V10.02 hangs?

I saw this post on tuner freeze and started thinking there may be something there...
http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-bugs/68713-screen-freeze-while-tuner.html

Today, I left my Axe-Fx USB connected and powered on unattended for a couple hours with no lockups. I then engaged the tuner briefly, then exited the tuner and left it alone. Within about 45 minutes it had locked up with a blank screen. I'm going to do some further experimentation with this, but I'd be interested to know if others are using the tuner at any point leading up to the freeze.

I'm wondering if a bug has crept in via the new protocol implemented in v10. Maybe it has something to do with the SEND REALTIME SYSEX setting, which would relate to the USB connection. Just thinking out loud here.
 
WannaAxe said:
I guess the question which begs to be asked-
If this is a USB driver issue, why is it now appearing with the new firmware, and not before? Does the new firmware handle USB communication differently, or make use of different USB libraries/functionality?
Click to expand...
Don't know what you are talking about. The issue was always there, even before FW10.
 
I had a freeze in rehearsal yesterday with no USB connected, only MFC. Disconcerting with a big gig in a few days.
 
These tests are with USB connected:

No connection between Axe and any other device except for USB to i3 Win7 64bit HP Laptop

Fresh FW10.02 and Factory Presets loaded via Fractal Bot 1.1 plus System Reset done on Axe.

Fresh install of Axe2 USB drivers on PC + reboot

Only program open on PC - 'USBlyzer' (monitors/captures USB data traffic) 33 day fully functional trial version

No instrument plugged in

Axe left idle during test

'Freeze' Observations: Axe screen goes blank (remains backlit) - No Error message - buttons/dials unresponsive.

Monitored Sessions 1-3 Various Send Realtime Sysex settings / USB Adaptor Mode: OFF

Session 1.

I/O Settings:

USB Adaptor Mode: Off

Send Realtime Sysex: Tuner

Preset: 000 59 Bassguy

No usblyzer traffic data detected Axe -> PC

Start: 13:17

Axe froze 14:02

(Trouble free Duration): 45 mins

===============================

Session 2.

I/O Settings:

USB Adaptor Mode: Off

Preset 000 59 Bassguy

Send Realtime Sysex: Tempo

Usblyzer Traffic data detected: Axe -> PC: Tap tempo Sequences (all Incoming to PC)

Start: 14:16

Axe froze: 14:29

(Trouble free Duration): 13 mins

==============================

Session 3.

I/O Settings:

USB Adaptor Mode: Off

Send Realtime Sysex: None

Preset 000 59 Bassguy

No usblyzer i/o traffic detected

Start: 14:35:58

Axe froze: 15:10

(Trouble free Duration): 34 mins

============================

Sessions 4 - 6 have USB Adaptor Mode: ON & Various Realtime Sysex settings

Session 4.

I/O Settings:

USB Adaptor Mode: On

Send Realtime Sysex: None

Preset 000 59 Bassguy

No usblyzer i/o traffic detected

Start: 15:16:04

Axe froze: 15:49

(Trouble free Duration): 33 mins

==========================

Session 5.

I/O Settings:

USB Adaptor Mode: On

Send Realtime Sysex: Tempo

Preset 000 59 Bassguy

Usblyzer Traffic data detected: Axe -> PC: Tap tempo Sequences (all Incoming to PC)

Start: 15:57

Axe froze: 16:10

(Trouble free Duration): 13 mins

============================

At this point I lost the will to live facing waiting another 45 mins with Send Realtime Sysex: Tuner ....

As can be seen above:

The status of the USB Adaptor Mode setting it seems is not relevant

However, there does seem to be consistencies in the 'time taken to crash' with the Send Realtime Sysex settings on both sets:

Send Realtime Sysex: None = 33/34 mins

Send Realtime Sysex: Tempo = 13 mins

I'd therefore assume Send Realtime Sysex: Tuner with USB Adaptor Mode = On (Session 6) would return similar results to Session 1 (45 mins)


Best I can muster .... anyone else seeing this? (if you're mad enough to sit and watch your Axe for hours!)
 
I had my first freeze a couple of days ago:

Display went blank, no sound.

