OP-1 seems dead and not charging? How I fixed mine

OP-1 Help
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Hey!

I just wanted to post this here. If it helps anyone else, then I would be glad. I’ve had my OP-1 for a while now, and there are times when I don’t use it for a few months.

After these months, when I take out the OP-1 it seems completely dead. I remember the first time this happened I was distraught! I googled loads, watched videos, went on forums, I found lots of half complete answers. So let me create one post with what repeatedly works for at least my unit.

Symptoms:

  • It’s not been turned on in a while
  • Turning it on, nothing happens
  • Plugging it in to charge, nothing happens (no charging lights)
  • Turning it on while holding COM button, nothing happens
  • The unit appears completely dead, no matter what you do
  • It functions well as a paper weight

I do the following to bring it back to life… (it involves updating the firmware, so you can download it ahead of time). I have to do this exactly:

My fix:

  • Ensure power switch is in OFF position (away from you)
  • Plug it into charge, and leave it over night (again, there will be no lights, it will look dead).
  • The next day, unplug from the wall (it will still look dead, no lights)
  • Wait a few seconds, then hold down COM button and turn it on
  • Magically, the recovery screen should load (if it didn’t, make sure it is unplugged)
  • Press 1 to update firmware and follow onscreen instructions
  • Re-install or update the firmware (it doesn’t matter if it is the same version)
  • Once finished, hopefully the OP-1 will be back to normal, with everything still loaded

This has worked every time for my device. In a nutshell, it just needs to be charged for a good number of hours, unplugged and then the firmware re-installing. Then it is back to normal (boots fine, charging indicators back to life, etc etc)

I wanted to share because I see many posts with people having the same issue, with advice such as “just leave it charging and it will come back to life” and maybe they are giving up and start using it as a paper weight. I almost did the first time.

If it helps you, then I’m glad. If not, then at least I will find these instructions again for my future self!

Happy music making x

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It is wise to regularly use the op-1 and charge the battery once in a while. The battery will have a longer life.

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This is true and good advice! But sometimes life gets in the way :melting_face:

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ye i’ve had my OG-1 “die” probably 3 times, but always recovered with steps like above.

anecdotally, it might help to warm it up a bit too (if your house is on the cold side)
(e.g. carefully place it on a radiator, with a towel or something between so it doesn’t get too hot)

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i dunno i would be careful physically heating up a lipo battery in an unnatural way
def a good way to give your battery problems, swelling and on the extreme side burst // explosion

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The same happened to me once. It started taking a while to power up, sometimes up to 10 seconds before the logo was shown. Then a few days later nothing happened anymore when I turned it on. The steps you described worked for me and I didn’t have the problem since. Thanks for sharing!

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This is very handy info so thank you but I was wondering if anyone finds that their OP-1 ends up dead again only after a few weeks of doing this fix and you have to repeat the process to get it working again? Is there a fix for this?

Cheers!

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if your battery is constantly dying like that
or is not holding a charge very well
then likely the battery itself needs to be replaced

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cross-post from reddit, just to potentially help anyone who stumbles here:

Resuscitated mine again today. I think this is the fourth time it’s refused to turn on / charge? (i got it in 2014).

In the past, I revived it with some combo of:

  • Leave plugged in, switch Off or On
    • probably did this for about 36hrs total
  • Carefully warm the device (i’ve used a radiator, some towels in between to avoid overheating; and a small space heater, holding it a careful distance away). Might give the battery a little extra energy to kick it back on
    • then try plugging in and/or switching on
  • Switch on while holding COM to get to boot menu (it sometimes takes a moment longer than expected)
    • then reflash firmware and/or factory reset

None of that worked this time. The final step, which I’ll probably jump straight to next time,

I suspect what happens is after reaching some very low voltage threshold, the firmware (including bootloader) gets in a confused/corrupted state. But the power switch isn’t a “real” power switch, so disassembly is the only way to hard power cycle the board. And I must have just been lucky in the past when I was able to revive it without opening it up.

n.b. I inspected the battery while I had it open (expecting to need to replace it finally), but it showed no signs of damage/swelling, and read a healthy ~4.2V . 10years running!

