Line 6 Spider 3 amp

[bartanton]

HELP!  I have a line 6 spider 3 amp that suddenly will put square boxes in the screen and it then looses all its lows and sound like junk.  I really love this little amp and would like to know if I can fix it.  I am pretty good with a soldiering iron.

[katieburton12]

The thing I like about the spider is that you can pretty much turn it on and go to town. It is not the best tone in the world but for just practice it is usually good enough for me.If you really want to get very exact about tone suggest you either get a real set of tubes involved or go for the higher end line 6 stuff.
Also of note is that Spider 3 is about to come out, and god only knows what that will have in it. My guess is that it will be "too much".

[J M Fahey]

Hi Bartanton.
These amps are based around a big blob of plastic with lots of pins that does all, plus a power amp chip and a power supply to, feed both.
The big blob itself is not repaired, even by the factory, but replaced in bulk.
Anyway, it might just gone dumb, like my stupid PC does every day, forcing me to reset.
I have read somewhere else in this forum that there is a Factory Reset procedure, search around for it or ask Line 6 themselves.
It was something like turning it on while pressing a certain button for a few seconds or something like that.
If successful, post here to help others.
Thanks.

[bry melvin]

reset:

Spider I, II, III, IV, Micro, and Valve Series: Hold down the A (or clean) button as you turn on the power and hold the button for 5-8 seconds.

If that doesn't work you might try completely unpluging for several hours. letting all the computer capacitors drain.

The innards of these are somewhat like a pentium 3 era computer (oversimplification).

These computer amps likewise should never be operated without a surge supressor FWIW.

However the computer COULD be toasted.

[teemuk]

See if anything of this stuff is helpful:

http://www.schematicsforfree.com/archive/dir/Audio/Musical/PRODUCTS/LINE%206

[J M Fahey]

Hi Teemu, thanks a lot.
*Very* useful.
Digital is not my area, but I see there's a lot of conventional stuff which can go wrong and looks repairable.
Thanks again.

[Zappacat]

This is known as "black box syndrome" with respect to the Spider III series that have the LCD displays.  It has been well documented.  Google it.  If you play your cards right you can get them to repair it for free.  I did.  Good luck.