Helix 3.11 Issue

[GabCS]

Hello! Today I booted my Helix LT as usual (I've been an user for 2 and a half years with 0 problems in the past) when all of a sudden none of the LED rings were working aswell as the switches or the expression pedal, neither the EXP light above it. I was getting no sound from it, but I had display signal and I could navegate through the presets and setlist aswell as the global settings etc. I panicked and tried the safe mode, and the reset from factory boot holding the proper switches. None of this worked, all I got was the main view with no chance of entering the desired modes. When I got home I plugged it in via USB, my PC recognized it and I proceeded to update it (I updated my HX Edit first) I went from 3.0 to 3.11 BUT when it restarted after "successfully" updating, this happened. What shall I do? Where I live is way too difficult to find a replacement and Im afraid its going to be a Hardware issue. RIP HELIX

 

[HonestOpinion]

8 hours ago, GabCS said:

Hello! Today I booted my Helix LT as usual (I've been an user for 2 and a half years with 0 problems in the past) when all of a sudden none of the LED rings were working aswell as the switches or the expression pedal, neither the EXP light above it. I was getting no sound from it, but I had display signal and I could navegate through the presets and setlist aswell as the global settings etc. I panicked and tried the safe mode, and the reset from factory boot holding the proper switches. None of this worked, all I got was the main view with no chance of entering the desired modes. When I got home I plugged it in via USB, my PC recognized it and I proceeded to update it (I updated my HX Edit first) I went from 3.0 to 3.11 BUT when it restarted after "successfully" updating, this happened. What shall I do? Where I live is way too difficult to find a replacement and Im afraid its going to be a Hardware issue. RIP HELIX

 

 

Did it just freeze on this screen, was this the only message you got? Maybe you mistyped but there is no "HX Edit 3.11" yet as of this moment for the LT. The latest HX Edit version is 3.10. It is the latest firmware that is at 3.11.

 

You may want to try a manual update using the Line6 Updater if you can't get things working with the HX Edit automated update..

1. Uninstall everything.
2. Download HX Edit 3.10 and install it with all checkboxes checked. If you can upgrade the firmware to 3.11 successfully at this point great. If not, proceed to #3.
3. Download/install the Line6 Updater along with the 3.11 "Flash Memory" firmware file. 
4. Run global reset - https://helixhelp.com/tips-and-guides/universal/reset-options
5. Manually run the firmware update - Run the Line6 Updater, point it at the 3.11 firmware file you downloaded.
6. Use backup to restore global settings and setlists

[GabCS]

1 hour ago, HonestOpinion said:

 

Did it just freeze on this screen, was this the only message you got? Maybe you mistyped but there is no "HX Edit 3.11" yet as of this moment for the LT. The latest HX Edit version is 3.10. It is the latest firmware that is at 3.11.

 

You may want to try a manual update using the Line6 Updater if you can't get things working with the HX Edit automated update..

1. Uninstall everything.
2. Download HX Edit 3.10 and install it. If you can upgrade the firmware to 3.11 successfully at this point great. If not, proceed to #3.
3. Download/install the Line6 Updater along with the 3.11 "Flash Memory" firmware file. 
4. Run global reset - https://helixhelp.com/tips-and-guides/universal/reset-options
5. Manually run the firmware update - Run the Line6 Updater, point it at the 3.11 firmware file you downloaded.
6. Use backup to restore global settings and setlists

Exactly I mistyped my HX Edit version I'm on 3.10, thats the only message I got, the update was going as expected until it rebooted, it has been hours like that and nothing happens. The point is that every single switch seems to be failing and I cant enter the manual mode as suggested in the reset options (Tried every combination of switches). When I get home I'll try and see if my PC still recognizes it via USB. Thank you so much!

[datacommando]

1 hour ago, GabCS said:

When I get home I'll try and see if my PC still recognizes it via USB.

If your PC fails to recognise your LT over the USB, turn off the Helix and disconnect the USB cable from the LT the PC. Reboot your PC and power up your LT while holding down FS6 & FS12 until it enters “Safe Boot” mode, and then reconnect the USB cable to both. Now you can continue to follow the advice given by “HonestOpinion” in the bullet points 5 and 6 above. Hopefully, your LT should appear in the Line6 Updater and you can attempt a reinstall of the firmware.

