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Post by keith9151 on Feb 18, 2018 14:44:59 GMT
Hi I bought a new Hall and Collins unit and when l was playing through it, it just froze and all that was on the screen was a row of boxes. You could the not move up or down the patches. Even if you switched the unit off with its on/off switch the boxes remained on the screen. The only way l could get the unit to start working again was to switch it off at the wall, it then reset itself and all was well until the next time.
I sent this unit back and received a replacement only after a few days of use this new unit did exactly the same. All this in the past two weeks.
Has anyone else encountered this problem and if so have you found a way round the problem without having to switch off at the wall.
Many thanks Keith
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Post by Charlie Hall on Feb 18, 2018 16:34:56 GMT
Hi Keith, Very odd. I have never heard of this problem with any other owner's unit. Switching the effect off/on with the footswitch does not work like a power on/off switch. As you found, disconnecting the power is the only way to reset the unit. It almost seems as though there is a problem with your mains supply so I am wondering if a mains filter/spike protection unit is needed in your case? Have you had any problems with any other appliances/equipment in your home? Regards, Charlie
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Post by keith9151 on Feb 18, 2018 17:40:13 GMT
Hi Charlie No l have not had any problems with any of my other equipment. All my guitar stuff is on a separate supply from the house. I run two amps one with the new Colin’s Echo and the other with zoom g7 with eftp ( which l am hoping to change to Hall and Collins) when l can. I have changed the pedals over so they are on different circuits and it is only the H&C that goes wrong. Don,t get me wrong l love the pedal and Derek in sales is going to have a word with the factory on Monday. I have sent him photos of the pedal when it has frozen and the boxes are showing. Thanks for answering my query. I will still look into the filter/spike protection you mention in you message. Keith
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Post by Charlie Hall on Feb 18, 2018 23:02:19 GMT
Hi Keith, I am thinking it would be interesting if your original unit is tested at some length to see if it plays up again. I will see if I can discuss it with them. Regards, Charlie
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Post by keith9151 on Feb 19, 2018 7:22:29 GMT
Hi again The number of the first unit that froze was. 000857. The unit l have at the moment is 000869. If that of any help. Have a good day Keith
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Post by Charlie Hall on Feb 19, 2018 11:23:43 GMT
Hi Keith, Thank you. I had a word with Stephen, the technician, and he says that he is unable to reproduce the fault with your original unit 000857. He asked me to tell you that he will be phoning you some time today. Regards, Charlie
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Post by keith9151 on Feb 19, 2018 18:34:09 GMT
Hi Charlie Stephen phoned me and has asked me to do certain tests the next time the unit freezes and send the results to Derek. Thanks for your help
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Post by Charlie Hall on Feb 19, 2018 18:43:28 GMT
Hi Keith, OK. I don't know what those tests would be but it will hopefully lead to understanding what is happening. Regards, Charlie
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Post by keith9151 on Feb 20, 2018 17:02:30 GMT
Hi Charlie. Sorry for late reply. Stephen wants me the next time it freezes to try going up or down the patches to see if the echoes still change . He says that will help him narrow down where the problem may be. Keith
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Post by Charlie Hall on Feb 20, 2018 18:12:32 GMT
Hi Keith, Thanks, that makes sense because if the unit doesn't properly initialise on power up then I believe everything would freeze. John and I went to a lot of trouble to ensure initialisation on power up would be very reliable. Regards, Charlie
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Post by keith9151 on Feb 21, 2018 11:15:14 GMT
Hi Charlie Just waiting now for it to do it again if it ever does. I will do as l have been asked when and if it does. Until then l will just carry on enjoying the result of all your work. It is truly a brilliant pedal All the best Keith
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Post by Charlie Hall on Feb 21, 2018 20:31:43 GMT
Hi Keith, It is obviously very difficult to sort out a possible problem if the fault is infrequent, that's even if one exists. Rest assured everyone involved will work with you any time there is a problem. Regards, Charlie
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Post by jeant on Mar 12, 2018 9:55:10 GMT
This problem looks like an electrostatic problem. The case is loading up due to friction movements of the user (depends on clothing he is wearing and/or material he is sitting on ). Processors and memory get corrupted because of strong electrostatic field and freezes the program.
