Bricked Helix

[Owen]

Hi all,

 

My friend updated the software on his Helix. It is now bricked. His local shop have quoted 400 to repair it. I do not suspect the shop of sharp practice. The problem happened well before they got their hands on it. It needs a new motherboard. Surely this cannot be right if all you are doing is putting manufacturer software on it? Any suggestions?

 

TIA

[Greg Edwards69]

That doesn't sound right at all if he/she was just performing a software update.

 

Tell them to download the Line 6 Updater and try again. This is different to doing it through HX Edit. More of a nuclear option! I've had to do this once when HX Edit's update process failed, due to my laptop going to sleep partway through.

If they still don't have luck, then they should raise a support ticket directly with Line 6 who will walk them through several resolution options.

[Huge Hands]

Have you Googled it?  I was looking into Helixs recently and thought I saw there was a common issue with the crashing during updates, but I don't remember it being said as if it was a terminal problem?

 

Maybe other users have found a fix for it?

 

I work with other DSP based systems and sometimes manufacturers have ways to get the CPU back by using direct to chip recovery software.

 

 

[Greg Edwards69]

4 minutes ago, Huge Hands said:

Have you Googled it?  I was looking into Helixs recently and thought I saw there was a common issue with the crashing during updates, but I don't remember it being said as if it was a terminal problem?

 

Maybe other users have found a fix for it?

 

I work with other DSP based systems and sometimes manufacturers have ways to get the CPU back by using direct to chip recovery software.

I think, but I'm no expert in such matters, that's what the Line 6 Updater software does.

[Si600]

39 minutes ago, Owen said:

Hi all,

 

My friend updated the software on his Helix. It is now bricked. His local shop have quoted 400 to repair it. I do not suspect the shop of sharp practice. The problem happened well before they got their hands on it. It needs a new motherboard. Surely this cannot be right if all you are doing is putting manufacturer software on it? Any suggestions?

 

TIA

I think it's dead.  They need to give it to you for use as a footrest for you onstage........

[BigRedX]

1 hour ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

That doesn't sound right at all if he/she was just performing a software update.

 

Tell them to download the Line 6 Updater and try again. This is different to doing it through HX Edit. More of a nuclear option! I've had to do this once when HX Edit's update process failed, due to my laptop going to sleep partway through.

If they still don't have luck, then they should raise a support ticket directly with Line 6 who will walk them through several resolution options.

 

This.

[Jack]

I bricked my stomp whilst updating so I bought another. I finally got around to selling the old one and that point there was new firmware. I updated it and it worked. Don't give up just yet. 

[tauzero]

Might be worth doing a factory reset first. There are various options:

 

https://line6.com/support/topic/35415-how-to-do-a-factory-reset/?do=findComment&comment=321227

 

Footswitches 6 and 12 will force it into update mode, then use the updater to, er, update it.

[rwillett]

I know nothing of Helixes but I managed to brick my Tonex doing a software upgrade. 

 

Turns out that connecting a usb hub to it to the upgrade doesn't work and the usb cable needed to be in the mac. 

 

Also turned out there are other ways to factory reset things that aren't listed in manuals. 

 

Many of these devices have a factory set copy of the firmware on the box that's readonly and you 'just' need to access that and put it back in place. The costs of setting this up is so much cheaper than the return and replace cycle if something goes wrong during an upgrade. 

 

I'd be a little surprised if it really did need a motherboard from an upgrade going wrong. 

 

Rob 

 

 

[fretmeister]

Definitely try the Updater.

 

Then if not, the official L6 repair place is in Norfolk. Go direct to them.

 

When the repair place was in Milton Keynes I needed a repair on a Pod XT Pro Rack and they charged me £20.