When I bought the XT Live, in 2006, I had similar problems, to the point I just abandoned the product.
In 2011, I bought the HD500, thinking they had sorted it out. Wrong again, it happened again, and as I´m not a NASA engeneer, I haven´t been able to solve it.
Today, I just use the POD to home recordings, but I don´t trust it to anything else.
It should be simple, and I think the POD should sound at least as good as any solid state pedal, but it doens´t. I just gave up...