Firmware update corruption paranoia?

Raab90

Raab90

Inspired
How is it possible that the reinstallation of a particular firmware may yield different results each time it's done??
It's almost as if each time i re-flash the unit, it's gonna sound different!
So how do i know when the re-flash was done correctly???!
Or is it that i should keep re-flashing the unit until i like the sound that's coming out of it??
These are digital systems!!! Not analog components!!

I'd like to be clarified as to what can possibly be the cause of this.

I've read of several people with this problem, and they had to keep re-flashing and resetting the unit in order to sound right.

Is it like some 1's and 0's get corrupted somewhere inside the unit after an installation? That's highly unlikely though! It wouldn't even work probably for that to happen!

I think each installation has the exact same results, but people sometimes just forget to "update all presets" and stuff.
 
Parameters are added and taken away through different firmwares, sometimes when removed from view the parameter is set to some "ideal" behind the scenes. So let's say you had DYNAMICS at 9 in FW 13 and now that that is gone, it may be internally set to say 5 now. You reload 13 your preset sees Dynamics at 5 now, so it won't be exactly the same as before. You'd need reload the presets from their FW 13 status to return to sound and feel of 13.
 
luke said:
Parameters are added and taken away through different firmwares, sometimes when removed from view the parameter is set to some "ideal" behind the scenes. So let's say you had DYNAMICS at 9 in FW 13 and now that that is gone, it may be internally set to say 5 now. You reload 13 your preset sees Dynamics at 5 now, so it won't be exactly the same as before. You'd need reload the presets from their FW 13 status to return to sound and feel of 13.
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Oh!
But I mean when people here install say, fw14. And it sounds like tin or idk. Then they install fw14 again (without rolling back to fw13) and it sounds better. This, until a fourth or fifth time solves the problem.
How is that possible?
To me, the cause might be something else D:

Now i have the strange fear there's some chaos going on inside my unit, so there's always gonna be some corrupted data inside, and that each time i install a firmware, have to pray so these corruptions are as fewer as possible LOL. There might be a "0" somewhere, where there should be a "1" ;-;
 
I have a feeling that a lot of these occurrences are a "placebo" effect.

Your ears are a very easy thing to trick. If you're fatigued(you yourself, or your ears) it can certainly affect your perception of sound.

There are some nights where I play and just go "goddamnit, this sounds like shit, what is wrong?" So I'll tweak a preset all to hell.

The next morning I'll fire up my Axe and guitar and play the newly tweaked preset and simply go "what the hell happened?!?" And then go back to the original preset and it sounds golden.

I'm sure there are times when presets do get corrupted and changed by firmware updates, but unless someone actually posts some sound samples proving this, I'm inclined to be a bit skeptical.

To anyone reading this, next time you upgrade your firmware and it sounds "horrible" record it immediately. Then when you reflash, or revert to a previous firmware record that same exact preset again.

I'd be really curious as to how many of these instances are really happening, and how many are simply "in your head."
 
It shouldn't, if you upgrade to 14, reload it again and again, the sound should never change. For those who have not experienced it sounds funny but has happened, it is not placebo effect, it really does sound bad, and the tone radically changes from tinny to fizzy to thin almost no distortion sounding with no changes outside reapplying he same firmware... here is a thread for reference:
http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-discussion/68265-problems-factory-presets-5.html

Anyhow, since replaced cable and cleared mine, never a problem since and no longer worry about it.
1) get yourself a new usb or midi cable and try a different port where possible. Believe it or not cable issues cause some very odd stuff even if no errors reported... just had a usb/midi cable start to act up and bytes were in wrong order, sometimes extra blank bytes, just odd stuff...
2) follow yek's guide to virginize your unit (ha ha)
3) If you are still having issues then open a ticket with support to have the unit looked at
 
If the firmware was corrupt, there were a lot of crashes and unit freezing.

To me people who can resolve by re-flashing simply follow the release notes the second time. And I think they have no idea about how they set the global parameters etc.

Firmware update + system reset + update all presets just set the unit as it was at the factory.
 
I've moved backwards and forwards many times to compare different versions and have never seen this behaviour. But shuffling firmwares needs more than just the firmware change. I have a backup of system as well as patches for each version, and for each change, I load the firmware first, then system settings, then patches.
 
GiRa said:
If the firmware was corrupt, there were a lot of crashes and unit freezing.

To me people who can resolve by re-flashing simply follow the release notes the second time. And I think they have no idea about how they set the global parameters etc.

Firmware update + system reset + update all presets just set the unit as it was at the factory.
Click to expand...

Sorry GiRa, this is the most unhelpful post I think I have ever seen on the forum. Basically I read this as anyone who has had this happen is an idiot and doesn't know how to configure their AxeFx. Obviously you have never experienced it yet felt compelled to put your two cents.
 
I've never done a firmware update more than once. Once it has completed successfully, anything that may change sound is either a parameter stuck to a weird value (that's why with some updates you need to change the amp type on the amp block to reset parameters) or a setting that has changed. I don't use any of the factory patches so I rarely even bother updating them.
 
jjozwia said:
Sorry GiRa, this is the most unhelpful post I think I have ever seen on the forum. Basically I read this as anyone who has had this happen is an idiot and doesn't know how to configure their AxeFx. Obviously you have never experienced it yet felt compelled to put your two cents.
Click to expand...

I never, ever, red a post of someone who clearly what they did in this situation. And I red many time the "I don't know" what happenend.

I don't call anyone idiot, I'm just saying this: updating firmware needs care, it is a matter of method, it's not magic.

Again, if a firmware is really corrupt the unit will not boot or it will crash many, many, times.
 
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