I’ve owned my Helix for a number of years and it has never given me any issues until I had the 3.01 update. I don’t know if the update is the cause of my problem - it could be entirely co-incidental.
A couple of days after the update, I noticed that I was getting no sound out of the Helix. All my patches were there, I could connect to HX Edit and I could build new presets. But it seemed that there was no signal getting from my guitar into the Helix. I tried different leads (and different guitars) to no avail. I noted that when I put the unit into Tuner mode, that it was not receiving any signal either.
I contacted Line 6 Support who suggested that I redo the firmware update using the updater software, rather than HX Edit. And lo and behold this worked. But, within a couple of days, it lost input again. Line 6 had already had me try different inputs like using a Return jack. But that didn’t work. I should also note that I did several resets. It seems that sometimes a reinstallation of firmware and a factory reset will bring it back online again, but this only lasts for a day or so.
I’ve seen a couple of people report this problem before, but I don’t think I’ve seen it solved. One suggestion was that it might be a corrupted user preset. But, after the issue, I did not reload my old presets. I simply built a couple of new ones from scratch to test the unit.
Line 6 eventually suggested that I sent the unit for servicing. I’m in the UK, so off it went to E&M in Milton Keynes. I had to pay a significant amount by way of an inspection fee. And, of course, it costs a chunk to send the unit. E&M had the unit for several days. I contacted them to check progress. I was told that they had done a factory reset and that the unit was functioning normally. I was a little sceptical since I had already performed a number of factory resets, but I was assured that the unit had been powered on and off several times and that no fault could be detected.
I shipped the unit back. It worked for around 48 hours and now it is non-functional again, which is more than a little frustrating given that I am currently down the best part of £110.
I assume that E&M will offer to take another look. But each return journey means £50 in shipping charges, so it won’t take too many trips for this to become uneconomic. So, before doing that, I thought I’d ask whether anyone here had any knowledge of this issue, or had any suggestions before I proceed.
Thanks in anticipation of your assistance.
Steve M