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Post by Charlie Hall on Mar 12, 2018 13:48:14 GMT
Interesting. As the H & C unit is earthed via the signal cable to the guitar amplifier, and I imagine electrostatic problems would only manifest in cases where there is no earth, could it be a bad earth at the amplifier? Regards, Charlie
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Post by keith9151 on Mar 12, 2018 15:35:13 GMT
Hi Charlie Just to keep you informed. The units screen has only froze once in the past 2 weeks. Stephen your technician had asked me to do a test the next time it froze . The test involved just going up and down the patches whilst the screen remained frozen to see if the patches still changed which they do , you just don’t know what patch you are in obviously. I am now using a spike / noise filter socket as you suggested but the screen still froze whilst using it. Stephen and Derek are both now aware Keith
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Post by Charlie Hall on Mar 12, 2018 16:29:56 GMT
Hi Keith, Thank you for the update on your unit. Thinking logically, the program is not frozen if the patches change OK while the screen is frozen. I tried to call Stephen today but I was only able to leave a message to ask him to call me. Regards, Charlie
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Post by keith9151 on Mar 12, 2018 17:43:30 GMT
Hi Charlie As you have said in a previous message , it is very difficult for you when it only goes wrong every couple of weeks. As l only play at home it is not such a problem for me. I just switch everything off and then on again. (It might be a problem if l was using it on stage).I will just keep using it and enjoy it and leave the technical stuff to you and Stephen Keith
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Post by anna on Mar 14, 2018 11:06:21 GMT
Hi Charlie and Keith I have just the same problem with the H+C unit as Keith. I am glad to have found this Thread because I didn´t know how to describe it in English (I am German). The symptoms are exactly like Keith describes. It happens from time to time when I press the button for moving up or down the patches. After disconnecting the power it works again. I bought the unit in January this year (Serial Number: 00000866). Apart from this occasional dysfunction I am very content with the unit. The sound is really amazing and it is so easy to operate. I think it doesn´t make sense to send it back and get a replacement now. Perhaps there will be a solution to the problem some time, please keep me up-to-date. Kind Regards anna
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Post by Charlie Hall on Mar 14, 2018 11:50:06 GMT
Hi Keith and Anna, I tried to call Stephen again today but still only got a recorded message so I called the factory and found out that Stephen is off sick. Hopefully he will be back in a few days and meanwhile they are going to try to contact him. Anything I find out will be reported here in this thread. Regards, Charlie
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Post by keith9151 on Mar 14, 2018 18:22:56 GMT
Hi Charlie I was beginning to think l was doing something wrong that was causing this problem on my unit, but now Anna in Germany has the same problem it would appear that some where in the unit there is a fault manifesting itself on occasions. The first unit l got that was faulty was number 000865 which was returned, the unit l have now is number 000869 and the unit number Anna has is number 000866 all showing this fault. It may just be a batch problem?. I will leave it to you and Stephen when he is well again which hopefully won’t be too long. Keith
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Post by Charlie Hall on Mar 14, 2018 22:38:26 GMT
Hi Keith, I am beginning to think the same thing. When I can I will ask Stephen if there have been any component source changes that could be causing this. Regards, Charlie
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Post by Charlie Hall on Mar 15, 2018 13:33:40 GMT
Hi Anna, I have spoken with Derek this morning. He has requested me to ask you to please report the fault with your unit to him as it may help with narrowing down the cause of the problem. support@hallandcollins.com Regards, Charlie
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Post by mickh56 on Apr 21, 2018 22:41:01 GMT
Hi all. I played my first gig last night using my new unit 000875. I had one instance of the above problem where the display blocked out. It happened while the patch currently being used was ON and I tried to select the next patch down. It didn't really cause any problem other than having no display and thanks to this thread, I disconnected the power and rebooted the unit and had no further problems all night.
I suppose it does seem strange that you have made some previous 800 units that have never reported this problem. However, I'm loving the sounds I'm getting.
Hope you get to the bottom the problem soon.
Cheers for now...... Mick.
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Post by Charlie Hall on Apr 21, 2018 23:50:48 GMT
Hi Mick, Thanks for reporting this issue with your unit. Please also report it to supportAThallandcollins.com (replacing AT with @). As far as I am aware, the display only does this when a footswitch is pressed as happened in your case, although we also believe that something is triggering the fault before the footswitch is pressed and it is not the footswitch operation alone that is the cause. We carried out many tests on the display recently. Adding smoothing capacitors and heavier ground returns did nothing to help. Having powered up the unit we disconnected all the inputs to the display, leaving only the 5 volt power and backlight power connected. We were still able to get the black squares to show after random firing of static pulses to the casing. The black squares appear because something is randomly making the display go into single line mode instead of double line mode. I believe that the pulses we used are more severe than anything that would normally occur in use. Stephen is now waiting to hear back from the manufacturer of the display as we are of the firm opinion that there is nothing wrong with the design. Regards, Charlie
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Post by mickh56 on Apr 25, 2018 14:45:05 GMT
Thanks for your reply Charlie,
I will report it to your support team as you require. It seems to be such a random problem and it has happened only the once so far. Unit is directly connected to my amplifier. However, I do have another pedal connected between the unit and the guitar if that makes a difference. Cheers.... Mick.
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Post by Charlie Hall on Apr 25, 2018 17:15:39 GMT
Hi Mick, and others who have genuinely experienced this problem, We think we are getting closer to a fix which might be possible without changing to another display. Meanwhile Stephen had heard nothing from the display manufacturer so he was going to send them another message. Mick, I don't think an additional pedal in the chain would make any difference so don't worry about that for now. Regards, Charlie
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Post by jeant on Apr 29, 2018 15:44:55 GMT
Hi Charlie,
A possible solution could be to put LCD display initialisation not only in setup after power up but also in the main stream program as a refresh. It solved once a problem I had with a console. Regards, Jean
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Post by Charlie Hall on Apr 29, 2018 19:00:44 GMT
Hi Jean, Thank you. Stephen has actually written code some weeks ago that does that when a footswitch is pressed. Hoping we will reach a good conclusion soon. Regards, Charlie
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Post by daver on May 4, 2018 15:13:24 GMT
I bought my Hall & Collins from the first batch three years ago and used it to do a few demos which sounded excellent and the odd theatre show here and there, but recently decided I wanted to use it on a regular basis. The problem is that it has started producing a lot of what I would describe as 'white noise' and is unuseable at the moment. I have plugged it into several amps, through the desk with different leads, all quality stuff that runs silent until the H&C is connected. I have been calling Charlie to ask his advice but he doesn't appear to be home. Had anyone rlse experienced this ?
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Post by Charlie Hall on May 4, 2018 15:56:19 GMT
Hi daver, Try calling me now! I have been out a lot but am nearly always here in the evenings. Regards, Charlie
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