If the problem is hardware?

C

caballero59

Inspired
I've had my FM3 less than two months and have experienced perhaps 20 lockup. Is more associated with using the editor but not exclusive to that. I love this unit. It's my first Fractal product and the tone and function is amazing. However, the lockup is not very workable at a live gig. My question is, if it turns out to be a hardware problem (not fixable by firmware updates), what does that mean for us with faulty units?
 
caballero59 said:
I've had my FM3 less than two months and have experienced perhaps 20 lockup. Is more associated with using the editor but not exclusive to that. I love this unit. It's my first Fractal product and the tone and function is amazing. However, the lockup is not very workable at a live gig. My question is, if it turns out to be a hardware problem (not fixable by firmware updates), what does that mean for us with faulty units?
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Is there a common thread to the lockups? For instance, does it happen when you switch presets (known bug we are working on)? If you are in FM3-Edit, does it commonly happen when you are performing a specific operation?
 
BryantP said:
Is there a common thread to the lockups? For instance, does it happen when you switch presets (known bug we are working on)? If you are in FM3-Edit, does it commonly happen when you are performing a specific operation?
Click to expand...

That is exactly what I'm trying to sort out but it seems a little random. I'll keep observing.
 
20 in 2 months sounds like a lot! I’ve had mine for 5 weeks and just had my first freeze yesterday. I’m hopeful it will be an infrequent occurrence.

I obviously couldn’t say if it’s hardware or not but I hope not. I hope the freezes can be fixed via firmware. I’m kind of wondering if the issues are caused by certain usages (heavy edits, frequent and fast knob scrolling and footswitching, complicated scenes). I also wonder about the MULTITUDE of external gear and cables that users have - varying length, quality and age of USB cables, interfaces, computers, OS, ports. It’s gotta be really tough to trouble shoot.
 
Personally, it always happens when the fm3 is connected fm3 edit via usb and running logic at the same time (no matter if I use the fm3 or the rme as audio interface). Very annoying / frustrating, hopefully the fix is only a fw away..!
 
Any thoughts on whether a hardware problem intrinsic to the design and affecting many units would be covered by warranty?
 
The only time I’ve ever locked up my fM3 is when trying to use a preset ported from the axe fx 2 or 3 that had something incompatible in it, or a preset that ran the cpu well past the 80% stay-below threshold.
 
Mine has run for 5 or 6 hours, randomly switching between scenes and presets, without problems. This is with the editor disconnected. I'll let it run over night but it's starting to look like a USB/Editor issue.
 
Feeling some hope here. Disconnected it from USB and ran it overnight with no problems. Peformed a lot of Scene and Preset changes when I walked by the unit and when I wasn't in bed. It looks like it might be a USB /Editor problem whicfh I can live with.
 
caballero59 said:
Feeling some hope here. Disconnected it from USB and ran it overnight with no problems. Peformed a lot of Scene and Preset changes when I walked by the unit and when I wasn't in bed. It looks like it might be a USB /Editor problem whicfh I can live with.
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The USB connection does seem to exacerbate the issue. High usage presets also do (82% or over). This is all conjecture, however, and we are working on the problem and seem to be narrowing in on it. Thank you for bearing with us, all.
 
USMC_Trev said:
The only time I’ve ever locked up my fM3 is when trying to use a preset ported from the axe fx 2 or 3 that had something incompatible in it, or a preset that ran the cpu well past the 80% stay-below threshold.
Click to expand...
Same here, but I noticed CPU load is not stable but varying within say +/- 2%. Maybe punctually on some "interrupt" it punctually gets beyond the fatal 85% value?
I stopped using fractool for II to FM3 conversion after too much artifacts and lockups and needed to completely reset all patches and reload FW, system and factory patches.
I will though watch this more closely this weekend and see if there is any reproducible common phenomena.
 
I feel your pain! I am sure it is frustrating to have your rig suddenly stop working. I have had my FM3 for around 6 months - using it 2-5 days a week - and have never had a lockup. (I just knocked on wood...) I have not changed from my early 1.03 firmware yet because none of the upgrades made a difference for me (Since everything works great, I am waiting to upgrade until they port the OD and frequency modulation upgrades from the FX3). All of my patches use less than 75% CPU. You might try going back to 1.03 firmware to see if you still have a problem to see if it is related to one of the new updates. The only issues I have with 1.03 are related to AxeEdit - sometimes I change parameters on AxeEdit and they dont change immediately on the FM3 - It happens so rarely, I am always surprised and confused when it comes up until I remember it is related to some kind of communication bug somewhere. Not a big deal, especially since I am usually playing and not adjusting/tinkering with my tone.
 
Unit ran the looper for about 24 hrs with no USB attached. Changed a few presets and scenes along the way. Last time I checked it, it was playing and interface menu selections were active but the foot switches were dead.
 
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