Brand new Axe II suffers from screen flickering

[Radley]

I too have noticed flickering with my newer backup unit that I never noticed with my original AFX II...

 

[LMO]

I do agree that it's seeming to me like 20 to 40% of all new Axe-FX owners seem to have some problem.

Based on what?

 

[steverosburg]

I have flickering with mine all the time, and it's one of the very early "CC" S/N models. It's just a visual annoyance and there has never been any audio or operation-related problem. I always have it hooked up to USB when it's in a position where I am actually looking at the screen (basically, during programming of patches). I never even thought about or tried disconnecting USB and seeing if this caused the flickering to cease; I'll have to try that this week just out of curiosity.

 

[REDD]

Mine did the same thing when I first got it and I contacted Fractal and they said it was probably the ribbon cable going to the screen and they sent me another one but before I received it, I unplugged it and re-connected it firmly and it has never done it since. Hope this helps!

 

[vAmp]

Based on what?

I've not made accusations. "Seeming" is often based on an impression, which in turn is based on many, many reports here and experiences of my own and friends. One says to have heard straight from the servicing source that there was a whole batch of faulty motherboards out there - haven't seen that reported much here?
It may just as well be 3%, but my feeling is the Ultra/Standard were rock solid, and the II seems to give waaaaay more people some kind of problem or reason to need service, often from the start. Probably way less, but even "from 20 to 40%" wouldn't surprise me at this moment and it is the impression I'm getting.

Luckily my own serious problems are probably based on wiring & Axe Edit (though my value wheel can skip 3 presets at a time, no biggie). But my MFC has a failing button from the getgo, which makes me wonder how much all this stuff is really checked before shipping [or how much is thrown with it in shipping - shouldn't destroy solderings on a button?]. Not saying anyone is lying, just makes me wonder... It is after all more logical they don't have time to check things out beforehand.

Atomic is not Fractal, but it too soon had the loose piece of plastic inside. Out of 4 purchases, only the Ultra has been rock solid.

 

[Ole]

I honestly couldn't care less if my screen was flickering even every second. I find it good enough that Cliff stated in this thread that flickering is normal, and that nothing is broken. As long as it dosn't effect my sound, and i can still operate the frontpanel, i really dont see an issue.
I absolutelly understand the concern, and am glad this issue was brought up, but the statement from Cliff is enough to calm me down.

 

[Matt Steele]

If the device is connected via USB, shouldn't you be looking at Axe Edit and not the screen on the Axe? And who cares if there's a slight flicker in the screen? As long as the Axe is funtioning properly along with the USB connection, this should be a non issue.

 

[quonsar]

NMG can except most anything accept screen flickering.

 

[ztevie]

I don't care about the flickering at all, but I think it's a valid question. It wouldn't be that great to have warranty expire and later find out it develops into another, bnigger problem
If G66 says this is not a normal behaviour, and REDD above did something with a ribbon cable that fixed it after advice from Fractal support I think it's worth checking up... Even if it's only a mixed quality USB-cables causing it, it's good to set everyone's mind at ease..?
Maybe we can get some clues, since some people don't have this behaviour. So Radley got that on a newer unit but not on the older one.
I've got it on mine, bought in the beginning of May 2012.

Does this only happen on newer units?

 

[NMG]

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.

My point was not that the axe fx should never go wrong because as you said things will fail regardless of price. My point was about a fault, in this case poor display operation, can be considered normal. I would not accept a flickering screen on anything regardless of price, unless it was faulty, then I would understand but that is the nature of the best, in your words.

 

[NMG]

Brakes are a wear and tear situation. A better comparison would be a car that had a speedometer that intermitently doesnt work when using the radio.

 

[LMO]

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.

This seems like nonsense to me. Working properly means working as designed, and if Cliff's design choices allow an occasional screen flicker then that's how it is designed to work. I don't find that unacceptable; the screen flicker, if any, is rare enough to pass without notice on my unit.

Only you can decide what is unacceptable for your use, so it sounds like you'll need to look for something else instead of the Axe.

 

[LMO]

I've not made accusations. "Seeming" is often based on an impression, which in turn is based on many, many reports here and experiences of my own and friends. One says to have heard straight from the servicing source that there was a whole batch of faulty motherboards out there - haven't seen that reported much here?

