Hello to all following this post.
I did promise to provide a status on how things are going with Yamaha. And the good news still continues.
Status:
1. Have not heard anything from Yamaha yet. Frankly don't think I will so I have kind of given up on them
and wait for a miracle response some day to happen.
2. I have received over 12 personal emails from people with the similar problem both for SX700 and
SX900(mostly SX900) and after a long time of not being able to use the search facility they are now
working like new again. I have asked that they update their experience on the forum if they want, so this
is their prerogative.
3. Some told me that their attempts following my suggestions in the post did not work while others were
working in no time. Further communication clarified one simple point that I may not have made clear and
that was to let the keyboard "index" after the factory reset and once the indexing message appears the
issue should be gone which it was.
Procedure Recap:
1. Clear everything in your USER memory, you can do item by item manually, delete your packs, but the
easiest is go into Menu2, Utility, Storage, select "USER" which will be highlighted and then select
"FORMAT" . Once done the user area will be clean.
NOTE: ensure that no external device(USBs) are connected
2. I recommend a Reboot at this time.
3. Do the factory reset by going into Menu2, Utility, this time select "Factory Restore/Backup". Check all 6
items System, User Effect, Favorite, MIDI Registration, Live Control to get things as clean as possible.
Then selected "Factory Reset". This will be quick.
4. Now Reboot the keyboard. Understand that Reboot means turn off and on the keyboard by the way.
5. Give a couple minutes and then power it "Off"
6. Now re-install your your latest firmware version V1.11 following your Yamaha's instructions. See link.
https://europe.yamaha.com/en/support/updates/firm_psr-sx900.html7. Once installed, remove your USB, ensure there is USB connected at this point.
8. Reboot the keyboard and do nothing. Just wait as long as possible or until the "Indexing" message show
up. I actually have never seen that message on my keyboard in all the years that I have owned it nor
have I seen it during my testing. However a few of you have told me that it does pop up. And some forum
post responses seem to indicate 15 minutes or more.
9. Once indexed with no USB connected, the magic seems to happen.
10. Reboot for the final time and your issue is gone.
11. Connect your USB and do your searches of different things. Styles, Regits, Voices, Pads, etc
This procedure is my own. I am not going to question why this sequence works this way. Maybe we can cut some step out, but since this is working not only for me but for others, I would stick with it.
Not:
Some have hit the brick wall file limit message after all this was done and thought that the issue was back. Well it was not back at all in there case. If the issue is back, this message will appear every single time you search. What you need to understand is that depending on the nature of your search criteria and the number of entries that are found that meet that criteria only the first 100 entries can only be put on the list as the memory list size can only hold 10 pages of 10 entries and the it stops writing the entry list. Hence you message. Be more specific with your list if you can and things will be displayed in your favor.
Hope this clarifies things.
New Observations:
I have not given up on my trying to determine "root cause" for this search issue so still playing around and testing things.
1. Going back to my records before the issue I was seeing those ".-" files that have been talked about in this
forum. I still have no clear understanding of them, but that is fine as I no longer have any of them around
any more. However I did noticed that as I was collecting styles from the forum and adding them to my
USBs, the list in my search keep showing an increase in the number of those entries showing up in my list
until the search issue appeared.
2. Not sure if it has any relevance. But I will say this. In all my testing that I performed and talked about in
this post, I was able to "break" my search ability every time.
3. Once I deleted them and in particular ".-E*", I no long can "break" my search. So could there be some
relationship to the way the keyboard handles them?
?? These were the first files that were listed in my
failing search and never got to see if any others would make my keyboard react the same way as I just
blew everything with ".-*" off my computer and USBs.
4. The path on my USB before cleanup was "Yamaha new styles/download/dec2021/usb drive/usb 2015/vse
ps3.Balken". I am trying to zero in on those and will try to locate them on the forum style sections so
that I can isolate them this time and do some further testing of the keyboard's behavior with them.
My curiosity has gotten the best of me so I will continue to play around with this issue until I reach my saturation point on this subject. I have asked if anyone has a copy of a previous firmware upgrade, something like V1.10 or prior and no one has sent me one yet. Please check you files and see if you have one lying around.. I reallllllllllly would like to play with that version, even if I can't break my search any longer At the moment. However I suspect that those ".-E*" may still be in a style folder on the forum so will hunt those down again. And yes the guy with backups of backups should have a copy but I am also very good at cleanup. This time too good.
Best regards! dom