the thing is, the original description seemed to me like this problem
simply began to happen
not as a result of anything he did different than what he had
been doing for 10 years without issue
the FR8 presumably does not change it's own settings, so now that the
BK has been proven to be working correctly, the focus shifts to
what can happen in terms of wearing out that could have caused an FR8
to change it's behavior overnight
naturally, now the first step is a global backup and reset
if there are any testing routines that can be done, from the serevice manual
documentation, that is the second step
most digital device failures are either or, not marginal or cumulative
(like analog circuits can brown out or lose partial power yet still
sort of keep working) so there are a limited number of things that
might stress the run time working of the unit.. for example, if the onboard
RAM has developed bad spots that are causing errors or delaying components
form recieving their marching orders
if the potentiometers or other analog components on the accordion body
are partially failing for some reason or half stuck
if internal connections are oxidizing or have been stressed by body flexing
the actual MIDI daughterboard or optical chip that drives the midi output
may be having a partial failure or intermittent problem that is not noticeable
at first or without testing, but that is delaying the midi stream or dropping data
the FR8 can also be tested with a different MIDI device, just a basic
MIDI module like a sound canvas, and see how it behaves in a simpler
controller setting
this may require the boards in the FR8 be tested each independantly
(if they still have the capability to do that at the main repair center)
and swap out whatever board does not pass muster
lets hope for the best
