ceejay7777

... yep 10.6.8 is what I have on the Mac Mini, Snow Leopard, I still run Logic Pro 8 on that hooked up to a Soundcraft 328 Digital mixer via ADAT through a Profire Lightbridge ... I also have a couple of Alesis HD24 multitracks, am I living in the past? too right (but I also run Samplitude Pro X on a Dell PC under Windows 11 via an SSL USB interface so no need to drag me off to the funny farm yet) ... ... as luck would have it, at the same time that Line 6 Central was blowing up my original 500 with a firmware update, someone less than ten minutes away from my house was selling his, so I made an offer, bought it and will use that from now on ... ... thanks for all the suggestions ...

... "too current" for what? Snow Leopard was released in 2009 and is rated "Compatible OS" on the Downloads page for Monkey v1.73 which is what I used ... don't follow the reasoning ... and the error code is the same irrespective of it being a different guitar, there is a similar report from 2012 with the same error code for a 500 and in that case the response from Line 6 was "At this point a repair would be component level. If the guitar had a warranty the repair would be free but component level repairs are generally very expensive if you have to pay by the hour. At this point it would probably cost more to repair the guitar than purchase another used one." ... it's still dead ...

... the issue has occurred on a PC running Windows 11 and Line 6 Central ... I've now given it a go on an old Mac Mini running OSX Snow Leopard using Monkey v1.73 and it has come back with: Error opening MIDI ports (Code 8000900C) Googling that gave me a post from you in 2017 that said "with that error code,... the main board needs to be replaced by an authorized service center. It's the only solution for that one, board locked up and is frozen. Log a support ticket in your account. If anyone in support has any questions, I'm across the hall from them."

... dunno, just asking the question, but as the USB interface "sees" the guitar and the PC "sees" the interface, a command line instruction originating from the PC might have been able to pass through without the impediment of the software that caused the problem ...

... as the Line 6 software doesn't "see" the Variax, is there any way, like via a command line, that the Variax firmware can be flashed directly, thereby bypassing the Line 6 software?

... thanks for that, but although both green lights on the VDI are on showing that the guitar is indeed connected, since the firmware update attempt neither Central, nor Monkey nor Updater now "see" the Variax so there is no "Choose File" option ... ... as for "a loose cable connection" or "oxidized intermittent solder points", again both green lights say that there is a connection to the guitar and it was connected, working and playing fine prior to the attempted firmware update, so that seems unlikely (although, of course, anything is possible) ... ... I have contacted the nearest Yamaha Australia authorised service centre (as listed on the Line 6 website) *UPDATE* and they have now responded and said that they are prepared to "take a look at it" so I will take it in, but I suspect that firmware issues on Variax guitars are probably not within their expertise, we'll see ...

... I bought my Variax 500 twenty years ago and haven't played it in a while ... now I 'm retired, I figured I would drag it out and play with some of the other sounds, so bought a second hand VDI, plugged it all in and downloaded Line 6 Central which told me to update the firmware, which I did, except that failed ... the guitar is now stone-cold dead, so I waded through all the forums to discover that this had happened to a number of others ... I then contacted Line 6 support, gave them the details and got a rather pointless reply about updating the firmware from a file which, of course, was impossible as Central no longer recognised that a guitar was connected ... oh, OK we'll refer that to "our Variax guru" came the response ... next reply was a suggestion to contact the local Yamaha dealer, really? talk about passing the buck ... so the Variax remains dead, how sad ...