1. 10.02 Firmware
2. Simple preset, made from scratch with amp, factory cab, reverb, regular delay. low cpu use
3. Hooked via usb to macbook air
4. Logic Pro 9 was on, no axe edit or bot
5. Grounded power socket (european 230V)
 
Add me also. When booting the AxeII (with USB connected to a Win XP Professional machine). Axe will go all LEDS on, screen is blank, requires power cycle of the Axe with USB disconnected.
New AxeII w/ Ehtercon port
10.02 FW loaded with FB 1.0 (full reset was also done)
Also severe lag on AE 1.9 when using Axe USB and standard MIDI port input from FCb1010.
Going to try AE 1.9 with MIDI-MATE USB to MIDI tonight to see if the same issues exist.
I suspect the USB driver may the issue here.
 
mrMagenta said:
I had my first freeze a couple of days ago:

Display went blank, no sound.

1. 10.02 Firmware
2. Simple preset, made from scratch with amp, factory cab, reverb, regular delay. low cpu use
3. Hooked via usb to macbook air
4. Logic Pro 9 was on, no axe edit or bot
5. Grounded power socket (european 230V)
Click to expand...

What OSX version?

USB 2 or USB 3?

I removed and re-installed the FAS USB driver extensions on my recently updated from 10.6.8 to 10.8.3 MBP (USB 2) and it seemed to help .... though haven't tested thoroughly as yet ... only monitored it for 20 mins or so, but at least it didn't bomb within 5 minutes as it was doing previously.
 
maxdown said:
These tests are with USB connected:

No connection between Axe and any other device except for USB to i3 Win7 64bit HP Laptop

Fresh FW10.02 and Factory Presets loaded via Fractal Bot 1.1 plus System Reset done on Axe.

Fresh install of Axe2 USB drivers on PC + reboot

Only program open on PC - 'USBlyzer' (monitors/captures USB data traffic) 33 day fully functional trial version

No instrument plugged in

Axe left idle during test

'Freeze' Observations: Axe screen goes blank (remains backlit) - No Error message - buttons/dials unresponsive.
Click to expand...
Nice find! I hope Cliff reads this. You seem to have found a hot trace here...
I would do the same experiment if I would have access to my axe right now. Can someone try to confirm the numbers?

But this basicly convinces me that it is indeed some kind of buffering/leak problem, as I assumed.
The interesting thing is: why does the unit run longer troublefree with the mode set to tuner? One would expect "none" to run the longest.
 
Zwiebelchen said:
Nice find! I hope Cliff reads this. You seem to have found a hot trace here...
I would do the same experiment if I would have access to my axe right now. Can someone try to confirm the numbers?

But this basicly convinces me that it is indeed some kind of buffering/leak problem, as I assumed.
The interesting thing is: why does the unit run longer troublefree with the mode set to tuner? One would expect "none" to run the longest.
Click to expand...


So, do we think that this lockup will occur only if one is connected to some device like a laptop via a USB?
So, no worries of this occurring when playing live without this?
What about Ninja9 who said it during a rehearsal without a USB???

I can live with this for now so long as it would not happen during a live playing.
The sound folks would scream if I forced a pop in house from an impromptu off-on of the unit.
 
maxdown said:
These tests are with USB connected:

...

Best I can muster .... anyone else seeing this? (if you're mad enough to sit and watch your Axe for hours!)
Click to expand...

Max, I am going through your steps now to see if I can recreate the lockup on my system.

Kudos to you for spending the time to post step by step actions you took to get your issues! Well done!
 
AlexL said:
So, do we think that this lockup will occur only if one is connected to some device like a laptop via a USB?
So, no worries of this occurring when playing live without this?
What about Ninja9 who said it during a rehearsal without a USB???

I can live with this for now so long as it would not happen during a live playing.
The sound folks would scream if I forced a pop in house from an impromptu off-on of the unit.
Click to expand...

It appears perfectly stable to me with the USB cable pulled. I have it reset to the defaults (Send Realtime Sysex: All and USB Adaptor Mode: Off) and it's been happily glowing away and playing fine for 2 hours.

