Start Up Issue

[rljohnson04]

I have been having an issue for a little while now that has progressively gotten worse. When I start up my Helix, it does not work right away. I will get very little to no sound at first. Gradually, I will get a very distorted sound that comes in and out. Eventually, it will work fine, but it sometimes takes 10 or 15 minutes before I can play. When it first started doing this, it only lasted a few minutes. I would turn it on first thing, then go about my other to do's, and by the time I was ready to play it was fine. Lately, it has been taking much longer for it to finally have a playable tone. Once it does, it's good for the rest of the gig. I have isolated the problem to the helix. I have tried other guitars and I have replaced every cord one at a time, including the power cord. 

[rd2rk]

Back up all of your presets.

Perform a complete Factory Reset.

Restore your presets.

If that doesn't fix it, reinstall the Firmware.

Restore your presets.

If that doesn't fix it, contact support.

[somebodyelse]

LOL

Since the Stadium came out I've had a couple of 'random' issues with mine - few weeks ago, a couple of presets were just 'gibberish'; a restore etc sorted that, then yesterday, no output; switch off and back on fixed that one.

If anyone at Line 6 is watching, "I'm NOT buying a Stadium anytime soon."

;)

[line-6-user]

On 5/4/2026 at 9:07 PM, rljohnson04 said:

I have been having an issue for a little while now that has progressively gotten worse. When I start up my Helix, it does not work right away. I will get very little to no sound at first. Gradually, I will get a very distorted sound that comes in and out. Eventually, it will work fine, but it sometimes takes 10 or 15 minutes before I can play. When it first started doing this, it only lasted a few minutes. I would turn it on first thing, then go about my other to do's, and by the time I was ready to play it was fine. Lately, it has been taking much longer for it to finally have a playable tone. Once it does, it's good for the rest of the gig. I have isolated the problem to the helix. I have tried other guitars and I have replaced every cord one at a time, including the power cord. 

That issue likely needs an electronic engineer to fix it.

 

My hunch is either capacitor/s or dry soldering/heat displacement related.

 

Have you resolved it?

[line-6-user]

On 5/5/2026 at 9:28 AM, somebodyelse said:

LOL

Since the Stadium came out I've had a couple of 'random' issues with mine - few weeks ago, a couple of presets were just 'gibberish'; a restore etc sorted that, then yesterday, no output; switch off and back on fixed that one.

If anyone at Line 6 is watching, "I'm NOT buying a Stadium anytime soon."

;)

Your comment triggered old memories from decades ago.

 

I then purchased a standalone GSmart or GPSmart, can't really remember now. The device worked great, untill one day it stopped locking on to satellites, rendering the device completely unusable.  It soon came apparent that many people with the same device had the exact the same issue!

One clever person commented on the forum that he new what the problem was and reported it to the company selling that device but nothing got fixed by the company, so the clever person decided to fix it for all of us, free of charge.

Apparently the microchip's Almanac was set up with an obsolete date that when the time came the coding would change, to start locking to fewer satellites and unless (then) it would connect to more than 3 satellites, it wouldn't work smoothly or none at all, hence loosing tracking.

 

After installing that DIY firmware from that person, everything worked perfectly for everyone straight away.

 

Since then I have always been suspicious if suddenly some electronic device stopped working as it should.  

When a microchip is involved, anything is possible.

 

Like you, I am not moving to Stadium any time soon.  To much money for very little gain (pan intended) LOL, My helix floor gives me what I need, the rest that is on the Stadium, either I won't use or have my laptop software doing it already.  I use the laptop already anyway.

[somebodyelse]

On 5/17/2026 at 3:57 PM, line-6-user said:

Your comment triggered old memories from decades ago.

 

I then purchased a standalone GSmart or GPSmart, can't really remember now. The device worked great, untill one day it stopped locking on to satellites, rendering the device completely unusable.  It soon came apparent that many people with the same device had the exact the same issue!

One clever person commented on the forum that he new what the problem was and reported it to the company selling that device but nothing got fixed by the company, so the clever person decided to fix it for all of us, free of charge.

Apparently the microchip's Almanac was set up with an obsolete date that when the time came the coding would change, to start locking to fewer satellites and unless (then) it would connect to more than 3 satellites, it wouldn't work smoothly or none at all, hence loosing tracking.

 

After installing that DIY firmware from that person, everything worked perfectly for everyone straight away.

 

Since then I have always been suspicious if suddenly some electronic device stopped working as it should.  

When a microchip is involved, anything is possible.

 

Like you, I am not moving to Stadium any time soon.  To much money for very little gain (pan intended) LOL, My helix floor gives me what I need, the rest that is on the Stadium, either I won't use or have my laptop software doing it already.  I use the laptop already anyway.

It was a tongue in cheek post, really.

I'm not suggesting that this is what's going on here. I'm sure my issues are just coincidental, and it's been behaving itself, since.

However, I'd be extremely suspicious if an update for the original Powercabs were to suddenly materialise.