Unresponsive FC12 Footswitch: Causes and Troubleshooting

State of Epicicity

State of Epicicity

Fractal Fanatic
Does anyone have any experience with factors that could cause a footswitch to stop responding, or steps they've taken that have fixed it?

I've had my FC12 for sixteenth months, but it was always in one spot on the floor, next to my desk. A couple of months ago I unhooked it and stored on the opposite side of my desk. Never took it out of the room, no band practice, no gigs, no studios, no travel of any kind.

I hooked it up again last night, and I found that the upper left switch (Switch 7 with default switch flow) was not responding at all. The scribble strip was displaying everything correctly, but the switch would not execute any commands.

So I tried extensive troubleshooting:

first swapping the XLR cable,
then resetting the FC12,
resetting system parameters,
even erasing presets and user cabs,
installing 18.03 (I had been on 19.00 beta 3)
then reinstalling 19.00 beta 3
and of course unplugging and replugging the XLR many times

but nothing made it come alive again.

So I wrote tech support, and it was recommended to send it in, but in the meantime I couldn't for the life of me figure out how I could've damaged it! It was recommended for me to look at the ribbon connectors inside to make sure none have jiggled loose at all; I did that, and they were all seated properly. I know these things are designed for gigging and even for tours, so they're designed to be relatively tough.

What I'm wondering is what kinds of things could cause a single switch to go out. I twice asked tech support about potential causes for this but I didn't receive an answer, so I'm wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience and figured out or was told a cause; I'm just wracking my brain. I love the Axe-FX III, and I love the FC12; they are both incredible, and I want to do whatever I can to avoid a malfunction like this, if there's anything I can do on my end.

I read all the threads I could find about similar troubles with the FC12, and I did see the same issue appear in many posts across a few threads, and they gave me some ideas to troubleshoot further.

So next I:

Installed 19.00, which had just been released,
reinstalled the FC12 1.12 firmware
reverted to the 1.11 firmware
again went back to firmware 1.12

Still the switch acted the same way.

Then I opened the unit and:

swapped the ribbon connecting the LCD board to the motherboard with one from the LCD board next to it
Swapped the switch itself with the one next to it
Swapped the part of the LCD board, 028-PCB-004, closest to the surface of the unit, with the one next to it
Swapped the part PCB board, 028-PCB-005, that lies under the surface LCD board, with the one next to it

None of this worked. In all cases, when I plugged the FC12 back in, the upper left switch, Switch 7 in normal flow, lit up, displayed the correctly programmed display, but would not execute any commands.

Being a layman and possibly misunderstanding, this says to me the ribbon is okay, the switch itself is okay, the LCD board is fine, and the PCB board that sandwiches onto the LCD board is also fine. So maybe the problem is in the motherboard? I doubt it's the software, since I reset the unit in every possible way I could imagine.

I also tried all the recovery stuff for the Axe-FX III, like booting with the Edit button held down, etc. I knew this most likely wouldn't help (and it didn't), but I'm at a loss. I don't see how this one switch could just fail to respond like that out of nowhere. I have the Axe-FX III plugged in to a really powerful surge protector, and I unplug it during lighting storms.

So if anyone does have any suggestions or insight, I would so appreciate it. I cannot send in the unit, not for a long while. I can of course program custom layouts to avoid this switch, but it seems like I'm missing something simple.

Thanks in advance!
 
State of Epicicity said:
Does anyone have any experience with factors that could cause a footswitch to stop responding, or steps they've taken that have fixed it?

I've had my FC12 for sixteenth months, but it was always in one spot on the floor, next to my desk. A couple of months ago I unhooked it and stored on the opposite side of my desk. Never took it out of the room, no band practice, no gigs, no studios, no travel of any kind.

I hooked it up again last night, and I found that the upper left switch (Switch 7 with default switch flow) was not responding at all. The scribble strip was displaying everything correctly, but the switch would not execute any commands.

So I tried extensive troubleshooting:

first swapping the XLR cable,
then resetting the FC12,
resetting system parameters,
even erasing presets and user cabs,
installing 18.03 (I had been on 19.00 beta 3)
then reinstalling 19.00 beta 3
and of course unplugging and replugging the XLR many times

but nothing made it come alive again.

So I wrote tech support, and it was recommended to send it in, but in the meantime I couldn't for the life of me figure out how I could've damaged it! It was recommended for me to look at the ribbon connectors inside to make sure none have jiggled loose at all; I did that, and they were all seated properly. I know these things are designed for gigging and even for tours, so they're designed to be relatively tough.

What I'm wondering is what kinds of things could cause a single switch to go out. I twice asked tech support about potential causes for this but I didn't receive an answer, so I'm wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience and figured out or was told a cause; I'm just wracking my brain. I love the Axe-FX III, and I love the FC12; they are both incredible, and I want to do whatever I can to avoid a malfunction like this, if there's anything I can do on my end.

I read all the threads I could find about similar troubles with the FC12, and I did see the same issue appear in many posts across a few threads, and they gave me some ideas to troubleshoot further.

So next I:

Installed 19.00, which had just been released,
reinstalled the FC12 1.12 firmware
reverted to the 1.11 firmware
again went back to firmware 1.12

Still the switch acted the same way.

Then I opened the unit and:

swapped the ribbon connecting the LCD board to the motherboard with one from the LCD board next to it
Swapped the switch itself with the one next to it
Swapped the part of the LCD board, 028-PCB-004, closest to the surface of the unit, with the one next to it
Swapped the part PCB board, 028-PCB-005, that lies under the surface LCD board, with the one next to it

None of this worked. In all cases, when I plugged the FC12 back in, the upper left switch, Switch 7 in normal flow, lit up, displayed the correctly programmed display, but would not execute any commands.

