Turned on my Helix and it is jacked up...

[BigRalphN]

I was playing fine with it an hour ago. Now I turn it on and it goes through the boot process then I just get a black display. All but three scribble strips are blank. I can't find a line 6 tech support number but they are probably closed today. I have no,idea how,to do a factory reset. Any ideas people?

[BigRalphN]

Ok. I got it back. Held the bottom two switches on the left during reboot. It restored all factory stuff and all is fine. Something must have glitched when I saved some of the last settings I did,

[BigRalphN]

That was very weird and hopefully a one time anomaly. It would suck to have had a ton saved and have that happen.

[spawn2031]

I would still report it to L6 just in case, if you haven't already.  If only you could remember what you did just before that and try to replicate the issue...

[BigRalphN]

Is there a specific place I should report it? I tried to duplicate it by adding the same blocks and saving it. I powered off and on a few times with no repeat issues. Another weird thing is the volume pedal was not completely turning off the volume. That issue is gone after reset.

[BigRalphN]

I created a support ticket just so they have it.

[HonestOpinion]

I was playing fine with it an hour ago. Now I turn it on and it goes through the boot process then I just get a black display. All but three scribble strips are blank. I can't find a line 6 tech support number but they are probably closed today. I have no,idea how,to do a factory reset. Any ideas people?

Same thing happened to me, same symptoms with only the top scribble strip showing data, same fix. I think therei could be a Helix killing bug in the new update. Were you on the latest version 1.01.02? Did it happen when you tried to load one of your own user created presets?

[jar1zx]

Should we avoid update until this is confirmed?

[BigRalphN]

Same thing happened to me, same symptoms with only the top scribble strip showing data, same fix. I think therei could be a Helix killing bug in the new update. Were you on the latest version 1.01.02? Did it happen when you tried to load one of your own user created presets?

Yes to everything I believe. I updated firmware out of the box before doing anything with it. One step I did not follow was the factory reset step as it didn't seem necessary since the device hadn't been used. That could have been an issue I suppose.

 

Yes, just the top row of scribble strips was lit up with just a couple effects showing. I hadn't made my own presets per se but what we had done was added a few effects to the stock AC30 normal channel and tweaked some of the settings. We saved those settings. The next boot up the issue occured. I tried about 4 boot ups before doing the reset. I tried to recreate the issue and saved the same tweaks but it is working fine now. I can't recreate it.

[spawn2031]

Yes to everything I believe. I updated firmware out of the box before doing anything with it. One step I did not follow was the factory reset step as it didn't seem necessary since the device hadn't been used. That could have been an issue I suppose.

 

Well since we have to wait for L6 to chime in on this possible issue, all we can do is best guess but I think not doing the factory reset could have possibly interfered.  I know with the 500x not doing the factory reset when updating the firmware has been known to cause issues.  Even though it's a different piece of hardware, the programmers are still the same so I suppose it's plausible that not doing the reset when updating firmware can have the same adverse effects here as well.

[capdoogie]

Now seeing the first helix release issues surfacing, I'm glad I have to wait for the next batch of units to come. Maybe line 6 will be able to address these issues with a better newer firmware by then. I feel for you guys!

[BigRalphN]

Issues are minor and expected. No big deal. If you preorder a first run of anything you have to expect things popping up. Overall,it is great.

[PRSGuy]

probably a million plus lines of code...issues are expected as the use cases grow by leaps and bounds...anyway Line 6 seems to be right on top of this stuff so kudos to them. I would rather have one in my hands (which I don't) versus waiting for one...issues and all... :)

[cacibi]

I reset the factory presets when I updated the firmware out of the box. So far, only issue is some noise on the bottom half of the main screen during startup. Going to be backing up presets a LOT during these early days, no way around it. Bugs getting worked out. Still have bugs on my new iPhone too - it's the way of the digital world.

[duncann]

I reset the factory presets when I updated the firmware out of the box. So far, only issue is some noise on the bottom half of the main screen during startup.

 

I was wondering about this as well. Sometimes my device does this, sometimes not.

 

There was one time after I updated the firmware, but before a factory reset (holding buttons 9 and 10 while powering on), where the right half of the main screen was static filled. But when navigating through the model lists, the text was 'over-layed' on the static. Haven't had this problem again after doing the reset.

 

To anyone that knows, is there someplace (perhaps the faq thread), where you can list all of the button combos to hold down while powering up and what they do? This might be really helpful in the case of an emergency.

[cdt123]

Same thing happened to me. I had some user presets, all was good. Saved them using the Helix Software.... updated to new firmware....turned it off and went to practice, it was fine there too... Turned it off when I grabbed a bite to eat, turned it back on and NOTHING. Did a factory reset and imported my presets, but they were a bit jacked up... anyway, redid the presets and all seems to be ok now.