Not sure what Ninja9's problem might be - maybe the preset had a high CPU and was hovering on the limit?
 
ninja9 said:
I had a freeze in rehearsal yesterday with no USB connected, only MFC. Disconcerting with a big gig in a few days.
Click to expand...
Are you using CAT5 or a MIDI cable to connect to your MFC101?

This is interesting and would seem to indicate this may not be just a USB issue. Might this point toward a more general issue with the overall communication protocol, which could manifest via USB or MFC connections? I haven't managed to have any crashes when USB and MFC101 are both disconnected. I haven't tried with just the MFC, so I'll give that a shot tonight and report back.
 
AlexL said:
So, do we think that this lockup will occur only if one is connected to some device like a laptop via a USB?
So, no worries of this occurring when playing live without this?
What about Ninja9 who said it during a rehearsal without a USB???

I can live with this for now so long as it would not happen during a live playing.
The sound folks would scream if I forced a pop in house from an impromptu off-on of the unit.
Click to expand...
I never had a crash with the Axe without USB plugged in. Not a single time, even after 8 hour sessions (with MFC plugged in). This only happens when USB is plugged in so no worries about using the Axe live. Just don't hook up USB when you play live... (you don't want that anyway, as it increases CPU load and every bit of CPU matters when it comes to switching presets or X/Y states).
 
Zwiebelchen said:
I never had a crash with the Axe without USB plugged in. Not a single time, even after 8 hour sessions (with MFC plugged in). This only happens when USB is plugged in so no worries about using the Axe live. Just don't hook up USB when you play live... (you don't want that anyway, as it increases CPU load and every bit of CPU matters when it comes to switching presets or X/Y states).
Click to expand...

Thank you for the confirmation!
 
I've had one freeze with V10.02.

At the time I had disconnected my expression pedal from the TRS cable, which was plugged straight to Axe.
As I turned Axe on, it crashed almost immediately. Blank screen and the buttons didn't respond.
I suppose it was with a stock preset with autoengage wah.
I've used the unit alot lately, for both playing and as an headphone preamp - usb plugged in all the time.
Never had any other similar problems.

This just makes me wonder - could the freezing have something to do with the usb cable itself?
I'm sure a TRS cable laying on the ground sends a bit mixed signal to the unit - could it be that a faulty usb cable could result in something similar?

I'm just quessing. Maybe this is relevant, maybe not.
 
Democca said:
This just makes me wonder - could the freezing have something to do with the usb cable itself?
I'm sure a TRS cable laying on the ground sends a bit mixed signal to the unit - could it be that a faulty usb cable could result in something similar?

I'm just quessing. Maybe this is relevant, maybe not.
Click to expand...

It's easy enough to test that one out I guess :) Even though the cable was fine for using with Fractal Bot to upload the FW and Factory presets ..... I'll bring a few more USB cables back from work tomorrow.

The thing that puzzles me is that when the Axe is set to Send Realtime Sysex = Tuner or None the freeze still happened. I was monitoring the USB port and there was zero data transfer in or out going on in these 2 settings ... IE the USB cable might as well not have been plugged in.

OK I admit I'm not an expert on USB but maybe there's some other sub-communication 'hand shake' method going on that didn't get detected - the drivers on the PC returning/not returning something thats proving toxic to this FW? I'll not embarrass myself more by speculating on something I know little about.

I'm guessing it's definitely not all that common or every Windows user using the Axe as a sound card with a DAW via USB would be kicking off because it would be freezing regularly .....(I tried it with Reaper). So maybe it's more local to my setup somehow?

I might roll back to the earlier FW10 just for a quick test next.
 
Add me in to this as well. I have had 4-5 freezes lately. 10.02. I have been trying to record my guitar on Logic Pro and in the middle of recording, its unresponsive. The screen is as is. One time, all the LED turned on on the meter. OSX 10.8.2. i7 4GB Macbook Pro, Mid 2011. Have to connect USB naturally. :) Axe-Edit Open and Closed cases same. Nothing Else connected on the AXE, I use only phones out.
 
10.04 firmware was released tonight and posted on the forum. Search for it. I would post a link but im making this post from my phone.
 
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