dieterstoll

I guess it's time that I reported back. At long last, my M20d was exchanged (I guess I have Arne to thank for speeding up the process - I still was out of a board for about eight weeks, but the dealer said that this is the way big corporations handle these things - plenty of red tape and paperwork). Anyway, a (supposedly new) unit arrived in November, I tried it for a minor gig with no issues, so I went out on a limb and used it for a festival-type gig (7pm to 12:30am, nine inputs used, recording on SD card). 

Well, my faith has been (temporarily anyway) restored, the M20d provided for smooth sailing, no hiccups, no screen freezes, no complaints.

I am still somewhat wary but tend to believe that the first unit was indeed a lemon with a hardware flaw.

I so hope to never have to return to this topic and report otherwise...

Here's a video taken today:

I haven't published it for everyone to see just yet. Hope I won't need to.

I guess at this point the only remedy will be for me to get the unit exchanged. I have already parted with it for five weeks, with zero outcome. I certainly don't want to repeat the experience.

Can you tell that I'm p***ed off?

I promised to report back here after I got the unit back from "servicing". It arrived a few days ago. Seems it never left Germany; the dealer obviously sent it to a German facility (authorized repair center I presume) who, according to the manifest,

• reinstalled 1.2 firmware
• checked the hardware for flimsy connectors, bad soldering joints etc
• thoroughly tested the unit for several days and
• found no (more) evidence of the problem

I had written down the serial # before shipping it; the same unit came back (no exchange).

Well, I'm thoroughly unhappy to report that it took me all of 20 minutes to deep freeze the board once again. This time, even worse than before. Now, not even the MUTE buttons and the main level knob were working. 

What I did was: without any external peripherals (no SD card, no WiFi dongle, no nothing, not even sound sources connected) I went through a realistic setup / tweak / perform / show faders / back to stage view / tweak / deep tweak circle for a couple of times (I had four "sources" on stage, so not an overcrowded setup at all).

Out of the blue, bang, deep freeze.

Guess I'm gonna do it again, this time using a video camera to capture the fun.

Anyone from Line6 care to chime in?

You are most definitely not alone. Check this thread, for example.

http://line6.com/support/topic/8962-m20d-screen-freezes-on-me-again/

I am waiting for my mixer to return from service.

All those voodoo suggestions ("use the device daily...") will amount to nothing but a waste of time, is my opinion. The problem WILL reappear (if it goes away in the first place). Get it serviced asap. Whether or not servicing will amount to anything is anybody's guess. At least one forumite reported success, so I'm keeping my fingers not only crossed but corkscrewed.

Six weeks later: M20d returned from service (the same unit that I sent), they gave it a "thorough check for several days" and failed to find a problem. Only that it took me all of 20 minutes to freeze the unit again. See original thread for details.

To Dietetstoll : I had the same freezîng trouble, one year and à half ago. It was solved by servicing in UK

To digitalsound : I also had similar hardware connectors troubles solved by two servicing periods in 2013 and 2014, the last on july. I'm waiting for intensive use in september to be sure that it is defintly OK, and be fully confident.

Despite these troubles, I do enjoy the use and Sound quality of my LINE6 sound system.

Thank you for a sign of hope, @pierrebriend - I'm packing the mixer right now (miraculously I happened to keep the box, which is not something I often do). Will revert.

Please have the unit repaired through your dealer. The screen behavior is a hardware issue that can be fixed. We apologize for the inconvenience.

OK, will do. Contacting the dealer as we speak.

But if that is the case - it's a known hardware problem that can be fixed - then why not simply own up to it and put it in the FAQ rather than have people jump through hoops, with the warranty clock ticking?

I'll certainly report back if and when I get the unit back, and have had a chance to put it through its paces.

Hello folks, another disconcerting tale to tell I'm afraid. It has happened to me before on various occasions, but this time (last weekend) was the first time the M20d screen froze solid on me without any external doodads attached. No SD card inserted (for recording or playback), no WiFi dongle, no nothing. Just a single microphone and a stereo line in. As usual, when you operate the M20 so that people can see it, a tech aficionado stepped up to have a closer look at it, and wanted to know if this could be operated like a standard mixer. Sure, I said, look right here, "Show faders", show the faders it did, the encoders worked just fine, but as soon as I went on to demonstrate sliding a fader up and down - kaboom, frozen.

None of the encoders worked. The only thing that would still react was the main volume knob. I had to reboot the unit to regain control.

Now I'm sure someone is going to come up to explain that it's usually the cables ;) or that I need to update my firmware. Well, it's on 1.2 like probably everybody else's. Also, I don't think it's a hardware issue with the touchscreen (if so, then why did the encoders quit working, too?). I maintain that the firmware is still bug-ridden and that it's HIGH TIME somebody got their act together and fixed it.

Before the freeze the guy had asked me how much the unit cost, and where to buy it. He was really eager to get one. After the freeze, not so much. In other words, he was horrified. I told him to give the Behringer X32 a closer look.

DOA is one thing - unpleasant enough, but at least you know it doesn't work. A mixer freezing on you solid during a performance is another thing. True, in a forum like this one you won't find testimonials of the 90% of users who never had a problem, so the bad experiences tend to be overrepresented. I, for one, wish I was one of those 90%. My M20d has done it twice - gone completely unresponsive during a show. In both instances I was able to restore functionality rebooting during the break (losing the anti-feedback settings of course).

...but the good news is that your units will be repaired and working, probably to a higher standard than a freshly manufactured one. If you just received a new one then the same thing could happen again.

Is it just me, or do others also find this statement, coming from someone apparently affiliated with the company, somewhat scary? In layman's terms this means (my interpretation) that ex-works workmanship is somewhat on the lacking side, and the customer will run the real risk of finding out the hard way. Then, once the flimsy contact, cold soldering spot or whatever has been identified (by way of equipment failure), somebody in the repair department will take care of it and do it right.

Not a problem at all. I do so all the time (using RCF's TT-08A powered speakers, not necessarily a money saving option compared to Line6's offerings, but they happened to be around before the move to M20d).

My guess is that whatever software you use to listen to your tracks doesn't know how to deal properly with the 24 bits recording format - try Audacity, that should work OK. You may indeed need to amplify the signals somewhat, depending on the trim settings that you used when recording.