Privia volume stuck on high, even with speakers off

[DKD]

Hi -

I have enjoyed my Privia 350M for years.  It's great when I need it for a rehearsal and can use the internal speakers, and when I have a show, there are sounds I like to use from my sound module which I midi it up to (speakers off, of course Two days ago, I had my midi set up and all of a sudden the volume of the Privia came up and it hasn't gone away.  Won't turn down, won't go off.  Any suggestions?

[Brad Saucier]

Welcome to the forums.  Do you mean the keyboard itself or the MIDI sound source?  Have you tried a factory reset?

[DKD]

Hi Brad!  It's the keyboard itself.  Speakers on or off, connected to sound source and not connected.  Tried the factory reset.

Booted, rebooted (and the sound source, also).

[Brad Saucier]

Can you post a short video to YouTube showing what's happening?  It might help.

[Jokeyman123]

Brad, DKD...

 

My suspicion is the volume pot as the first offender. If it has been used frequently-depending on how its soldered to its IC board-wouldn't take much to crack a solder joint and create a full "open" or on position. I don't have a schematic-but if this is a monophonic volume pot-there would be only 3 terminals-and if the low resistance connection fails, this is what will happen-constant full volume-as if you directly connected this circuit without a volume pot. Since you can get full volume, this would indicate the internal amp circuitry is fine. I recall my PX350 had a rather small and probably delicate volume pot which never failed on mine, but it is possible. A constant downward force-such as will happen when exercising the volume knob-could have caused a break in the solder connection inside. That is my best guess from a distance-and volume pots do fail-I just had to do an alesis Ion volume pot replacement which manifested itself by cutting out one of the stereo channels, and bringing the volume to full even when turned 10-20 degrees-this had 5 pins as it was a stereo pot and was pretty difficult to replace. You could try shooting some plastic-safe tuner cleaner in there, and flexing the volume pot gently to hear what might happen. if it is a cracked solder point, tuner cleaner won't help. If there are worn traces internally to the volume pot causing this-which is also possible, tuner cleaner might solve the problem, at least temporarily.

[DKD]

Hi Brad - and thank you for your reply!  I'm finally able to take the time to try to "fix" things, and appreciate your advice.

I have a (sinking) feeling it's a cracked solder point, but gonna try the plastic-safe tuner cleaner.  You never know!

[DKD]

Update; the cleaner didn't work, but absolutely worth the try - so thank you!

I had a thought...  I tested the Privia with my sound module and the midi is fine (knock on wood!).

Would there be a way to just disconnect the onboard speakers?

[Brad Saucier]

You can turn off local control in the MIDI settings.  

[DKD]

You're brilliant.

THANK YOU!