Perhaps not, but casting aspersions is not something to do lightly either. It seems to me that you have nothing quantitative at all, and surely you understand that forums naturally skew to the dissatisfied for a number of reasons. Not to mention the ubiquitous hyperbole.

It is after all more logical they don't have time to check things out beforehand.

Since the cost of repairing a defect in the field is much higher than detecting and fixing a defect at the factory, it is more logical that they don't have time not to check things out beforehand.

It's not my intent to pick on you, but when your impression of something ends up being somewhat outrageous--and a 20-40% defect rate is definitely outrageous--you need to examine the basis for your impression more critically.

 

[vAmp]

It seems to me that you have nothing quantitative at all

There you have "seems" again
I know 2 people on the forum in person. Both recently ordered one. One had to send back in the first or 2nd week (he didn't even mention it on the forum) and was told there have been mobo problems. The other one might too, we still have to see.
So including me, that's at least a 33% rate from real life experience. I could send mine back for the value wheel skipping up to 3 presets as well, but I say "no biggie", others might not. Then it could become 66 to 100% And that's just excluding the "seemingly" dozens of similar reports.
I'm not hating on Fractal, cause I know they'll make it right, possibly even past the garantee period, but I won't pretend everything is hunky dory. Some of these problems seriously take away from the roadworthyness to me (luckily I don't need that currently).

 

[quonsar]

A better comparison would be a car that had a speedometer that intermitently doesnt work when using the radio.

Dude! I own that car now! :lol

 

[Irfan]

I still believed the issued is based on the software, tremendous data flow from/to axefx - pc by the usb, i have nothing to complain with the results of the sounds, maybe for the upcoming fw, FAS should considered the stability of the os when we plug the unit to the pc, or maybe the DSP chip is already exhausted by the algorithm FAS made, just my 2cents anyway


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cobbler]

My point was not that the axe fx should never go wrong because as you said things will fail regardless of price. My point was about a fault, in this case poor display operation, can be considered normal. I would not accept a flickering screen on anything regardless of price, unless it was faulty, then I would understand but that is the nature of the best, in your words.

I understand that if there is an issue it should be resolved and knowing the FAS and G66 reputation I have no doubt they will as stated in my first paragraph. An occasional flicker as in my case of 4 or 5 times over a years’ time period I would not consider an issue and could easily be a result explained by Cliff. If others are experiencing it in excessive amounts then I am sure it will get addressed

Brakes are a wear and tear situation. A better comparison would be a car that had a speedometer that intermitently doesnt work when using the radio.

I suppose I didn't get the point I was trying to make across with that analogy. Of course there are going to be wear and tear issues with all products. There could even be failure minutes or hours after taking receipt. My point was it's not based on the price point. If something has intermittent problems I don't think the selling price has anything to do with it. And in reality the higher priced units might even have a higher possibility of failure due to their complexity.

You commented that you would not accept a flickering screen and expect flawlessness because of the 2k price point. Now you have changed your stance and said at any price point. What is considered acceptable and what is not? Does that mean if you get one flicker it’s going back? In my case I have got a flicker once every 3 months or so and never even thought twice about it. My high end PC has conflicts from time to time and I accept them as the “nature of the beast” as I do with most complicated electrical components.

No need to beat a dead horse here so we will have to just agree that we have differing opinions and different expectations. Again, I most likely used a poor analogy to get my point across. It was just to say that I find when people bring up the price point of higher end items as an argument for infallibility it’s just not reasonable or logical.

Cheers.


Edit: Just as a little side note. When I look at the pricing of the Axe II unit I put very little of it towards the physical unit itself. Of course you cannot exclude the cost of the DSPs, motherboard, and various other case parts but to me that is just the potatoes. The meat is in the algorithms. That is what I am paying for.

 

[W8ing4thewindshield]

Lol @ quonsar. I thought I owned that car!

 

[mrpollack]

I had it on mine second piece when it arrived..did reset of the system parameters and it's gone since that..

 

[Matt Steele]

FAS... You need to simplify all the algos in the Axe FX and reduce the USB I/O so my Axe FX screen doesn't flicker for 1/100th of a second every 10 minutes while attached via USB or else the unit is useless/defective. Or recall all units and install a videocard specifically for the screen that does its own GPU calculation to take the load off the USB/DSP. OK? Thank you!