Brand new Axe II suffers from screen flickering

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Friday I received my Axe-Fx II. Unfortunately I didn't have the time to test it until today. The sound quality is stellar and I was so glad that I didn't experience 'crackles or noises' while using headphones, after reading some stories here. Whilst scrolling through the factory presets and staring at the display, I noticed that it flickered every now and then. I've read on the wiki that it's "normal" to occur while using the tuner, and whilst it does happen when I use the tuner, it is also noticeable with normal usage.

I've already send an e-mail to G66, but I wanted to ask here whether someone experiences the same problem? The flickering doesn't alter the playability of the unit, but when cashing out this much, I'd just expect to have a flawless unit. Could it be the display-cable that isn't socketed tightly enough? Or maybe it has come loose on the road, when it was being delivered?

I just don't want to risk that the problem escalates an that I arrive at a gig, power up and don't have a display at all...


 
Yeah, I've seen excactly this on mine aswell... I had it for a month now, but since the overall performance is not affected I didn't think much about it.
Please tell me what answer you'll get from G66. It's really bad if this would get worse, so I'm also interested in knowing what might cause this...
 
I've contacted Sussi from G66 and she has forwarded my problem to their technical staff. She said the flickering wasn't normal and that they may arrange a pickup to get it fixed.

After opening this topic I played around with the Axe a little bit and I could notice any flickering, so I was hoping it was a software glitch, which was then eliminated by rebooting the system. After 20 minutes, when the unit started to get a little warm, the flickering started to occur again...

At the moment the Axe is sitting next to me, without a guitar plugged in and I haven't noticed any flickering.

I don't feel like sending the unit back in, after owning it for two days, but on the other hand I also don't want to pay this much money for a unit that seems to have a flaw... My biggest fear is that the display cable isn't connected well enough and that when I arrive at a show, it has come loose by the vibrations of transportation...
 
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I got mine a week ago and have the exact same kind of flickering. I haven't decided yet though if I'm to return it or not.
 
I just got this reply for support! Amazing service, even on a sunday you get very quick answers.

Lets hope that reinstalling the firmware reinstallation helps! I'm going to do it tonight, since I still have to learn how to do it.

Jochen G66 said:
just a few days ago we had a customer with a similar problem. He then reinstalled the latest firmware and performed a reset of the system parameters and then everything was fine.

So I want to ask you to try this too, please.
 
I just remembered i have the same flickering thing but only when using the unit as audio converter to my mac (via usb) , maybe its software matter than hardware


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
An occasional flicker when hooked up to USB is not unusual. This is due to the screen redraw being interrupted by the USB thread.
 
It is unexceptable for anything that is either screen not working properly or sound nork working properly, to be considered ok and normal. Its 2 grand plus, it should perform flawlessly. Gt8 never flickered, 300.
 
Keep calm and call Cliffman ;)
Looking kinda cool. At least you're getting a hint the Axe is performing algorithms inside :p
Good luck.
 
I've done two firmware updates. 6.0.1 + 2, flickering's still there. I have mine connected by USB all the time though, will test it without USB connected, and without Axe Edit open. Might give a hint where the problem is.
It's kinda like it's changing between screen modes. I can see the preset number very large for a split second...

I'm not too worried though... But I understand your concern, so let's get this sorted.
 
Since I've tested w/o USB, I don't regularly have the "someone's pulling the plug" sound anymore.
Maybe the same phenomenon is working on the LCD for you...
I also had it when plenty of CPU was left; possibly you have it only on presets that are high on CPU and struggling?

How did the update go? :)
 
I haven't had the time to update, this weekend has been busy and since I still have to learn how to update, I didn't want to rush it. ;) I should have time tomorrow and I'll report here on how the update turns out. I'm working my way through the manual, since I want to learn this unit thoroughly.

The flickering in the video was occurring at a high rate, but most of the time there's a longer interval between the flickers. If the usb-connection is the source of this problem, I'll have to learn to live with it, since I'll have the unit connected to my iMac 99% of the time...
 
Mine flickers while USB is connected only, the refresh explanation sounds good to me. It has never had a screen issue while USB was unplugged.
 
It is unexceptable for anything that is either screen not working properly or sound nork working properly, to be considered ok and normal. Its 2 grand plus, it should perform flawlessly. Gt8 never flickered, 300.

I have had mine flicker maybe 4 or 5 times in hundreds of hours of use over the last year. I never even considered it a problem since was so rare. There most certainly could be external circumstances that could play a role when you have it hooked up to your pc. Regardless, I am sure it will be resolved to the user’s satisfaction.

What really baffles me though is this stance you and so many have postured that something should work flawlessly based on purchase price. It makes absolutely no sense. Electrical and mechanical products by nature will always have issues and it can be for a multitude of reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with the production or quality control of the manufacturer or their selling price. Are you saying if the Axe was 500.00 it would be acceptable for sound and screen issues? That seems silly to me. If I buy a car for 10k and another for 100k I expect the brakes to work regardless of pricing. And guess what? They both can and most likely will have issues at some time. It’s the nature of the beast.

I think you would be very hard pressed to find any mechanical or electrical product work “flawlessly” across the life of the product and it has absolutely nothing to do with price. If that were the case I suppose all the very top end manufacturers would have no issues at all and no real need for product support. I’ve yet to see one.
 
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I've had mine since Late December 2011 and always noticed a flickering of the screen but never really thought much of it other than hope it the screen won't fail since shipping the AxeFX for repair from Canada would be costly. The USB has always been connected but I often notice the screen flickering even when the computer is not running AxeEdit.
 
What really baffles me though is this stance you and so many have postured that something should work flawlessly based on purchase price. It makes absolutely no sense.
+1
The price will often indicate the technology is more complicated, so you have to expect these things.
Complaining about this rather indicates that you're out of your financial league in buying this kind of stuff and don't see the true relation between its cost and value.
However, I do agree that it's seeming to me like 20 to 40% of all new Axe-FX owners seem to have some problem. That this is happening with what is said to be Cliff's best board design, reinforces my next thought (except that here, AE is causing a lot of it).

I seem to notice that in the last few years, some appliances and programs have gone over the edge of controlability.
They're so packed with stuff now, that it's becoming impossible to not be ridden with bugs & problems.
 
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