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Hey, in case anyone else has this problem, stumbles on this thread, tries everything people suggested, but nothing seems to work, I just wanted to add: don’t give up! Even when you’ve tried everything and it seems deader than a doornail, it might still come back to life! How? Why? Good questions! *****ed if I know! This thing has a will of its own.

When my OP-1 seemed dead and not charging a month or so ago, I tried recharging it overnight or even two or three days in a row multiple times—with the power switch up, with the power switch down, cable out when powering on, cable in, all sorts of permutations… but nothing worked, and I basically gave up. I was planning on trying the battery reconnect trick recommended in the previous post (held off on this because I have the reverse Midas touch and was afraid I’d break it), sending it in for repair, or selling it for parts. However, while I was still trying to make up my mind, every once in a while, just on a whim, I would try flicking the power switch just to see if anything would magically happen… and yesterday, it did! It powered on! I have no idea how or why or what made any difference. It was unplugged when it happened. I hadn’t tried charging it days. The only other variable I can think of is that it was unusually hot as hell in the room where it was that day, so maybe it got warmed up and that helped, as someone suggested? But there have been many hot days this summer, so I have no idea.

Anyway, that wasn’t the end of the saga, though. After it turned on, it kept powering off and back on in an endless cycle for as long as I kept the power switch down. IBut was able to hold “com” and do a factory reset. It was able to complete the reset, but then got stuck on the screen where it says “recreating fat AIFC file: something something” a bunch of times, and when I’d press any of the keys, it would play a music sequence. Very strange.

But I powered off and on again, and—fingers crossed, though I’m sure not holding my breath or banking on it**—everything seems back to normal!**

Well, sort of… I checked the battery level, and it said it was close to zero, so I plugged in my charger…but it wouldn’t charge. I thought maybe I needed to recalibrate the battery, so I left it on, playing an endless loop on the tape so it would die and then I could charge it from zero.

Six hours later, it was still on, still playing the loop! The mother****er had a full charge the whole time!

I swear to god I almost threw the thing out the window as this point. I’ve never had such a love and hate relationship with any electronic device in my life. I’ve never encountered one that is so flakey. I’ve never had so many problems with something. I’ve never seen something “die” so many times only to magically resurrect itself somehow (it also happened with a couple of other issues before). I don’t understand how an inanimate object can be so fickle. The OP-1 is like that guy you’re friends with who’s super cool and unique and charismatic but also a complete mess and falls apart every six months and is totally unreliable. I love him. I hate him. I’m glad he’s back from the brink of death. I’m 99% sure he will die again. I’m 20% sure he will then come back to life again. I don’t even know what to do with him anymore. I guess I’ll just try enjoy the time I can with him while I still can…

Anyway, that’s my OP-1 story. Ciao.

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…annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd 9 days later, it died again :sob:

It was acting funny before that. I tried recording something onto the tape, and the audio was intermittent during playback, and it wouldn’t let me erase it via lift. I tried erasing the whole tape, and when pressed the 1-4 buttons, it froze on the screen where it asks you to press those buttons to erase the save. Once I turned it off, it wouldn’t come back to life.

Before all of this, it was also no longer mounting on my computer, and I was having the issue where it would randomly turn off and back on. I’m assuming there’s something wrong with the DSP. Not sure if it’s still possible or worth having the DSP replaced.

Edit: lolz, one hour later, it magically came back to life, yet again. This thing is possessed. I give up on trying to make any sense of it or rely on it for anything.

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have u tried cleaning your power switch?

(or replacing the connector board?)

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As far as those two things go, I’ve just tried opening the back, reseating the ribbon connector, and wiggling the power switch around from the inside. I wasn’t sure how to clean the switch properly (I’m assuming it can be removed, but I wasn’t sure how to remove it).

And no, I’ve never replaced the connector board. I see those are available on ifixit, so maybe it’s worth trying at some point, although I think that might only address the power on/off issue, not the mounting problem and other buggy behavior I was experiencing.

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yea that could be true but maybe your other issues are related to the power switch being dodgy? (or other things related to the connector board. usb etc)

cleaning the switch is super easy and doesn’t cost much
if it don’t work u didn’t lose much
if it does u are one step forward atleast

i’ve cleaned mine before just spray in the mechanism w some electrical contact cleaner and work the switch back and forth mad times

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