Front panel unresponsive after being left idle for a few hours

Over the past couple weeks the front panel on my KPA has stopped working 5 or 6 times. Not while playing, and I have yet to observe it happening. It doesn't matter what is connected to the unit so this is definitely a different problem than this thread originally was about. I have tried backup, reset, re-flash, restore with no result. Unless it takes a turn for the worse I will wait to see if the next firmware update changes anything. If not I will have to check the wiring inside. Does anyone know anything about the expected lifetime of these things? My KPA wasn't built yesterday. It is from when the dark front panel had just been introduced. Was it 2013?

Quote from MehlAnoma

Bump same problem. I have found if i dont use remote it does not seem to happen. But still it is a pain sometimes I will use kemper pause to edit something on track in that time it craps out. Dont really want to have to ship it to Germany to get fixed. Would be nice if its a battery problem we could do it ourselves?

Do you mean that the KPA front-panel dies if you don't use the remote, or that the remote (display and/or LEDs) stop working?

This thread is about problems with the KPA front-panel. Btw, my KPA-head has behaved just fine over the last couple weeks.

Battery may become an issue soon as my unit was assembled in 2012. An expected lifetime of 6-7 years has been mentioned elsewhere on the forum. There is no warranty after 5 years so I may just as well check if I can locate and replace any batteries inside myself. Unfortunately the manual doesn't list the type(s) of battery required. I'm aware owners are not meant to replace batteries on their own, but I have the required tools to work on PCBs and have yet to be defeated by batteries on any old gear no matter how well the batteries have been secured/glued/soldered to PCBs. Gear that is meant to last should IMHO also be designed so that battery replacement is a simple task.

I finally got around to open the unit and have a look. Being 10 years old it's warranty expired years ago. I've done lots of curcuit-board and VLSI-design over the years so I have an appropriate workshop for the job. Most important is to make sure that yourself, the work-surface and all tools are properly grounded so you don't accidentally fry circuits with static electricity.

What I found was that the small CPU-circuitboard was not properly seated in its socket. I find it strange to cause problems on and off over time like I have experienced, but feedback from support suggest otherwise. A 10 year old unit is likely to develop issues with oxidation on connectors, so I took everything apart, cleaned and put it back together. And I took the opportunity to replace the old battery.

The unit has worked fine for the last couple weeks. Fingers crossed it will be back to normal reliability for another few years.