[fixed] FC12 PROBLEM (& FC6)....3 BUTTONS (ALL BUTTONS) not functioning..but light up.

Tonight I booted up, and my FC12 is just lighting up the 3 top left buttons, with no text. The lit up button in the center moves to a preset 10 spots down from the one I was on, the other two do nothing. Very strange. This is with FC12 firmware 1.12 on the Axe-FX III 20.02. The unit was working fine last night when I was practicing, and nothing has changed from then. Last time I powered on everything was fine, now it is not. I unplugged and replugged the XLR a couple of times, and I loaded the FC12 factory default settings, but nothing changed. This unit never moves. I'll try to reinstall the firmware, but I thought I'd just chime in with another FC problem.
 

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State of Epicicity said:
Tonight I booted up, and my FC12 is just lighting up the 3 top left buttons, with no text. The lit up button in the center moves to a preset 10 spots down from the one I was on, the other two do nothing. Very strange. This is with FC12 firmware 1.12 on the Axe-FX III 20.02. The unit was working fine last night when I was practicing, and nothing has changed from then. Last time I powered on everything was fine, now it is not. I unplugged and replugged the XLR a couple of times, and I loaded the FC12 factory default settings, but nothing changed. This unit never moves. I'll try to reinstall the firmware, but I thought I'd just chime in with another FC problem.
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Sorry to hear that. Just curious if this the new FC or the original?
 
rhummellh said:
Sorry to hear that. Just curious if this the new FC or the original?
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Thanks; this is the original. It's the second strange thing I've had happen with it. I've only ever had it in my tiny little apartment, never at a gig or rehearsal, but one day the upper left switch stopped executing commands, and it's just been like that for months. Now this, I just have no idea, unless maybe the XLR went bad, which would be weird too, because that hasn't moved either. We're packing everything we own to move across the country, but I'm sure I can find another XLR just to eliminate that as a possibility, so I'll see if I can do that tomorrow.
 
State of Epicicity said:
Thanks; this is the original. It's the second strange thing I've had happen with it. I've only ever had it in my tiny little apartment, never at a gig or rehearsal, but one day the upper left switch stopped executing commands, and it's just been like that for months. Now this, I just have no idea, unless maybe the XLR went bad, which would be weird too, because that hasn't moved either. We're packing everything we own to move across the country, but I'm sure I can find another XLR just to eliminate that as a possibility, so I'll see if I can do that tomorrow.
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Hope that takes care of it. I have original also but never had an issue so far. Just keeping track since this seems to be happening more often now.
 
rhummellh said:
Hope that takes care of it. I have original also but never had an issue so far. Just keeping track since this seems to be happening more often now.
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I appreciate it. I've been watching this and any other thread like this, because I just feel like I've read a lot of posts of problems with the FCs, and I'd like to have an arsenal of troubleshooting tips.
 
I plugged in my backup XLR, and it was the same result. I'll try to take it apart when I have time to see if one of the internal plugs came loose or something like that.
 
rhummellh said:
Any luck? Did you try tech support?
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I also reloaded the firmware, but no luck there either. I have not had a chance to take apart the FC12 apart again, because I've barely had a chance even to play! I say "again," because I took it apart to troubleshoot extensively when one of my buttons stopped executing commands many months ago. I switched it with other buttons in the unit, but nothing fixed it, which I find kind of disturbing, because the only other part I can think of that would be messed up is the motherboard, if you call it that, the big board inside this thing. But I'll try to take it apart again soon. I just updated the Axe-FX III to firmware 20.03, and the FC12 is still in this weird state, with just three lights lighting up. I'll update whatever happens, but if I take it apart and don't find anything weird, I'll open a support ticket.

The thing that kills me is, these things are built to be road worthy, but mine has just been in my apartment, barely moving the entire time (literally moving it a few feet to either side), so I'm dubious of its roadworthiness overall, based on my experience and the number of weird things I've read in this section of the forum. On the other hand, I've experienced no fundamental problems with the Axe-FX III, which is in every way completely amazing.
 
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I saw a few people saying that the plex delay turned out be what was causing random freezes. I never used that delay but I have been using the tape delay religiously. Begrudgingly, I decided to swap it for the analog delay and low and behold the FM3/FC6 combo has yet to freeze since. I just got home from a glitch free gig which is usually where the freezes occur as I switch fx and scenes often. No problem. Everything worked as it should. Hope this stays this way.
 
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rhummellh said:
Any luck? Did you try tech support?
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Update: I finally had a chance to take it apart again, and one of the internal ribbon connectors had come loose. Now I know the symptom and what to try to fix it. My upper left switch is still out, perplexingly, but the pedal is otherwise fine, thankfullly! I had not reglued the internal ribbon connectors when I did my very extensive troubleshooting many months ago, because it just seems like regluing it will only slow down tech support when I finally do send the pedal in for them to fix the upper left button. I'll take care of that in the coming year, after we're settled in our new place.
 
Update: The footswitch continuity was not at the correct spec, so they replaced it. Once the unit arrived, they fixed it in like two hours. I talked to a bunch of different people at FAS tech support throughout, and they responded lightning fast and were all really nice and helpful. I'm so glad to have my unit back up and running fully again.
 
Hi all.
prepared my FC12 MK1 for a gig and when I plugged it to my FX3 MK1, it starts as displaying "FC-0 1.12", then only light up the main display and the 3 top LHS displays (nothing in the displays), only the 3 top LHS switches can increment/decrement the programs. I can't change anything using the Axefx or the axe edit, tried on another AXEFX3 MK2, tried old FC FW, no result. Any thoughts?
 
olivier.mortier3 said:
Hi all.
prepared my FC12 MK1 for a gig and when I plugged it to my FX3 MK1, it starts as displaying "FC-0 1.12", then only light up the main display and the 3 top LHS displays (nothing in the displays), only the 3 top LHS switches can increment/decrement the programs. I can't change anything using the Axefx or the axe edit, tried on another AXEFX3 MK2, tried old FC FW, no result. Any thoughts?
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First unplug and replug the cable, then try another cable.
 
Any updates to this situation? My fc 12 has the furtherest top left scribble strip not working. It wants to...sometimes it shows alien letters but mostly is just blank (but lights up).
I have updated fairly often and currently running 23.05.
 
Slayerblob said:
Any updates to this situation? My fc 12 has the furtherest top left scribble strip not working. It wants to...sometimes it shows alien letters but mostly is just blank (but lights up).
I have updated fairly often and currently running 23.05.
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If you are comfortable with opening up your FC12 then you might want to try reseating the ribbon cable for the bank of switches that are not working. there are 4 sets of 3. Reset it on both ends, the one that goes to the board and the other that goes to the switches. Hint: don't replace the screws until you test it out. If it works for a while after doing so it's the cable or one of the connectors.

I did this and it would work for a while but then eventually fail again. If that's what you see, then I'd contact FAS support and arrange to send it in. They've had a fair amount of experience now addressing this so I suspect that they're hyper aware of it by now and they'll have no issue getting it sorted out.
 
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