[HonestOpinion]

Same thing happened to me. I had some user presets, all was good. Saved them using the Helix Software.... updated to new firmware....turned it off and went to practice, it was fine there too... Turned it off when I grabbed a bite to eat, turned it back on and NOTHING. Did a factory reset and imported my presets, but they were a bit jacked up... anyway, redid the presets and all seems to be ok now.

I am curious if anyone has had this lockup issue reoccur after having run the procedure for updating the patches (rebooting while holding down 7 & 8) which is listed as "(Optional") in the 1.01.2 update instructions?

[robbieb61]

I CAN'T backup any of the patches I've made. The Helix App crashes on my Windows 10 machine...and it's the only method of backing up that I know of.

[HonestOpinion]

I CAN'T backup any of the patches I've made. The Helix App crashes on my Windows 10 machine...and it's the only method of backing up that I know of.

 

I wonder if reinstalling the Helix App using Windows "compatibility mode" would help?

[robbieb61]

Compatibility mode was the first thing I tried after it crashed the first time. :(

[BigRalphN]

I always thought compatibility mode was a farce. I never had luck with it after any Windows update.

[spawn2031]

No, compatibility mode does work but typically only with older software running on a newer system.  For quite sometime I had to run programs in XP mode when I made the switch to Windows 7 until they got that OS running right.  Was never as bad as windows 8/8.5/10 though.  What do you expect from a free OS though?  You could try running it as administrator though.  I've seen that work numerous times for a multitude of odd reasons.

[Gawwuf]

I tried running it as admin and it had no effect. Still non functional. I will not waste any more time creating patches til that is fixed.

[spawn2031]

Have you verified that the USB driver is working?  Easy way to do that would be to try and stream audio from your computer to it.  I noticed with my 500x, windows 10's USB drivers were very flaky.  Sometimes it worked and other times it didn't.

[Loopguitar]

 HonestOpinion, on 12 Oct 2015 - 1:27 PM, said:

 

I am curious if anyone has had this lockup issue reoccur after having run the procedure for updating the patches (rebooting while holding down 7 & 8) which is listed as "(Optional") in the 1.01.2 update instructions?

 

 

Mine also did the black screen lockup after doing the optional update of patches.

[SWoRd]

Mine just did the black screen as well, and I don't have a backup of the 24 patches I did yesterday, so now my question is: Is it possible to get it out of the black screen mode without doing a factory reset?

[SWoRd]

I did the factory reset to get it working again and lost all my 24 patches in the process.

 

So this morning I did a couple of patches over again, and wanted to back up the setlist with only 2 patches.

While saving the setlist a message was displayed stating "Helix has stopped working" and something about Windows having to shut down the Helix program. The Helix was still working though and I tried it several times with the same result never getting the setlist saved on disk.

 

I then noticed that the Helix program displayed Helix version 1.02.02 even though I had upgraded the Helix to 1.02.2 (I checked that in the Global Settings Info menu). I repeated the upgrade to 1.02.2 without doing a factory reset to save my 2 patches, but the Helix started with a black screen again, and I had to do a factory reset to get it running.

 

Having lost my patches once again I wanted to check if the backup process was working with the empty patches. Starting the Helix program on my computer it once again showed the Helix to have version 1.02.02 even though it does show 1.02.2 on the Helix.

 

I then tried to export the now empty setlist with a bunch of "New Preset" and got the same error message again "Helix has stopped working" and nothing was saved to disk.

 

I'm pretty much out of ideas on what I can do about it?

If I continue to build the presets without having a way to make a backup, it will only be a matter of time before I loose everything again. I never had this problem with the XT Live, X3 Live or HD 500. :(

For reference I'm using a JTV-69 through the VDI.

 

Any thoughts on what I could try are welcome.

[BigRalphN]

I did the factory reset to get it working again and lost all my 24 patches in the process.

 

So this morning I did a couple of patches over again, and wanted to back up the setlist with only 2 patches.

While saving the setlist a message was displayed stating "Helix has stopped working" and something about Windows having to shut down the Helix program. The Helix was still working though and I tried it several times with the same result never getting the setlist saved on disk.

 

I then noticed that the Helix program displayed Helix version 1.02.02 even though I had upgraded the Helix to 1.02.2 (I checked that in the Global Settings Info menu). I repeated the upgrade to 1.02.2 without doing a factory reset to save my 2 patches, but the Helix started with a black screen again, and I had to do a factory reset to get it running.

 

Having lost my patches once again I wanted to check if the backup process was working with the empty patches. Starting the Helix program on my computer it once again showed the Helix to have version 1.02.02 even though it does show 1.02.2 on the Helix.

