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Depending on the intensity I play the guitar, a weird white noise occurs in my POD HD500


rafa_coutinho
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Hello guys,

 

Depending on the intensity I play the guitar a weird white noise occurs in my POD HD500. As the sound decays  (still listening the sound of the tone but in a lower volume), it stops. 

 

Guitars and cables have already been revised and the problem is in the equipment. A global reset and flash memory downgrade was also done but nothing solved.

 

Does anyone know how to solve this problem?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Rafael

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On 5/31/2020 at 11:44 AM, joel_brown said:

Sounds like one of the effects blocks could be overdriving too much or do you have your guitar inputs set to same or is Input 1 and Input 2 set differently ?

 

Hi Joel. Thanks for replying.

 

The inputs are set to same, but any input combination didn't work either.

 

I've also made recalibration but with no success. Everything is up to date.
 
I'm attaching some files to better understand what the issue is. 
 
There are 2 audio files attached: 1 with the guitar bypassed (I get the white noise even when is bypassed) and the other one with effects.
 
Do you have any thought to how make it work? 
 
Regards,
 
Rafael

INPUT - L6 EDIT.png

POD_HD500_INPUTS.png

L6 MONKEY.png

01_POD_HD500_BYPASS.mp3 02_POD_HD500_EFFECT.mp3

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while I never read what you said and thought for one minute that the input settings were the problem... 

selecting In-Z 'auto' is going to cause issues going from patch to patch, especially when a 'bypass' is involved. 

 

auto will "auto select" the input level based on the first effect in the chain. which means it could change with each patch, or even drastically change an already made patch if you tried to edit it. 

your best bet is to select 3m. 

 

 

and for input 2, I would get rid of 'same' and change it to 'variax' (assuming you are not using a variax). 

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Based on your audio clips to me it sounds like there is a hardware problem with the Guitar input, which is the only POD input provided with an analog variable impedance circuit which who knows could have some problem..

 

As a test I would suggest to try to connect the guitar instead to the AUX input (which has a fixed 1 MegaOhm impedance) to see if the same issue still happens. If it doesn't we could deduce that the problem is only in the Guitar input circuit, otherwise it means that the hardware problem is elsewhere and more internal.

 

In any case if the AUX input works fine, it wouldn't actually be a major disadvantage to continue using it on a normal basis since the input impedance of most guitar amps is 1 MegaOhm.

 

Basically the automatic variable impedance (missing in the AUX input) would be useful only to reproduce a bit more closely the response of some effects that have the input impedance particularly lower than 1 MegaOhm, for example the fuzz face.

 

Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea also to try spraying just a little Deoxit cleaner (or other quality contact cleaner) on the jacks and in the inputs.

 

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All about POD HD500/X

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On 6/4/2020 at 5:47 PM, pianoguyy said:

while I never read what you said and thought for one minute that the input settings were the problem... 

selecting In-Z 'auto' is going to cause issues going from patch to patch, especially when a 'bypass' is involved. 

 

auto will "auto select" the input level based on the first effect in the chain. which means it could change with each patch, or even drastically change an already made patch if you tried to edit it. 

your best bet is to select 3m. 

 

 

and for input 2, I would get rid of 'same' and change it to 'variax' (assuming you are not using a variax). 

 
I've tried all the settings and none of them completely eliminates this issue.

It sounds like the problem is in the guitar input, while when plugged into the AUX input this problem does not happen.
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On 6/4/2020 at 6:29 PM, joel_brown said:

Does it do this for all of your presets ?  Or just the ones you created ?

 

It does for all of the patches (my own patches and the factory ones). It happens even when the guitar is bypassed (tuner).

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On 6/4/2020 at 9:43 PM, hurghanico said:

Based on your audio clips to me it sounds like there is a hardware problem with the Guitar input, which is the only POD input provided with an analog variable impedance circuit which who knows could have some problem..

 

As a test I would suggest to try to connect the guitar instead to the AUX input (which has a fixed 1 MegaOhm impedance) to see if the same issue still happens. If it doesn't we could deduce that the problem is only in the Guitar input circuit, otherwise it means that the hardware problem is elsewhere and more internal.

 

In any case if the AUX input works fine, it wouldn't actually be a major disadvantage to continue using it on a normal basis since the input impedance of most guitar amps is 1 MegaOhm.

 

Basically the automatic variable impedance (missing in the AUX input) would be useful only to reproduce a bit more closely the response of some effects that have the input impedance particularly lower than 1 MegaOhm, for example the fuzz face.

 

Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea also to try spraying just a little Deoxit cleaner (or other quality contact cleaner) on the jacks and in the inputs.

 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

All about POD HD500/X

help and useful tips

 

Your guess was right. It looks like the problem is in the guitar input, while when connected to the AUX input all works fine.

The main difference I've noticed is that the sound is a little bit louder and brighter when plugged in the GUITAR IN.

