Axe-Edit III not connecting (Windows 10)

T

tdexter

Member
Hi. Brand new Axe-Fx III owner here...just received it today!! "Psyched" just doesn't cover it!

On a Windows 10 laptop I've installed the latest versions of Fractal-Bot, Axe-Edit III, and the USB driver. When the Fx III is connected via USB, I see it in the device manager...both under FAS USB Audio Devices, and Sound, video, and game controllers...but when I run Axe-Edit III (or Fractal-Bot) it's showing as disconnected. I've tried with two different printer A to B cables with the same results.

The specific Axe-Edit III I installed was Axe-Edit-III-Win-v1p13p03.exe.

Any ideas as to what I should check? Thanks in advance!

Tom
 
I was just reading on another thread here that for that version of Axe-Edit apparently I should have firmware 22.01, and the unit shipped with 22.00. I'm not sure if that's a factor or not, but I'm not sure how I'd update.

Aside from Axe-Edit III not connecting, it doesn't appear that Fractal-Bot can either. When I select Axe-Fx III as my device, it lists no input ports, and under output ports all it shows is some "Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth".

No clue what might be going on with any of this. Again, any advice as to what to check would be welcome.

Tom
 
OK. Apparently the driver install, for whatever reason, isn't working right. I can't post links yet as a new forum user, but I was just looking at the support info about verifying the Windows USB driver install. In the Add/Remove programs the only thing I see out of the three that should be there is "Fractal Audio Systems USB Audio Driver v5.58.0", and the C:\Windows\System32\axefx2load\axefx2load.spt file isn't there.

I removed and re-installed but still only had the one above. The user I was using had admin rights, but just to test, I re-installed as Administrator and got the same results...so clearly that's not working. If anyone knows what might cause this let me know. Thanks!

Tom
 
unix-guy said:
I'm not at home to check but the file name seems related to Axe Fx II not Axe Fx III.
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Ahhh...OK. Now that I look the page I was looking at about verifying the USB driver does appear to be related to Axe Fx II.

Given that it certainly seems like the driver installed. Before I even get into Axe-Edit III I simply want to get Fractal-Bot connecting....but as noted above that's not working as well. I guess i may have to contact tech support.

I couldn't help noticing your user name. I actually use nothing but Gentoo Linux myself, and I'm trying all this on my work Windows 10 laptop. At some point I'd like to see if I could get Axe-Edit III working via wine (though I know that's not supported), but I didn't expect Windows to give me problems. Also note I'm a software engineer (going on 35 years now) so it's not like I'm not tech savvy. Odd one for sure. Thanks!

Tom
 
One thing to note is that the only A to B USB cables I had were fairly old printer cables, and they're actually pretty long...probably at least 10 feet. I just ordered a new 6 foot one. It's a little hard for me to believe that that could cause this degree of failure, but I'll give that a try. There's also another Windows machine here I could try as well before I contact tech support.

Tom
 
tdexter said:
One thing to note is that the only A to B USB cables I had were fairly old printer cables, and they're actually pretty long...probably at least 10 feet. I just ordered a new 6 foot one. It's a little hard for me to believe that that could cause this degree of failure, but I'll give that a try. There's also another Windows machine here I could try as well before I contact tech support.

Tom
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Check all the stuff in the USB Help link I posted above, too.
 
unix-guy said:
Check all the stuff in the USB Help link I posted above, too.
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Yes! I have been actually....meant to say thanks for that! Some interesting things there. I still need to try disconnecting all other USB devices first etc.

The part that really gets me is that Fractal-Bot doesn't even see any valid ports at all. Thanks again.

Tom
 
Every so often I have been having the same issue. I'm always on the most recent updates of anything Fractal. My system says I'm on W11 but I don't meet the criteria for W11 so I guess I'm on W10. Anytime I have that issue I'm lucky enough to just reboot PC and it works fine. I know I'm not fixing the root issue but I will eventually get a new PC that will run W11, so for now I'm fine with the temp fix.
 
For now I'm just going to wait until I get my new USB cable...though I doubt that's the issue. In my case what's especially odd is that literally the ONLY trace I see anywhere of the Axe-Fx III are the two entries in the device manager I mentioned above. Other than that: a) Fratal-bot and Axe-Edit III don't even show any of the expected USB ports for it in the dropdown, and b) Even in the sounds control panel shows "No audio devices installed". While the latter wouldn't affect anything with either of the utilities as they have nothing to do with sound, I should see the unit there correct?

I'm trying to not let this crap ruin the experience of my new Fx III but to a large extent it sort of has. I've used nothing but Linux myself since about 2000, and nothing but Gentoo Linux for about 20 years. I'm not at all used to being dependent on MS Windows for anything non-work related, and I have to say I do NOT like it.
 
I've yet to try anything new with this, as my new USB cable will be getting here a little late...but I did have one question on this:

As I've mentioned above, the only sign of the Fx-III I saw was in the device manager. I also noticed that when I connected the USB of the Fx III to the laptop, there was no sort of notification from Windows that something had connected. That's something I really did expect to see.

Do others get any notification when connecting the units USB? Thanks!

Tom
 
OK...wow. Finally discovered that this is apparently something screwy with Windows specifically on my Windows 10 laptop. A new USB cable didn't help, so I tried installing everything on my wife's Windows 10 machine, and that worked like a charm. Just backed up the whole thing using Fractal-Bot, and verified that Axe-Edit III connects no problem!

Thanks for all the suggestions! I can't imagine what the issue is with my work laptop, but there are some things installed there that aren't very common, most notably VMware Workstation Player. That may do wonky stuff with device drivers...who knows.

I'm going to start a new thread regarding steps to get those programs working under Linux with wine. So far that's not worked out for me.

Thanks again!
Tom
 
tdexter said:
OK...wow. Finally discovered that this is apparently something screwy with Windows specifically on my Windows 10 laptop. A new USB cable didn't help, so I tried installing everything on my wife's Windows 10 machine, and that worked like a charm. Just backed up the whole thing using Fractal-Bot, and verified that Axe-Edit III connects no problem!

Thanks for all the suggestions! I can't imagine what the issue is with my work laptop, but there are some things installed there that aren't very common, most notably VMware Workstation Player. That may do wonky stuff with device drivers...who knows.

I'm going to start a new thread regarding steps to get those programs working under Linux with wine. So far that's not worked out for me.

Thanks again!
Tom
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Glad now you can finally use it with windows and enjoy it.
 
Your work laptop may have security software that is blocking something. Some companies also filter the types of devices USB ports are allowed to use. Do you have administrator rights on that machine? Corporate PCs are typically pretty locked down these days.
 
mr_fender said:
Your work laptop may have security software that is blocking something. Some companies also filter the types of devices USB ports are allowed to use. Do you have administrator rights on that machine? Corporate PCs are typically pretty locked down these days.
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It's definitely not that, and yes I have administrator access. To be clear, I'm the lead developer in our company and there's nothing on there I didn't install myself. In terms of security it really has nothing but the standard windows firewall and the built in virus software (MS Defender if I recall). All I can imagine is something related to that VMware player, but I have to have that. Other than that I have no ideas.

Tom
 
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