[SOLVED!] Helix Control Not Recognised By Helix Rack (was "Helix Rack Potentially Bricked?")

[Thumpersteve]

OK, please bear with me here.  I'm using Helix Rack and Control, successfully updated to 3.60 (from 3.15) via Windows 10 back in June.  HX Edit was the most current version.

 

The Rack is now locked into the "Boot Failure. Entered Update Mode!" screen, for reasons I shall endeavour to explain (and keep as brief as possible, so I have missed out steps like "I pressed Enc 1 and 6 or 5 and 6 on power up", backing up and restoring etc.).

 

Yesterday, I connected Control and received the on-screen message on the rack "Helix Control Must Be Updated To Work Properly.  Update Now?".  I've been doing a lot of re-jigging in the music room over the past months so it's not been connected or used for some time - last time Control definitely worked was at V3.15 in early June prior to update.  The scribble strips are illuminated but blank, the top strip completely dark.  I don't believe it was connected when I updated to 3.50 and 3.60, which I suspect may be the root cause.

So I hit Encoder 6 to accept "Y" - it entered update mode, then soon reported "Error! Helix Control Update Failed!  Reconnect to try again."

 

Disconnected and reconnected, several times, tried again, no luck.  

Did a lot of Googling and reading here, which suggested I'd missed a step in the update process regarding having the Control turned on/off at certain points in the last Update, and that a roll-back to the last known working version may help.

So I deleted all the Helix software from the laptop, restarted, reinstalled Updater and rolled back to Version 3.15.  This worked fine on the Helix but still had the same error message re. Control, and no amount of reconnecting would fix it.

Did some more Googling and much reading here - there don't appear to be many instances of this issue at all, but I found this thread, where someone claimed the same issue was resolved by rolling back to V1.04 (or 1.10) and then reinstalling V2.12:
 

 

This made sense at the time, but was probably a FSM* in hindsight (*f&*!^!% stupid move).  I can sense heads shaking in disbelief and readers searching for the "Picard with forehead in hand" meme.  

Anyway, I decided to proceed with this (probably) very stupid idea -  deleted HX Edit and Updater, cleared caches etc, restarted, reinstalled Updater to roll back to 1.10 in Offline mode, which went OK until it hit the 50% mark at which stage Updater hung and Helix reported "update failed".  After 2 hours I switched off Helix Rack and restarted - it briefly shows the boot screen as Version 1.10.0 before the "Boot Failure. Entered Update Mode!" message, and has been locked into that mode ever since.

I have tried uninstalling Updater, HX Edit, using new USB cables, different ports, harsh language, inappropriate gestures, thoughts and prayers, pressing Enc 1 and 6 on boot up etc., but now I can't even get Updater (or HX Edit) to recognise the Helix Rack at all.   The only option I haven't tried is using a different computer/laptop, as I don't have one available at the moment.  Maybe worth pointing out that both HX Edit and Update do recognise my HX Effects unit, so I'm pretty certain it's not a USB port/cable/software issue.

 

Both Rack/Control were purchased in June 2021 (out of warranty) and have worked/integrated/updated seamlessly until yesterday, so I'm completely at a loss and would appreciate any help/guidance available to get the damn thing unbricked.

 

 

 

PS - I've followed all the steps here (and elsewhere) in an attempt to recover something/anything.

  

[Thumpersteve]

Ok, some good progress. Turns out my HX drivers had become corrupted and needed to be manually deleted.

 

Once that worked and Updater/Edit could once again "see" and connect to Helix Rack, I went back to first principles and regressed all the way back to FW V1.06... which worked.

 

Reconnected the Control, hit the "Update" option when prompted on the rack, and got the same "Update Failed" error message.

 

So I started playing with the Control diagnostics... 

 

Hit one of the rightmost buttons on power up and Control gives its version as V3.1.5.0.0, which is odd as that doesn't match any known firmware version.

 

Hit one of the left buttons on power up and the Control goes into "Update Mode"... interesting. So I connected control via USB to Updater and... it was recognised and appeared on screen, as Helix Control FW V3.15, no updates available.

 

Assuming it was last flashed when I updated to 3.15, I decided to update Rack to 3.15 and see if it would recognise Control again.

 

Still nothing. The Update option didn't work.

 

So to summarise, Helix Rack is now working at FW V3.60 again, but still doesn't connect to the Control unit which appears to be stuck at FW V3.15.

 

Has anyone else experienced this? I've raised a support ticket already, but this has me totally stumped.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 11, 2023 by Thumpersteve
Speeling Errur

[Thumpersteve]

After all that faffing about... it turns out there was a tiny piece of material stuck in the CAT6 cable's plug at the Control end... cleaned that out and it worked instantly.

 

This doofus will now get his coat and retire in embarrassment.

 

 

[datacommando]

On 9/11/2023 at 10:12 AM, Thumpersteve said:

After all that faffing about... it turns out there was a tiny piece of material stuck in the CAT6 cable's plug at the Control end... cleaned that out and it worked instantly.

 

This doofus will now get his coat and retire in embarrassment.

 

Hi,

 

Good to know that you have your Rack back up and running, and situations like yours are very common - user error, bad connection etc. 

 

I realise you regard it as embarrassing, but at least you had the bottle to come back in here and clarify the issue.
 

Far too many people come here seeking assistance, often complaining that the Firmware update had turned their expensive piece of kit into a doorstop, but they never return to let other users know if any of the suggested fixes in here worked for them, or if it was a genuine hardware problem, or even that it was purely an oversight on their part.

Enjoy using your now fully functional updated Rack.

 

[Thumpersteve]

Thanks DC - it underlines that even with technically complex gear like Helix, it's wrong to jump to conclusions about hardware and firmware, and should look at the flippin' obvious culprits first.

 

Control had been disconnected and the cable coiled up for some time while I was drilling holes, sawing wood etc., so I should have thought about checking the physical connection much earlier before a marathon session of updates and frustration.

[brue58ski]

That has happened to me. It was a Variax and it just stopped working. Huh? Finally blew some compressed air into the VDI input and it leared it up. I am more careful about that.