the card when you load another song, or press Save, or when you power-off using the push-button, but you can see it updating at various other times as you change states, so a power outage could have corrupted the card. Are you sure the new card is compatible, i.e. have you used it for several hours on the dp32 before? When you say fully formatted, presume you used the dp32 to format it and not a computer. As far as I'm aware, glitches are caused by incompatible/faulty sd-cards or by not using the latest firmware. It seems an odd type of fault that shows itself after a long session of recording, so my money would be on the card and not anything more serious. If not, then unless someone else can suggest anything, it might have to go in for repair.
Yes, the first card (in the unit when the power interruption happened) is compatible (came with the unit; plus I'd put many hours on it; plus, even after the outage, I can re-load other files - just not the one that was active when I took the hit). The second SD card is also compatible (successfully recorded on it - untill the second problem arose: "writing failed"). I called Tascam Support to explain it all, and they were also baffled. They recognize it was not a power surge (probably not covered by warranty) and that this was a simple outage (covered), and they're rightfully honoring the warranty and sending me a new unit. Kudos to Tascam for such great support !
- Joined
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Had a couple more shot-in-the-dark ideas if it hadn't been under warranty: reset via the Menu Initialise function, and re-flash the firmware on the grounds that the micro-controller memory had been corrupted. I didn't realise the warranty differentiates between a surge and an outage, although how would you prove it? Or would they draw their own conclusions after inspecting the unit?
But anyway, good news indeed.
But anyway, good news indeed.
Neglected to answer your question yesterday about the formatting: I used the unit to format. I'll look into your suggestion about Menu Initialize function. You're right about proof: it's hard to prove, and I'm grateful they took my word (I'm guessing because I provided a detailed description of my building's circuitry and surge protection set-up. Yes good news that Tascam's support personnel was so helpful and honored the warranty. This could have been a nightmare.