 

Hope this helps/makes sense.

 

Good Luck

[GabCS]

1 hour ago, datacommando said:

If your PC fails to recognise your LT over the USB, turn off the Helix and disconnect the USB cable from the LT the PC. Reboot your PC and power up your LT while holding down FS6 & FS12 until it enters “Safe Boot” mode, and then reconnect the USB cable to both. Now you can continue to follow the advice given by “HonestOpinion” in the bullet points 5 and 6 above. Hopefully, your LT should appear in the Line6 Updater and you can attempt a reinstall of the firmware.

 

Hope this helps/makes sense.

 

Good Luck

As expected I can't get into "Safe Boot" mode, it just pops up the "Updating UI MCU Firmware, please wait" screen. What bugs me the most is that there isn't a single light coming from the switches' rings or EXP1/2 at the startup.

 

EDIT: Still can't connect it to my PC via USB I uninstalled everything, rebooted and reintalled, rebooted again and no signal from my Helix over HX Edit or Updater

[HonestOpinion]

1 hour ago, GabCS said:

As expected I can't get into "Safe Boot" mode, it just pops up the "Updating UI MCU Firmware, please wait" screen. What bugs me the most is that there isn't a single light coming from the switches' rings or EXP1/2 at the startup.

 

EDIT: Still can't connect it to my PC via USB I uninstalled everything, rebooted and reintalled, rebooted again and no signal from my Helix over HX Edit or Updater

 

Probably not the issue but make sure your power cable is firmly seated on both the device and outlet ends. Also ensure nothing else is plugged into the device while doing the global reset including the USB as datacommando recommended.

 

If you can get past the "Updating UI MCU..." screen it might require rebooting the PC yet again and try swapping out the USB cable for another one(or two) and moving it around to other USB ports. Worth trying another PC if you have one available as well.

 

Also, keep trying the global reset FS6 & FS12 as data recommended as well as some of the other reset options available at https://helixhelp.com/tips-and-guides/universal/reset-options. I know other users on the forum have had success through sheer perseverance by rolling through the various reset options.  Ultimately you may have to open up a ticket with Line6.

[datacommando]

2 hours ago, GabCS said:

rebooted again and no signal from my Helix over HX Edit or Updater

Darn, that routine usually manages to breathe some life back into the hardware.
 

I realise that you think it may be hopeless, but as mentioned by “HonestOpinion” in the post above, if you keep on kicking - it may just fire up.

 

Also, when attempting to do these procedures it is  really really important to have only the Line 6 Updater running on your PC. Almost anything else running in the background can interfere with this USB voodoo!

 

As the saying goes - “If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again”.

 

Sorry - can’t be anymore assistance than this.

[GabCS]

1 minute ago, datacommando said:

Darn, that routine usually manages to breathe some life back into the hardware.
 

I realise that you think it may be hopeless, but as mentioned by “HonestOpinion” in the post above, if you keep on kicking - it may just fire up.

 

Also, when attempting to do these procedures it is  really really important to have only the Line 6 Updater running on your PC. Almost anything else running in the background can interfere with this USB voodoo!

 

As the saying goes - “If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again”.

 

Sorry - can’t be anymore assistance than this.

Its Ok, I appreciate a lot the effort and the will of helping. Just sent a ticket to the support team, if it ends up workin, I'll let you know.

Thank you so much!

[datacommando]

3 minutes ago, GabCS said:

Its Ok, I appreciate a lot the effort and the will of helping. Just sent a ticket to the support team, if it ends up workin, I'll let you know.

Thank you so much!

Probably the best thing to do - I just had another look at your video, but full screen this time. Instead of what appears to be a glitch in the User Interface MCU update, there is a bunch of glyphs that looks like Klingon scrambled into the red line along the top of the screen. That is not normal!

 

Shame the usual fix it routines didn’t work.

 

Good luck.

[PierM]

If I may add, try using the shortest USB cable you have there, plus try plugging to a different USB port. If you have 3,4, 6 or more ports, try the same procedure in each oh them...

 

I know sounds desperate, but I solved a similar situation once, doing that.

[GabCS]

20 hours ago, PierM said:

If I may add, try using the shortest USB cable you have there, plus try plugging to a different USB port. If you have 3,4, 6 or more ports, try the same procedure in each oh them...

