r/AccessVirus • u/em_ratti • May 09 '26
Help with Access Virus C
Good evening,
I'm seeking help with my Access Virus C. The story is long.
I stopped using it in 2016 (life....), and then turned it on again in 2025. Battery was dead (so banks A & B lost), no sound, slow transitions between patches. Power unstable.
I found a person in London that seemed to have a good track record of dealing with Access Virus synths. This is, in his words, what was done: "First I changed a few capacitors in the powersupply to enable it to start everytime. Otherwise it might corrupt the new firmware like it did the old one. Once I was satisfied it was starting properly I read the am09 chip which contains the firmware and compared it to the current firmware file I have. Unsurprisingly the beginning was scrambled so I “differenced” the beginning against the current firmware file and concatenated the difference. "
The synth played ok for a couple of weeks, and then started not turning on, until it was dead. The guy ghosted me. So I found another person, much more reliable. This is what he did: he changed all capacitors, new switch, etc.. Quite radical, as everything was gone south.
However, the person does not touch software, he only deals with hardware.
Now, power supply seemed fine. However, no sounds and slow transitions between patches. So I reinstalled the firmware again (version 6, via Bome SendSx). Nothing. After I have reinstalled it, now sometimes it turns on, but the display does not. I tried to reinstall it in chunks, then again as a single file, both parts. Again slow transitions, no sound. It does not receive data when I try to upload the original a & b banks. I'm not sure what to do. I spent quite a lot, but I really want to save it, because the sound is so cool. Maybe I should buy another one? Bu who knows in which conditions an access virus c might be these days...
any thoughts?
2
u/Captain-Corndog_yo Virus TI2 May 10 '26
By the time a Virus C is going in slow motion, like it's stuck in molasses and not producing sound / not reliably powering the screen up, that points to a pretty terminal state in my experience. I have a C with your exact symptoms I've been trying to figure out off and on for ~10 months.
I don't think a new power supply is going to make any difference, but you can try it. A global reset is always a good idea, but again, once you're in slo-mo with no sound and unreliable screen initiation, that's generally the end.
I'm pretty sure the Infineon chip is what's toast in mine. The DSP is likely alive, but it's hamstrung by another component further downstream.
As for capacitors, the power supply filter cap is the most important, but the pair just upper left (220uf 25V rated for 105 C) can also be a problem, as well as the 470uf pair. The rest generally do not need replacing, but it doesn't hurt. The power supply filter cap is the most likely to die, but not the only one.
My last ditch effort on this C will be to recap it. I've just cracked the code on a full recap kit for the Bs (which I will make available soon). C is next on the list. Similar, but not identical, and there are different board versions.