MS300/MS750 Golden CD?

[Mfirst]

or me.......


-m

[audiogeek]

I am now a faithful subscriber. This is my first very first ever ...blog, forum, whatchamacall it. now if I can figure out private messages....

[audiogeek]

Originally Posted by Mfirst

or me.......


-m

I cant PM mfirst, it states you dont accept PM's

[mike175gr]

I have been able to assist a couple of members locating certain items as well.....

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by audiogeek

I cant PM mfirst, it states you dont accept PM's

He needs to become a Subscriber first.

[macman007]

Hello Ivan and others. I was a member of AK many moons ago and recall talking to Ivan on the phone once or twice.Needless to say I have not gone on AK much since the whole Ivan thing went down, and I lost my computer and forgot about this place shortly after I joined. I was looking for info on my Ms 300 and found Audio Aficionado again and realized where Ivan and others went.

I went to Tapeheads in 2011and been there pretty much since. Been learning how to fix my own gear as well as others too, and not just tape decks, everything. Thus my quest to see i indeed my Ms 300 can have a hard drive upgrade. Does it have to be bought from McIntosh and can it be bigger than 750GB?

The power supply repair is easy, just upgrading capacitors that are known to go bad made in that time period same with the mother board. Replace them with 105c modern caps from Mouser, Digikey, etc.


If you have a dim power LED try re-seating all the plugs and connectors you can, as posted above. This often helps with other phantom issues on the Ms300/750 server as well.

If not, fear not repairing the power supply transport or mother board is no big deal, if you have basic skills, can solder, and use test equipment.

My questions are regarding the Ms 300 are ; with the firmware Cd, can you install a larger than 750 GB hard drive? If so how large or not which brand hard drive do you use, (will any 750 do?) or does it have to come from McIntosh?

I read all the posts and if the answers are listed I missed them or misunderstood them.

Fear not, I intend on becoming a subscriber at tax time (February)

Anyway It's good to see you all again and I'll post again soon.

Phil

[sgbroimp]

Hi Phil. There are several MSXXX threads regarding the subjects you mention so maybe do a search. At least one poster was gone up to a 1 TB HDD and one has installed an SSD, so it seems these are both a go with some finagling. The biggest gap now is main board repair, refirbishment and some suggest this needs to be more than some cap replacing to do the job right. Getting the power supply refirbed with 15 caps seems to be critical first step as a bad one can clean out the drive and mainboard.

[Masterlu]

Phil... Welcome to AA!

[macman007]

Thanks Ivan long time no see!

Now as far as the power supply issues, from what I am seeing and hearing, there were a bad run of inferior caps between 2003-2007. In many computer and other componedt boards these are shewwing shoring and exploring.

It seems an far east upstart stole a newer cheaper cap degign platform designed to invrease profitability however the one they attained by espionage was incomplete and only prototype pre final versions were built extensively and sold to the industry in China and Japan as first rate.

They are failing all over like mad in good quality computers and audio equipment. I think Escient knew many of their components utilized these caps and bowed out before the "caps hit the fan", so to speak. I dont think McIntosh thorougly evaluated the product before the made it look like a Mc and just let the rest go. By far these have been some poor examples of equipment especial the early ones. Once.the defect was identified it was corrected and soon after Mc quit the server business.


Now if you inspect your caps type, date code and manufacturer and check the hot sheets for the common listed failures you will find out which ones need replacing which dont before you have a failure.

Also Im not sure of soldering techniques used in the MS 300/750 but that era of wave solder on this paricular compnent has come up wanting and I have corrected many cold solder joints and partialy filled circles on the board. I use old school kester and a needel tip with a weller station and silder braid. After instabbing new compoments I apply flux and using a well tinned tip make the repair, inspect then cleanup. Plugs and connection can benefit from Deoxit treatment and excercising the connection .

A magnifier and strong light source on a well equipped bench should be enough to tackle the beast. This must me done before upgrading a hard drive unless your caps all date test after 2008 2nd quarter. If not replace them before the fail, then the repair bill goes up. Thats why service and.repair are so slow. If the caps go there is a lot more to repair than just upgrading caps. I suggest using quality caps about 10% larger and rated at 105c for durability. Better caps will give better sound. You will hear if you hear above 12khz anymore. Upgtading the hard drive requires a bootdisc and then a larger hardribe with more speed and a larger cashe can be installed. A Terrabyte of quality FLAC music should satisfy most users. Remember a hard drive that isnt bad out of the box typicaly lasts 2-8 years. Some are pretty long in the tooth and people should think wbout the above mentioned cwp upgrades and hard drive as well.

A positive benefit of the cap upgrade besides sound and reliability is the unit will run cooler and last longer.


The above is in my experience an In my opinion. do your research. Dont accept it as the gospil.

Just remembetr 2003-2008 many foreign cwps are bad. Not big names like Panasonic and such, the ones mass produced electronics builders used that are small names. That are the Frakos and tantalums of today. Be mindful and wary of them in all electonics, stereos, compters Tv's et- al.

Philip

[docdownload]

I'm trying to replace My 750 GB hard drive it's failing I have backed it up do I need the golden CD or not "HELP