I’ve had my Octatrack since 2012, so it’s well and truly out of warranty. For a while now, I’ve found that the [play] and [stop] buttons often need to be really hammered to respond. Gentle presses won’t work like they do with the other buttons.
I’m comfortable opening it up and (de)soldering things myself if need be, but I wondered if anyone else has had this issue which they’ve been able to fix themselves?
Open and talk gently to the button guys…
There are 2 types of contact sprays. Not sure, it may depends on switch type.
Thanks for that, I’ll give it a try. Don’t know how I didn’t find that in my search.
This is the button reference, according to someone :
https://www.marquardt-shop.com/de/produkte/schalter/tasten/6425/6425.0101.html
That’s very good to know if I have to replace the buttons. Do you know the source for that info?
It has to be confirmed, the source is a guy on a french forum.
I finally got around to fixing my button problem by desoldering the switch, cracking it open, cleaning and repositioning the contacts, supergluing them in place, and re-soldering it back on the board. Perhaps all those steps weren’t necessary, but I’m just happy that it works like new again. It was bad enough to have been putting me off using the OT.
Now I can fully look forward to the upcoming trig conditions update 
Good job…Fixing your own gear provides a great feeling when you can do it. Cant be doing with sending stuff off for repair and the time it takes. A decent solder station and toolsets are such a good investment!
Thanks, and I couldn’t agree more. Attempting surgery on your own gear can be pretty daunting at first, but after enough soldering practice on other projects and on less expensive gear you get a good idea of what’s in your ability to repair. With gear that’s out of warranty and what with living at the bottom of the world in New Zealand, it just makes more sense to have a stab at it myself first.
This is a pretty good rundown of replacing a switch in the OT, with lots of photos, and a link to the manufacturer’s datasheet for the switches (in case you want to track them down and order direct from an electronics supplier to save a little money). Looks like a pretty straightforward job, unless you have to actually repair a trace on the board like the author did (and even then, that’s not as bad as it sounds, I’m a bit of a hack at electronics and I’ve repaired cracked boards a couple of times with good results).
EDIT: forgot the link.
Bookmarking this thread.
Some buttons on my 2011 OT are starting to require a little extra force or extra presses. The worst button being the Cue button, which I use constantly. My OT, MD, and MNM all have some step sequencer buttons which behave this way as well. Think I’ll be performing some surgery on them soon… will be cool to see the insides of my beloved boxes. I can only wonder what funkiness lies in the OT what with its open crossfader slot 
I’m excited because those buttons look like exactly the right form factor to replace the dead buttons in my old Soundmaster SR88 drum machine, too!
Just want to let people know that the 6425.0101 is not the correct switch - it is much shorter.
As far as I can tell Elektron had custom (taller) casings made for the Octatrack Mk1. I just ordered some from USA to replace a faulty trig switch (same problem that triggered this thread, the spring/ball bearing combo is broken) and was a bit peeved to find this out.
The user here opines that it could be the 1840 push buttons however nothing on the Marquardt site looks quite right. I’m going to try superglue and if it fixes the problem I’ll bite the bullet and pay $25 (!) to get an official Elektron switch from a local store.