 

I then tried to export the now empty setlist with a bunch of "New Preset" and got the same error message again "Helix has stopped working" and nothing was saved to disk.

 

I'm pretty much out of ideas on what I can do about it?

If I continue to build the presets without having a way to make a backup, it will only be a matter of time before I loose everything again. I never had this problem with the XT Live, X3 Live or HD 500. :(

For reference I'm using a JTV-69 through the VDI.

 

Any thoughts on what I could try are welcome.

What operating system is your pC using? Unfortunately for Line 6 the Helix rollout has coincided wth new OS rollouts wth Windows and iOS. Both new versions are causing issues.

[lasvideo]

I did the factory reset to get it working again and lost all my 24 patches in the process.

 

So this morning I did a couple of patches over again, and wanted to back up the setlist with only 2 patches.

While saving the setlist a message was displayed stating "Helix has stopped working" and something about Windows having to shut down the Helix program. The Helix was still working though and I tried it several times with the same result never getting the setlist saved on disk.

 

I then noticed that the Helix program displayed Helix version 1.02.02 even though I had upgraded the Helix to 1.02.2 (I checked that in the Global Settings Info menu). I repeated the upgrade to 1.02.2 without doing a factory reset to save my 2 patches, but the Helix started with a black screen again, and I had to do a factory reset to get it running.

 

Having lost my patches once again I wanted to check if the backup process was working with the empty patches. Starting the Helix program on my computer it once again showed the Helix to have version 1.02.02 even though it does show 1.02.2 on the Helix.

 

I then tried to export the now empty setlist with a bunch of "New Preset" and got the same error message again "Helix has stopped working" and nothing was saved to disk.

 

I'm pretty much out of ideas on what I can do about it?

If I continue to build the presets without having a way to make a backup, it will only be a matter of time before I loose everything again. I never had this problem with the XT Live, X3 Live or HD 500. :(

For reference I'm using a JTV-69 through the VDI.

 

Any thoughts on what I could try are welcome.

Send it back in exchange for one that works correctly.  ; )

[SWoRd]

What operating system is your pC using? Unfortunately for Line 6 the Helix rollout has coincided wth new OS rollouts wth Windows and iOS. Both new versions are causing issues.

It's Windows 7 Home Premium with Service Pack 1. The strange thing is that it does communicate with the Helix and transfer all the patches. It's only when I try to save a setlist or a bundle that the program locks up without saving anything.

 

Send it back in exchange for one that works correctly.  ; )

I highly doubt that changing the Helix will solve the problem with the PC program not saving the transfered presets?

[BigRalphN]

It's Windows 7 Home Premium with Service Pack 1. The strange thing is that it does communicate with the Helix and transfer all the patches. It's only when I try to save a setlist or a bundle that the program locks up without saving anything.

 

I highly doubt that changing the Helix will solve the problem with the PC program not saving the transfered presets?

Ignore the major troll behind the curtain. You just encourage him. 😆

 

That is what I am using as well. I haven't had an issue so far. I have saved and restored ok. I do not have a ton of changes at this point which might be the issue. I will create a setlist and see what happens. For what itsworth, everyting works on my Win 10 system also. I just found my laptop more conveniant

[SWoRd]

Ok. Thanks for the feedback.

[SWoRd]

Did any of you find a solution to the black screen on boot problem?

Or did you find a pattern to when it happens?

 

I haven't been able to observe a pattern, and it seems pretty random to me.

It would be nice to at least know how to avoid it until a fix has been found.

 

Any news on the problem with the PC program crashing with a "Helix stopped working" error message when trying to save a Setlist or a Bundle would also be highly appreciated. Then at least I wouldn't have to start from scratch patch wise, every time I get a black screen.

[bpapina]

I have been experiencing the same problems. The blank scribble strips occurs almost immediately when I turn on the unit. Initially on the original firmware I experienced a full black screen and had to do a factory reset. I am now on the latest firmware and I have not had another black screen but the black scribble strips is not fun. I have to shut off the pedal and start it again.

 

I hope L6 is taking this one seriously. I am ready to ship this back to the dealer and get my money back. Early adopters should not be beta testers for crap like this. Almost everyone I have spoken to who owns a helix has had some kind of black screen issue so far. What gives???!!!

[bpapina]

OK...not sure that this is going to help anyone else but I did have a setting in the global settings for footswitches that I rolled back and now I do not experience any issues with the blank scribble strips. It was the 8 pedals or 10 pedals setting. I would prefer to keep it on 10 pedals but when I switch it back to 10 I start to have the intermittent blanking of the SS. When I switch it back to 8 pedals...I am golden. Please fix this L6!!!

[SWoRd]

Thank you for the tip. I also had it on the 10 switch position. I will try it as well and report back if the issue is gone with 8 switches.