Help! My UA Del-Verb pedal abruptly stopped working

[hooligangorilla]

My awesome-sounding Del-Verb Ambience Companion pedal suddenly stopped working when I updated to the latest firmware tonight, literally right after the firmware update finished. I’ve tried everything including the factory reset method (holding the pair button for 15-20s while reconnecting power) and nothing works - it won’t boot.

Oddly, when the pedal is connected to my MacBook via USB, it still registers in UA Connect… it shows that the pedal is active and is running the latest firmware 1.1.7.

I would also appreciate any insight on what UA is like as a company in terms of customer service. I’m the second owner of this pedal, which means there may be technicalities that prevent me from accessing the warranty, which would really hurt, as it’s a mint pedal, taken great care of, and came out less than 1 year ago… and I still paid a lot for it. I know what I’m doing when it comes to updating firmware and have never experienced anything like this. I take immaculate care of my gear. I use a high-end isolated Cioks power supply and all the correct electrical specs required by the pedal. I am really worried here the pedal is bricked through no fault of mine and I can’t afford to just buy another one!

 

[UniversalAudio]

My awesome-sounding Del-Verb Ambience Companion pedal suddenly stopped working when I updated to the latest firmware tonight, literally right after the firmware update finished. I’ve tried everything including the factory reset method (holding the pair button for 15-20s while reconnecting power) and nothing works - it won’t boot.

Oddly, when the pedal is connected to my MacBook via USB, it still registers in UA Connect… it shows that the pedal is active and is running the latest firmware 1.1.7.

I would also appreciate any insight on what UA is like as a company in terms of customer service. I’m the second owner of this pedal, which means there may be technicalities that prevent me from accessing the warranty, which would really hurt, as it’s a mint pedal, taken great care of, and came out less than 1 year ago… and I still paid a lot for it. I know what I’m doing when it comes to updating firmware and have never experienced anything like this. I take immaculate care of my gear. I use a high-end isolated Cioks power supply and all the correct electrical specs required by the pedal. I am really worried here the pedal is bricked through no fault of mine and I can’t afford to just buy another one!

Be sure to get a ticket open with Support, they'll have things for you to try. Go to help.uaudio.com, click on the blue Support bot and type “create ticket”


Post the # here and I'll direct it to the right agent.

 

[hooligangorilla]

Be sure to get a ticket open with Support, they'll have things for you to try. Go to help.uaudio.com, click on the blue Support bot and type “create ticket”


Post the # here and I'll direct it to the right agent.

Thank you so much!! I’ve requested to create a ticket with the chatbot and this appears to be the ticket number (the number in the headline of the email summary): 815972

 

[UniversalAudio]

Thank you so much!! I’ve requested to create a ticket with the chatbot and this appears to be the ticket number (the number in the headline of the email summary): 815972

Yup, I can see it. They're reply in turn. Thanks for your patience.

 

[ivanbreet]

My awesome-sounding Del-Verb Ambience Companion pedal suddenly stopped working when I updated to the latest firmware tonight, literally right after the firmware update finished. I’ve tried everything including the factory reset method (holding the pair button for 15-20s while reconnecting power) and nothing works - it won’t boot.

Oddly, when the pedal is connected to my MacBook via USB, it still registers in UA Connect… it shows that the pedal is active and is running the latest firmware 1.1.7.

I would also appreciate any insight on what UA is like as a company in terms of customer service. I’m the second owner of this pedal, which means there may be technicalities that prevent me from accessing the warranty, which would really hurt, as it’s a mint pedal, taken great care of, and came out less than 1 year ago… and I still paid a lot for it. I know what I’m doing when it comes to updating firmware and have never experienced anything like this. I take immaculate care of my gear. I use a high-end isolated Cioks power supply and all the correct electrical specs required by the pedal. I am really worried here the pedal is bricked through no fault of mine and I can’t afford to just buy another one!

The exact same thing happened to me. I "successfully" updated three UAFX pedals with the latest firmware, but the UAFX Starlight stopped working right after the update to v1.1.8 (Tickets: #814925, #824597).

Have you had any luck resolving the issue?

 

[hooligangorilla]

The exact same thing happened to me. I "successfully" updated three UAFX pedals with the latest firmware, but the UAFX Starlight stopped working right after the update to v1.1.8 (Tickets: #814925, #824597).

Have you had any luck resolving the issue?

No luck. The situation really, really sucks. I just updated the firmware yet again to 1.1.9 in hopes it might restore the pedal to functioning again, but it did not.

If you bought your Starlight brand new from an authorized UA dealer less than 1 year ago, you can likely get your pedal repaired under warranty. If not, you’re in big trouble, like I am. Unless of course you live in the EU, where UA’s North American warranty would be non-compliant with regulations and UA is forced by law, presumably against their will, to provide slightly better warranty support to their customers.

I could re-state UA’s approach to non-warranty repairs here on this thread, but I’ll allow @UniversalAudio to chime in here directly and make known their approach to the minimum bench fee authorization and the shipping, if they want to. And in case they don’t, I’ll save you the trouble by advising that you’re better off making a trip to your local electronics recycling depot with your bricked Starlight, and then buying a brand new one if you absolutely can’t live without that exact pedal. But of course, if you’re smart you’re probably not going to get ripped off twice in a row, so you’d probably rather just buy an El Capistan or a Nemesis or a Walrus D1 or a DD-200 - something from a company that treats its customers with even just a shred of decency and respect… which basically describes literally every other pedal company.

 

[UniversalAudio]

The exact same thing happened to me. I "successfully" updated three UAFX pedals with the latest firmware, but the UAFX Starlight stopped working right after the update to v1.1.8 (Tickets: #814925, #824597).

Have you had any luck resolving the issue?

I'll have Ron take a look at your tickets.

 

[jordane]

No luck. The situation really, really sucks. I just updated the firmware yet again to 1.1.9 in hopes it might restore the pedal to functioning again, but it did not...

I could re-state UA’s approach to non-warranty repairs here on this thread, but I’ll allow @UniversalAudio to chime in here directly and make known their approach to the minimum bench fee authorization and the shipping, if they want to.

Man this makes me really really nervous to update my Ruby. If UAFX is going to brick these machines with their own updates, what a shame. At the very least, there should be an option to backup and restore these pedals prior to firmware updates.

edit: to clarify language

 

[klasaine]

I have 8 uafx pedals.
I've updated all of them every time there's been an update.
No issues.
YMMV, but I think that any problems are isolated and not widespread.

 

[Neotrope]

Nobody is being "ripped off" buying UAD pedals. UA has been making audio gear longer than most guitar pedals and brands even existed. Kinda know what they are doing. Warranty on a "foot traffic" item is always subject to review by any company due to high level of "friendly fraud" these days. "Oh, no, I ran over my pedal ... can you repair it for free under warranty?" "Um, no." -- (pardon rant -- sitting here waiting on some stupid web server updates I have to watch, ironically)