Tascam 2488 MKII - need to recover tracks!

[yassassin]

Hi,

Im really hoping someone can help with this. We recently purchased a 2488 MKII and all has worked fine with good results. Recently though the machine kept freezing with error codes coming up which meant that we had to reboot the system (as directed in the manual) which usually meant we had lost what we had been working on in that session if we hadnt saved it or come out of the track. Annoying but able to deal with. The other day however it crashed and when trying to switch back it wouldnt, saying it couldnt detect the disc and to power off. Once it got back on all the tracks were gone! After that it came up with the message 'Cannot boot check the hardware. Our drummer has now extracted the hard drive and hooked it up to a recovery machine (he works in IT) but he couldnt access files as Tascam seems to have a system that means it can only be read by their software. My questions are:

1.Is there any chance that we can get the tracks back?
2. Can anyone reccommend and recovery people that would be able to recover these files using the Tascam software? (We are based in London)

We emailed Tascam but they said they couldnt help. We are desperate to get these back and not lose 4 weeks work.

Anyone a saviour out there?

Cheers,

Gordon

 

[Schuyler6]

Wished I could help, I'm having freeze up problems with mine, it's new but apparently the Hard Drive is faulty, I don't have as much to lose and you do,,,hope you can recover.....

 

[yassassin]

Cheers...yeah ours was hardly used but has frozen a lot. Hopefully we can retrieve it but either way we're having a new hard drive installed which should solve the problem. Doesn't make up for the weeks of lost work though :-(

 

[RealTime]

1.Is there any chance that we can get the tracks back?
2. Can anyone reccommend and recovery people that would be able to recover these files using the Tascam software? (We are based in London)

We emailed Tascam but they said they couldnt help. We are desperate to get these back and not lose 4 weeks work.

Hi Gordon,

I'm based in Kent. I have a pretty good understanding of the 2488 hardware, including modifying the machine. It sounds like you may have a faulty main board but it could be worth trying a replacement drive.
You are welcome to send me the old hard drive and I will attempt to get the songs back for you, Obviously I can not guarantee anything, but if I can recover the files you can then load them onto your new hard drive from the CDR.

If you're interested PM me your e-mail details and we can arrange something.
Cheers
Ian

 

[yassassin]

Hi Ian - Ive sent you a PM so let me know what you think.

Thanks again

 

[KeithS]

If the hard drive is still funcitonal you can get your tracks back by locating another 2488 if the same model and putting your drive into that. The drives are pretty easy to swap out. One you get the drive into the other 2488 pass your files to a computer via USB.

 

[AstraLeadGuitar]

Hello, I am in a similar position with my Tascam 2488 MKII although the symptoms seem to be more like the motherboard, a minute after turning on, it won’t respond to buttons, functions switch on by themselves, lights flash, and windows come up on the screen. Not even the shutdown button works! Ian, what is your experience with Tascam replacing a motherboard? How much do they cost? I have just received a prohibitive quote from Tascam's repair centre in France, Sennheiser!

Hi Gordon,

I'm based in Kent. I have a pretty good understanding of the 2488 hardware, including modifying the machine. It sounds like you may have a faulty main board but it could be worth trying a replacement drive.
You are welcome to send me the old hard drive and I will attempt to get the songs back for you, Obviously I can not guarantee anything, but if I can recover the files you can then load them onto your new hard drive from the CDR.

If you're interested PM me your e-mail details and we can arrange something.
Cheers
Ian

 

[RealTime]

Hello. I don't have any direct experience with Tascam replacing motherboards. The cost doesn't surprise me as these are obsolete units now. I've made repairs myself, but it's hit-and-miss with the complex devices. For the engineers out there, the problem seems to be with solder joints under the BGA devices - primarily the FPGA. Lead-free solder is used and that is notorious for becoming brittle over a number of years. From the manufacturer's point of view, if it outlasts the warrantee period then that's fine.

The type of error's you are getting does point to the FPGA (a complex logic chip) having dry joints which will get worse until it just boots with a system error and doesn't get any further. The fact that the buttons work initially definitely points to failing joints as it heats up. I've had 2 MK1 motherboards fail this way, but then the machine is 10 years old now!!

I'm always happy to take a look at machines and try to find the fault but 2-way postage would cost you the best part of 80 euros and it may not be fixable at the end of the day. Is there a particular error message you get when it starts to fail?

Regards
Ian

 

[AstraLeadGuitar]

Hello, Ian. Thanks very much for your informative reply. That's a pest about the lead-free solders going dry. That means it could potentially happen anywhere on the board now that it's six years old. Does this imply that the replacement motherboard, which must have been made at the same time, could be liable to having the same fault soon?!
Strangely, there is no error message. The machine seems so bananas that it doesn't even have the 'sense' to display such a message. It behaves as if it has a mind of its own, selecting functions all by itself! By the way, are you a hobby tech? It's always useful to know a person prepared to look at things. In this case, I'm not yet sure what I want to do. The thing is that I need a unit reliable enough to use to record other artists potentially. It wouldn't look too good if it went crazy during a session!

 

[cda]

AstraLeadGuitar - just a thought, but have you been sure to turn your machine on without anything plugged into it such as MIDI cables? I am sure you have, but I thought it would be best to suggest it just in case you have not. The reason I suggest it is because I have had various machines go bonkers when receiving MIDI signals that they do not recognize.

 

[RealTime]

CDA has a good point. I've heard from other users that plugging your guitar into the footswitch jack, instead of the front H channel input, can cause weird behaviour.

Ian

 

[AstraLeadGuitar]

Thanks very much cda (and RealTime) for pointing that out to me. As it happens, there was nothing plugged into the machine at the time and I rarely, if ever, use MIDI with the 2488 MKII. But thanks for bringing my attention to that quirk!

 

[bretsky12]

Hey, well I.lost all my songs being a dumb butt and was in the wrong screen , and delete everything is the same position as save.
So I got over losing two years,worth of work. I didn't really save anything externally.
Well I started over and had some nice tracks , around 150 or so, and then I started to get error messages. Couldn't access my songs. Bought another 2488 neo so I could switch out drives,( I didn't think it was the drive.)
But I switched out. And it is the drive,
So I am seriously devastated. I have maybe 50 or 60 saved to CD. But just master tracks. So I wasted 300$ on a second recorder with no song saves.