Are freezing issues really something to worry about? Or is this just normal?

AxisFluxPixel

AxisFluxPixel

Member
Hi I have probably had 15-30 freezing moments in the last eight months with my axe fx II xl+, it seems random, and it usually happens if I keep it turned on for longer periods at a time, but not always. I know presets can corrupt, you have to have the right cables, there can be firmware issues, sometimes its axe edit, or new firmware can have bugs, etc. [Its hard to even understand why it crashes, as it seems so random]

Other times it works fine and doesn't freeze, but it always feels like it could freeze up-you just never know.

Does anyone else have this experience, is it normal, or is it something to worry about?
I was reading posts from old forums where people claimed it had never ever crashed on them, so why do the new most fresh versions freeze up?

Does anyone think my axe fx unit would be damaged?

Some days it can run for hours with out freezing/crashing and others it will randomly choke up and freeze and I have to turn it off and turn back on again and then it may work for the rest of the day or crash in another 30 mins or 2 hours or 4 hours, its really random. Seems like a bug or firmware problem or something.

Any thoughts on this would be encouraging. Thanks.
 
Its also worthy to note I purchased the axe fx used on reverb, and the seller was a good seller/honest guy said it had no problems.
Its actually only about a year and a half old from when it was purchased brand new in 2016.
 
Yes, I encounter an occasional crash. Not that many, and it never happened during a gig. Hard to trace / reproduce. Might be a parameter value that's out of range, MIDI data jam, buffer overflow or whatever. It's still a computer after all and the amount of processing and parameters is enormous.
 
Cool, thanks for the info. Yeah it seems like some people have occasional crashes and some do not have any at all. I have tried the reset before, but maybe i needed to reset the global blocks as well, not sure if I did that. I feel like my closes experience may be compared to Yek above. I guess the feeling in my gut is that if I used it a lot, it may freeze every one or three days. But it would also stand to reason that if sometimes it works for a few days, a week or two without freezing that my unit isnt damaged, its probably something else going on?

Obviously I would need to send it in to get confirmation on the condition of the hardware, but from your experiences do you think I am correct in thinking it must be either something I am doing, or a bug, or corrupt presets, and it is probably does not have any hardware damaged, is this rational or wishful thinking?

Or do you think it could have something wrong with it/like damaged hardware or something?
 
jlynnb, do you ever use axe edit or mfc-101? If so what cables are using and what is your set up? If you don't mind me asking? Are you using a DAW? I am kind of wondering whether the two main culprits are the usb and/or the mfc in general with the midi hiccups Yek was talking about. Also it should be noted I was using my Axe Fx as my main audio interface, not sure if that could cause this too?


 
As far as I can recall the only time I've had freezes is at home when Axe-Edit is hooked up and everything has been left running for a fairly long time. No freezing during gigs to date (no computer connected at gigs).
 
I've used the Axefx for a few years now, almost always connected to a computer via USB thru a hub. MFC is connected via ethercon. DAW (Studio One) controlling midi, synth, drums, lighting, lasers and making preset changes, backing tracks, etc. One lockup due to a corrupted preset (at practice thank god). Using Win7, powerful laptop configured for music specifically (only running essential services and programs, etc.) I don't run Axe-Edit and the DAW at the same time though, as this will cause the Axefx to stop responding to midi from the DAW. When this happens I have to shut down and restart Studio One.
 
Are you using both the MFC and a DAW (or some other device) to send midi to the Axe Fx?

There have been a few guys that have reported hangs in that scenario, and the cause appears to be midi collisions.

If you are, use a midi merge box to prevent that.
 
I've had my XL+ since July '15, and have never had it hang up. I've had it get sluggish when I was at 90+% CPU, but that's understandable. I use a Rocktron MIDI Raider controller (what replaced the All Access) in USB Adapter mode to control Transcribe! when I'm learning songs, and to control the Axe, mostly switching scenes, and I've used MIDI in Pro Tools to control the Axe while the Rocktron was connected, but never had any problems with mine.
 
Yeah thanks guys, unix yes I do because I was using it as my audio interface and also had my mfc-101 hooked up, so I think it maybe was set up to send some type of midi from my daw to the axe fx via USB while also it is communicating to the mfc-101 at the same time.
So in that case would it be fair to say I still have a fully functional unit? I really hope so. I mean it works and it sounds good, and then occasionally , like I said maybe 15-30 times in the last 8 months it hangs/freezes and I have to turn off the power and back on. I think most of the time it freezes when I use the looper with fast switching for longer periods, and there have definitely been freezes when I wasn't using the looper.