Being a layman and possibly misunderstanding, this says to me the ribbon is okay, the switch itself is okay, the LCD board is fine, and the PCB board that sandwiches onto the LCD board is also fine. So maybe the problem is in the motherboard? I doubt it's the software, since I reset the unit in every possible way I could imagine.

I also tried all the recovery stuff for the Axe-FX III, like booting with the Edit button held down, etc. I knew this most likely wouldn't help (and it didn't), but I'm at a loss. I don't see how this one switch could just fail to respond like that out of nowhere. I have the Axe-FX III plugged in to a really powerful surge protector, and I unplug it during lighting storms.

So if anyone does have any suggestions or insight, I would so appreciate it. I cannot send in the unit, not for a long while. I can of course program custom layouts to avoid this switch, but it seems like I'm missing something simple.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
As I was reading the troubleshooting procedure you went through I was thinking to myself, what happens if you swap the switch with another one? Then I came across the part where you tried that and there was no change. At that point I thought, ship that baby back to Fractal and let the techs there have a go. I don’t know what more you could do without specific parts and test equipment. Kudos for all your efforts though! Hope you can get it sorted soon.
 
@mr_fender Thanks for asking. When I swapped the ribbon internally, the problem remained with the same position, upper left. It was the same result for everything else I did. I would almost say there’s something in the firmware, either in the Axe or the FC, but I’m not reading posts of other people experiencing this too at the moment, so it really feels like the motherboard in that case. It is the only part of the FC 12 I couldn’t swap!

@22 frets Yes, exactly! I was thinking if it’s just a switch, maybe this is a simple fix.

What I don’t get is what could be causing this problem; it’s nonsensically confounding. Hell, I’m so determined I actually want to buy a third XLR cable just to try that again.
 
It sounds like you have a faulty switch since it doesn't work when connected to two different positions. If it was the controller, the problem would likely move to a different switch when swapped.
 
mr_fender said:
It sounds like you have a faulty switch since it doesn't work when connected to two different positions. If it was the controller, the problem would likely move to a different switch when swapped.
Click to expand...

I actually swapped the switch itself twice, with the Switch 8 and Switch 10, but each time there result was the same, the position of Switch 7 would not execute commands. That tells me the switches are fine.
 
mr_fender said:
It sounds like you have a faulty switch since it doesn't work when connected to two different positions. If it was the controller, the problem would likely move to a different switch when swapped.
Click to expand...

To clarify, the position of the malfunction never changed; it was always in the position of the upper left.
 
unix-guy said:
Did you specifically reset the layouts?

And is this on ALL layouts?
Click to expand...

Hey there @unix-guy! Yes, I reset it all the layouts, and the behavior persists on every layout. Another telltale way to tell is also is to go Setup, then FC Controllers, then the EZ tab, and just click on each footswitch. When I click the upper left button, nothing registers on the Axe-FX III. But yes, I tested it in every possible way I could imagine. And that's part of why I'm trying to illicit any thoughts on this from forum members, because I not only tried every firmware reset I could find, including the recovery options, I also swapped out literally every swappable component inside the machine, the ribbon, the footswitch itself (swapped with two different ones), the LCD PCB board, and the PCB board that sandwiches to the LCD board. The only thing I couldn't swap was the motherboard itself! From everything I troubleshooted (or troubleshot, I guess....) it looks like the ribbon is fine, the footswitches themselves are all fine, and the LCD board plus the PCB board that sandwiches to it are also fine! That only leaves the motherboard, which is giving me indigestion to think about.
 
I just got my Axe FX 3 and FC12 a couple weeks ago and have been working to get my custom presets and layouts setup for live use. For the first time today everything would be working fine and then certain switches on my FC12 would suddenly not do anything in the middle of a song. Certain scene buttons/effects would work while others would not. I also would try the heel toe press to get to the master layout to choose a different preset or layout and that wouldn’t work. I had to unplug the XLR wait a few seconds and then plug back in and it would work fine for a short while but then the same thing would happen again a short time later. Any thoughts?
 
VanillaPup said:
I just got my Axe FX 3 and FC12 a couple weeks ago and have been working to get my custom presets and layouts setup for live use. For the first time today everything would be working fine and then certain switches on my FC12 would suddenly not do anything in the middle of a song. Certain scene buttons/effects would work while others would not. I also would try the heel toe press to get to the master layout to choose a different preset or layout and that wouldn’t work. I had to unplug the XLR wait a few seconds and then plug back in and it would work fine for a short while but then the same thing would happen again a short time later. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Try another XLR cable.
 
VanillaPup said:
I just got my Axe FX 3 and FC12 a couple weeks ago and have been working to get my custom presets and layouts setup for live use. For the first time today everything would be working fine and then certain switches on my FC12 would suddenly not do anything in the middle of a song. Certain scene buttons/effects would work while others would not. I also would try the heel toe press to get to the master layout to choose a different preset or layout and that wouldn’t work. I had to unplug the XLR wait a few seconds and then plug back in and it would work fine for a short while but then the same thing would happen again a short time later. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

A while ago I had a footswitch start not to respond properly, and resetting the unit took care of it. You’d want to back up your system parameters and presets, but resetting did fix it for me.

I’d do your backups first, then reset system parameters first, then reset your FC12 layouts. I know when this happened to me before it seemed to be caused by a crazy and complicated preset. If I remember correctly, I may even have cleared all presets then reloaded them from backup to get the switch working properly.
 
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