 

I know sounds desperate, but I solved a similar situation once, doing that.

Hello! Tried every cable I own and every single port of my PC. Already contacted an official tech support to try and see whats wrong since it seems that my footswitches don't work. Once I can get access to the Safe Boot mode everything should go fine.

Thank you so much!

[HonestOpinion]

23 minutes ago, GabCS said:

Hello! Tried every cable I own and every single port of my PC. Already contacted an official tech support to try and see whats wrong since it seems that my footswitches don't work. Once I can get access to the Safe Boot mode everything should go fine.

Thank you so much!

 

Let us know how you got it back online when you get the issue resolved. Good luck!

[somebodyelse]

Has anyone here ever opened one of these up?

If I was in this situation AND out of the warranty period, I'd be in there, sniffing around - literally - for failed components.

Something that would occur to me, assuming there's one in there, would be to remove the battery that is usually present for patch memory retention and give it ten minutes to lose it's memory. Then stick the battery back in.

Not saying this will make any difference, but it may just be enough to force the unit to do a factory reset?

Just a thought.

[PierM]

2 minutes ago, somebodyelse said:

Has anyone here ever opened one of these up?

If I was in this situation AND out of the warranty period, I'd be in there, sniffing around - literally - for failed components.

Something that would occur to me, assuming there's one in there, would be to remove the battery that is usually present for patch memory retention and give it ten minutes to lose it's memory. Then stick the battery back in.

Not saying this will make any difference, but it may just be enough to force the unit to do a factory reset?

 

It's missing or broken software preventing unit to boot. If you do a reset, the unit still won't boot since there is not a eeprom storing a backup firmware that you can rebuild with a reset. That's more like a broken windows installation preventing you to boot, with no safe partition. :)

[somebodyelse]

26 minutes ago, PierM said:

 

It's missing or broken software preventing unit to boot. If you do a reset, the unit still won't boot since there is not a eeprom storing a backup firmware that you can rebuild with a reset. That's more like a broken windows installation preventing you to boot, with no safe partition. :)

Okay, thanks for the info.

Most likely needs the chip reflashing directly, outside of the unit?

[datacommando]

1 hour ago, somebodyelse said:

Most likely needs the chip reflashing directly, outside of the unit?

The on-screen message appears to indicate that the Firmware (Flash memory) is failing to complete the required  update write routine to the Microprocessor. 
 

The MCU uses on-chip embedded Flash memory in which to store and execute its program. Storing the program in this way means that the MCU has a very short start-up period and can be executing code very quickly. This is failing before completion.

 

Hope this helps/makes sense.

[GabCS]

Hello guys! Update:

After submitting a ticket to Line6 they told me to contact an official tech support in my area (Hot tech support in your area want to fix your multieffects!).

I got it fixed today; it was a hardware problem, some board was deattached from its position, the fix was cheaper than I expected and everything seems to be back to normal, the tech even upgraded it to 3.11 and I'll be diggin' on it tonight to taste the new amp :D

 

Thank you so much to everyone who tried to help, this is a nice forum, I like it! 

 

[HonestOpinion]

3 hours ago, GabCS said:

Hello guys! Update:

After submitting a ticket to Line6 they told me to contact an official tech support in my area (Hot tech support in your area want to fix your multieffects!).

I got it fixed today; it was a hardware problem, some board was deattached from its position, the fix was cheaper than I expected and everything seems to be back to normal, the tech even upgraded it to 3.11 and I'll be diggin' on it tonight to taste the new amp :D

 

Thank you so much to everyone who tried to help, this is a nice forum, I like it! 

 

 

Thanks for updating us. Glad to see you back in action!

[bob808]

On 5/5/2021 at 10:53 PM, GabCS said:

Hello guys! Update:

After submitting a ticket to Line6 they told me to contact an official tech support in my area (Hot tech support in your area want to fix your multieffects!).

I got it fixed today; it was a hardware problem, some board was deattached from its position, the fix was cheaper than I expected and everything seems to be back to normal, the tech even upgraded it to 3.11 and I'll be diggin' on it tonight to taste the new amp :D

 

Thank you so much to everyone who tried to help, this is a nice forum, I like it! 