Now that I think of it almost every time it froze up I had both the mfc-101 and USB connected to my DAW , so maybe it is midi problems that cause it to freeze?
And yeah it's more likely to happen if it is on for longer periods of time. Is it not advisable to keep it on when your computer is sleeping? Or should it be turned off every time before the computer sleeps?

Anyways most importantly it does seem like my unit is fully functional to me, but the freezes are very unpredictable. I need to make some readjustments, maybe reset everything to try to avoid the freezes, would you guys agree?

[I know there is a lot of questions above, feel free to answer which ever ones you want , I don't expect you to cover it all, just throwing my thoughts out there to see if I can tap into something and figure this problem out fully.]
 
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Used the axe for two years now.
The axe has only frozen like ... once.. I don't quite remember...
Which is why i don't think that having 20+ freezes in 8 months is normal at all.
Then again, I never had an mfc...
 
Well in my case, if the AxeFX freezes (usually some of the levels leds come on constantly etc) I restart the AxeFX - no other way out of it really.

On other occasions it's Axe-Edit (or more likely the USB driver) that is at fault - and it's 50/50 on closing Axe-Edit or restarting my (Windows 10 64bit) laptop to cure the issue.

If Axe-Edit is unresponsive and doesn't close by clicking on it's 'X' to quit and I need to force quit it via the Task manager then I usually have to do a full restart of the PC afterwards as well because re-opening Axe-Edit will still not communicate with the AxeFX. Which would lead me to think that the USB driver has got itself borked and a system re-boot re-initialises it.

As previously mentioned, it usually only occurs when I've left the whole rig connected via USB and idle for quite a long period - it usually announces itself by a 'pop' in the speakers.

I don't usually have my MFC connected in these cases - just USB and laptop.
 
AxisFluxPixel said:
Yeah thanks guys, unix yes I do because I was using it as my audio interface and also had my mfc-101 hooked up, so I think it maybe was set up to send some type of midi from my daw to the axe fx via USB while also it is communicating to the mfc-101 at the same time.
So in that case would it be fair to say I still have a fully functional unit? I really hope so. I mean it works and it sounds good, and then occasionally , like I said maybe 15-30 times in the last 8 months it hangs/freezes and I have to turn off the power and back on. I think most of the time it freezes when I use the looper with fast switching for longer periods, and there have definitely been freezes when I wasn't using the looper.

Now that I think of it almost every time it froze up I had both the mfc-101 and USB connected to my DAW , so maybe it is midi problems that cause it to freeze?
And yeah it's more likely to happen if it is on for longer periods of time. Is it not advisable to keep it on when your computer is sleeping? Or should it be turned off every time before the computer sleeps?

Anyways most importantly it does seem like my unit is fully functional to me, but the freezes are very unpredictable. I need to make some readjustments, maybe reset everything to try to avoid the freezes, would you guys agree?

[I know there is a lot of questions above, feel free to answer which ever ones you want , I don't expect you to cover it all, just throwing my thoughts out there to see if I can tap into something and figure this problem out fully.]
Click to expand...
Sounds like midi conflict to me :)
 
AxisFluxPixel said:
jlynnb, do you ever use axe edit or mfc-101? If so what cables are using and what is your set up? If you don't mind me asking? Are you using a DAW? I am kind of wondering whether the two main culprits are the usb and/or the mfc in general with the midi hiccups Yek was talking about. Also it should be noted I was using my Axe Fx as my main audio interface, not sure if that could cause this too?

Click to expand...
i use all of the above. often at the same time. never had issues with freeze ups or crashes
 
My AX8 will lock up (it will pass the guitar signal but no processing) after it's been one for a few days.... without fail.

Well, WITH fail, but you know what I mean.
 
Yeah, I am pretty sure my unit is fine then. I think it must be having midi conflict happening, so need to adjust the setup. Thanks for everyone's input.
 
unix-guy said:
Sounds like midi conflict to me :)
Click to expand...
I just had mine freeze after a button press on the MFC. Not sure what a midi conflict is but I’m curious as to why mine just froze. The screen went blank and the MFC would not control it. I restarted the Axe and then the MFC was acting like it didn’t want to control the AXE then after a third restart everything is back to “normal”? All this after doing some editing from the face of the MFC.
 
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