Is there any chance to solve this issue through software/firmware? Or some hardware component must be fixed/replaced?

PS.: I didn't try to clean the jack and the inputs yet. That's a good idea. That would be my last shot, I guess. I'll try to do that soon.

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2 minutes ago, rafa_coutinho said:

It sounds like the problem is in the guitar input, while when plugged into the AUX input this problem does not happen.

 

So that confirms the suspect I had.

 

Even if obviously the ideal would be to have a unit 100% working fine, given that the AUX works well, if you don't need to connect other instruments at the same time, you can connect the guitar to the AUX input without losing anything in terms of quality of the passing input signal, as I said previously the Guitar input very often auto-configures itself to use the 1 megaohm impedance, exactly the same impedance of the AUX input.

 

If you absolutely need to use the guitar input your unit needs to be serviced.

 

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All about POD HD500/X

help and useful tips

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31 minutes ago, rafa_coutinho said:

The main difference I've noticed is that the sound is a little bit louder and brighter when plugged in the GUITAR IN.

 

This could be due to the fact that the Guitar Input doesn't work as it should..

If the Guitar In impedance is set to 1 megaohm, its response should be 100% identical to the AUX input.

 

 

31 minutes ago, rafa_coutinho said:

Is there any chance to solve this issue through software/firmware? Or some hardware component must be fixed/replaced?

 

If you already tried the reinstalling/reset/calibrate procedures, you can not do anything else via software..

I heard some people changed the capacitors in the input stage of the mainboard and solved input problems, but I can't guarantee that it would work also in your case.

IIRC the last post of this type had to do with a POD HD300.

 

EDIT:

I found that post I was speaking about, here it is:

https://line6.com/support/topic/33436-pod-hd-300-problem/?do=findComment&comment=314129

 

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All about POD HD500/X

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 6/6/2020 at 3:24 PM, hurghanico said:

 

This could be due to the fact that the Guitar Input doesn't work as it should..

If the Guitar In impedance is set to 1 megaohm, its response should be 100% identical to the AUX input.

 

 

 

If you already tried the reinstalling/reset/calibrate procedures, you can not do anything else via software..

I heard some people changed the capacitors in the input stage of the mainboard and solved input problems, but I can't guarantee that it would work also in your case.

IIRC the last post of this type had to do with a POD HD300.

 

EDIT:

I found that post I was speaking about, here it is:

https://line6.com/support/topic/33436-pod-hd-300-problem/?do=findComment&comment=314129

 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

All about POD HD500/X

help and useful tips

Thanks, mate. Your insights have been great.

 

I've tried to clean the guitar input with a contact cleaner but unfortunately that didn't work.

 

It really looks like a hardware issue.  Maybe I'll try to open it and check out but looking to your post (this fix looks a little advanced) the best thing is take the pod to be serviced...

 

Although it looks like a hardware issue, l wonder if this has anything to do with the variable Input impedance made on flash memory update. Could it be possible for an update to make such damage? 

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27 minutes ago, rafa_coutinho said:

Thanks, mate. Your insights have been great.

 

I've tried to clean the guitar input with a contact cleaner but unfortunately that didn't work.

 

It really looks like a hardware issue.  Maybe I'll try to open it and check out but looking to your post (this fix looks a little advanced) the best thing is take the pod to be serviced...

 

Although it looks like a hardware issue, l wonder if this has anything to do with the variable Input impedance made on flash memory update. Could it be possible for an update to make such damage? 

 

You're welcome..

 

I don't think that a firmware update that went wrong can damage something physically, but as just said, the procedure can go wrong even without notifications, in which case the device can exhibit strange behavior.

I would say that if one tries to reinstall the firmware up to 3 times without ever solving the problem, one can conclude that the problem is at the hardware level.

 

I do not know how much professional hardware repairs of this type can cost in your country, but here in Italy I would say no less than 150 euros, therefore given the average value in the used market of the device, I do not know how much it would be worth doing.

However, if you don't absolutely need also a well working Guitar In input, using the AUX input you can still get the same good results.
 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

All about POD HD500/X

help and useful tips

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On 6/15/2020 at 7:35 PM, hurghanico said:

 

You're welcome..

 

I don't think that a firmware update that went wrong can damage something physically, but as just said, the procedure can go wrong even without notifications, in which case the device can exhibit strange behavior.

I would say that if one tries to reinstall the firmware up to 3 times without ever solving the problem, one can conclude that the problem is at the hardware level.

 

I do not know how much professional hardware repairs of this type can cost in your country, but here in Italy I would say no less than 150 euros, therefore given the average value in the used market of the device, I do not know how much it would be worth doing.

However, if you don't absolutely need also a well working Guitar In input, using the AUX input you can still get the same good results.
 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

All about POD HD500/X

 

help and useful tips

As the price of the device is very expensive here in Brazil, I believe that the repair is worth it.

 

Anyway, as you said, the AUX input temporarily solves my problem.

 

Thank you!

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