Friday 18 April 2014

Korg M3r Battery Replacement

Today I had to replace the battery in my Korg M3r. All the patches had been wiped and all I could play was the eponymous 90's house piano. Luckily, it's an easy fix and I thought i'd share it with you nice people. First thing you need is a new battery - a CR2032 (flat disc type) which I purchased from Maplin (£3.99) - I had to get two as my PC needed a new battery too ( an odd coincidence?).
Anyway, pictures are easier than words so I'll let the camera tell the story...

First, remove your M3r from the rack and unplug it - no need to kill yourself over a battery.

1. Remove all the screws either side of the synth

Rack ears

Repeat on other side






















2. Now remove the two screws at the back. Then the three on the case top.

Case top - three screws
Case Rear - two screws





















3. Now you can slide the case back to reveal the innards.

Slide back

Korgh M3r Internal components
Inside of the M3r




















The battery is in the top right corner and is a doddle to change - it simple pops out and you can slip a new one in - no screws required.

Replacing CR2032 battery in Korg M3r
Slide in and push down to complete
Korg M3r battery
simple pressure removes the battery



Now, resetting the internal sounds. Click the "Edit" button. Then the "Global" Button. Then press "Combi" five times to get to "5A Load". Click "Prog"  Three times to get to page "5D Preset Data".
Press "Yes" to load the default presets. Hopefully you would have backed your precious home made patches into a librarian or sys-ex file so that you can reload those instead.

Results of a wiped battery
Edit-->Global-->Combi(x5)-->Prog (x3)
Hit "Yes" and...
..Success!




Hope that was of help to any other M3r owners, or just of interest to anyone else.


10 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for posting this. I also own one of these relics of the past, bought it new in 1991. It's still a great little box, even now in 2015, esp. for recording. I was stuck on how to load the factory sounds, as I knew they were burned in ROM in the unit. Thanks again for the info.

robgs said...

Glad to have helped..

Unknown said...

Thanks very much! I just replaced a battery too on my trusty old M3R. Works like a champ now!

ensoniqman said...

Hello -

My name is Greg and I have a question:

Can you still run a Korg M3R without a battery?
I realize that memory will be lost everytime you turn off/on, but will it still load factory sounds?


Thanks,
Greg

Marco Antonio Bouquard, said...

Hello! My name is Marco Antonio Bouquard, musician from Brazil. I was already desperate trying to solve this problem with the M3R battery and your blog helped me a lot! Thanks for the force!

My youtube channel with a typical brazilian song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNUpzX5_5ZI

Unknown said...

I just replaced the internal battery using your pictures. Thanks!

marjavanukas said...

Got the Battery Low-warning, changed the battery but nothing changed, same warning persists and presets not being saved. Any ideas what could be be problem?

Dan said...

marjavanukas The 3 for a $1 batteries at the dollar store are a waste of time for this. They have long shelf life and MAY work for 1 month IF YOU ARE LUCKY. If you go to the trouble of pulling this apart, you better put a decent battery in.

Dan

http://musicinit.com/fastfingers.php

Unknown said...

Thank You for posting the reset info for the M3R just did it today 6/04/21 Made my day !

CMF

Unknown said...

Thank you so much. You are a great guy for posting this. Your posting and photos are excellent. I just put in new batteries and reprogrammed my two Korg M3Rs. Your posting is much appreciated. Thank you for your effort!