Virus TI2 desktop crashes and sound distortions
 

I bought a used Virus TI2 desktop, and before it was delivered to me, I read about some problems about it here and elsewhere.

So I hoped, that these reports are very rare things, and that my Virus will not have such things.

The first evening a played around with him via an MIDI keyboard, no problems. The next evening again played only via MIDI keyboard, no problems.

Yesterday I started to use it with my DAW as VST. It worked a while but then out of a sudden I had distored sounds. You can quite good here the original sound, but always with noise. The only thing which helped is to put it into sleep, then remove the power, and then put it back to power.

There were several other occurences. Sometimes the LFO lights remain static. Sometimes no longer audio output. In one case the LFO lights remain on, even the Virus is put in sleep mode. Since I read a lot of similar report, I thought I have to deal with it some how.

In general I have the feeling that the problem happens, when a user interaction is made, while the Virus has not fully loaded (e.g. in DAW or loading a patch etc.).

Today in the morning I just played with MIDI, and unfortunately it took not much time until the sound get again distorted. Then I opened the Virus Control Center and performed a factory reset. And also as reported, the ROM banks are afterwards completely different sorted as before. Anyway, would not bother me much. My Virus had the version 5.1.7.00, but after the factory reset, it still has this version, which in my point of view, does not make sense at all. A factory reset should bring a device to the version it was previously shipped with.

I worked a while in DAW/VST without a problem. Later I worked only via MIDI and it happened again. To give you an idea how the sound is distored, I will add soon a link, where the CremonaHS patch is played with it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gzB...ew?usp=sharing

In general I have not too much hope, anybody can help here. But maybe someone, has (had) similar sound problems or crashes and found out, what it might cause, and how to deal with it, in terms of an workaround.

It is annoying that it happens so regularly. I did not experience such stuff with my Virus Snow.

EDIT:
I read somewhere that a reset of the Virus can also been done by hold EDIT (of Arp-Sectin) while power on with transpose keys. Interestingly, after I had reset the Virus this way, soon after that, the first time this famous very loud and permanent crash sound was played! I did not had this kind of crash before.

So now, after 4 days using, I have encountered all the bad things reported also with my Virus. Sad, that the state of such a beautiful device, is getting worse and worse over time:-(

Its the time when you try to not touch any buttons if not necessary. A very bad thing for a synthesizer with so much buttons to play around.

It looks like I nailed it down (since I had no crash etc. for 2 days) by simply

"not starting to play any note (VST or direct Midi), after having switched to another patch, before not counted up 3-5 seconds"

Lets see, if this keeps valid in the near future:-)

Love my TI2 desktop and won't return it, even I may could claim paypal buyer protection.

yes, even "working" units have many problems and there are bugs in the software. Slow patch loading is one of the problems I experience too.

Yes, the virus ti(2 desktop) is really a 'diva'. It can work smooth quite a while, and other times it crashes 2 times in a row:-)

The workaround

"not starting to play any note (VST or direct Midi), after having switched to another patch, before not counted up 3-5 seconds"

has positive effects, but it does not mean that you will not have any crashes anymore.

Does someone here in the forum have knowledge about electronics? Will electronic parts e.g. in the Virus TI(2) will have some kind of lifetime? Means if the Virus is e.g. > 10 years old, electronic parts will react slightly instable. Is there a lifetime of DSPs?

I have no idea, how old my TI2 desktop is. Is there any way to find that out (the manufactoring year)?

On the other side, the Virus is used so much in the music production and live, that compared to that, the reports of crashes are very rare.

That brings me to the assumption that there are rare devices which have problems from build up, or because of degratation over time (professionals will simply order a new one I guess).

Maybe my Virus had its problems from begin on, and went through several owners, which are sooner or later angry about it, and sold it again.

But still I don't want to give my Virus away:-) Most of the time it is doing perfect. Just thinking, if there are replacable electronic components, I would consider such a repair.

Edit:
I was in contact with Access, and they nicely could tell me the rough build date based on the serial number (about 2010). Also they stated, that there are no electronic pieces that could get used over time (reach end of life).