 

hi GabCS, glad to hear your problem solved. If you still remember, when the tech support work on your helix, what board and where that board located? I am running the same ui mcu stuck kind of thing right now, and in my town there is no qualified tech support so I must to figure it on my own

[CraigGT]

On 6/21/2022 at 4:50 PM, bob808 said:

hi GabCS, glad to hear your problem solved. If you still remember, when the tech support work on your helix, what board and where that board located? I am running the same ui mcu stuck kind of thing right now, and in my town there is no qualified tech support so I must to figure it on my own

It was probably the MCU board, it's mounted on the the I/O board and a pig to get to unless you're feeling adventurous.

[renofluff]

On 9/19/2022 at 2:32 PM, CraigGT said:

It was probably the MCU board, it's mounted on the the I/O board and a pig to get to unless you're feeling adventurous.

 

Thanks for the image. I can confirm that my Line6 Helix Floor has the same issue. I took the rear panel off to try and see if I could at least reseat the MCU or the cables connecting it. I, too, have to figure this out on my own because there are no stores or techs in my area.

The IO board is a pain to take off, with several screws to remove as well as rings for the 1/4" jacks. Then, you have to disconnect the PSU cable, and one cable leading to the expression pedal. That is the only way you can flip the board into the position shown in the picture. The MCU is on the underside of the IO board, physically connected to it by headers on the bottom of the daughterboard. The cables attached to it are glued at the ends.



I'm on firmware 3.60.0, and I have the same "Updating UI MCU Firmware" freeze issue. I reseated the MCU, reseated the USB2.0 connector, and pressed on the ribbon cables attached to it, to no avail. On Windows, nothing shows up in Device Manager, and 1/3 times that the USB cable is connected I receive a "USB Device Malfunction" message. I tried different USB cables, different computers, too.

Line6 Updater does not recognize the Helix, and the footswitch combinations for Safe Boot Mode, Global Reset, or anything else for that matter, do not work.
I have submitted a ticket with Line6 Support, but am not optimistic they'll have any advice outside of "take it to an authorized reseller/distributor/tech/store, etc." Let's hope they can help in a meaningful way.

[traciik]

I'm having the same exact issue. Any updates from others besides he who took it to a repair shop? 

[CraigGT]

On 1/17/2024 at 7:58 PM, traciik said:

I'm having the same exact issue. Any updates from others besides he who took it to a repair shop? 

Mine's still in bits I'm afraid, I ended up buying a  new one with three years warranty.

 

Craig

[gmtrenta]

I had the same issue with an update to 3.71.0 of a brand new HELIX unit. The message "Updating UI MCU Firmware, please wait. Do not power off the unit!" was always showing up, no matter with footswitches was pressed at startup. After excluding a problem on my Mac, Line 6 Updater, configuration and USB cable by successfully connecting another unit, the service center advised my to contact the store that did sell me the device as this must be an hardware issue. The store MusiX was very supportive and by intervention of the manager they will give me a brand new replacement  device in the next days (no available at the moment as it is a platinum limited edition). The Line 6 support is arguing that the update procedure is robust and that, should be a failure occur, the the device can be always safely restarted and the update performed with Line 6 updater by starting the unit having footswitches 6+12 pressed at startup. If this is not working then, according to Line 6 support, it must be an hardware issue. HOWEVER, as I am a computer engineer and known what you can do badly in programming an update procedure, I will be prudent in the future and eliminate any situation which could interfere with the update process: (1) deactivate screen saver (2) deactivate sleep mode (3) stop all running application (4) start and keep the updating software, either HX Edit, or better Line 6 Updater fullscreen and always in focus..  

[majeed69]

On 5/5/2021 at 5:53 PM, GabCS said:

Hello guys! Update:

After submitting a ticket to Line6 they told me to contact an official tech support in my area (Hot tech support in your area want to fix your multieffects!).

I got it fixed today; it was a hardware problem, some board was deattached from its position, the fix was cheaper than I expected and everything seems to be back to normal, the tech even upgraded it to 3.11 and I'll be diggin' on it tonight to taste the new amp :D

 

Thank you so much to everyone who tried to help, this is a nice forum, I like it! 

 

Hi,

Please I need help with my line 6 Helix, I have the same problem "Updating UI MCU Firmware, please wait. Do not power off the unit!".

 

Thanks