I'm a newbie to this forum but have had about 15 years of home recording experience.
I have a Zoom H6 recorder that I love but has developed an intermittent fault when powering on. Most times it does absolutely nothing but after a few consecutive attempts it produces a constant white screen which I can ony remove by disconnecting the power. (Either batteries or USB power). After a few more of these antics it boots normally and provided I don't interrupt the power supply it will record all day long without issues.
I have checked all the connectors, the on/off switch, battery compartment and visually inspected the internal boards but there is no sign of any corrosion or battery leakage at all.
Anybody have any ideas or suggections how to rectify this?
I live in South Africa and we have a Zoom "agency" here but am unsure of whether it could be repaired here.
There is, in fact, a Factory default/reset setting but I'm not sure if that will achieve any improvement in the power switch-on scenario. I don't want to lose my pesonal preferences which I fear might happen but am not sure at all.
I'll try that option if you think it will work :<)
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
Yes I have changed the SD card and the result is exactly the same - totally blank screen for first 5 or 6 attempts then white screen for a few more tries then suddenly it works perfectly. Very annoying so any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
Given that you've tried different power sources and different memory cards, there's not much else you can do.
A factory reset would be worth trying -- but you will probably lose any personalised tweaks -- and I'd normally suggest a firmware update... but if there is something dodgy going on inside it could kill it completely...
So I'd say the next option is a registered zoom repairer.
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
Thanks for your assistance guys. I will try a factory reset and see if there is any improvement (or otherwise!) but if that doesn't work then you might be right in suggesting a Zoom repair. Given the vague nature of this specific fault, I don't know if such a repair would be economically viable. There are NO similar faults reported anywhere that I can find on the Internet so mine might well be the first.
Following up on Hugh's comment about "booting" the H6, I realised that it is a small computer style device that it, in fact, does "boot" up before running properly. On impulse I opened it up again and there is a rechargeable 3V button cell on the motherboard which appeared to be supplying about 2V DC unloaded. I don't know if this is not holding sufficient current to support the boot process but don't want to tamper with it right now.
(I did a factory reset but it didn't improve anything)
Any further comments?
Last edited by Rod1813 on Mon Dec 28, 2020 7:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
By that I mean will it record or playback or act as a USB host if it can do such a thing if you activate the relevant controls (I know the screen does not seem to be working).
Rod1813 wrote:On impulse I opened it up again and there is a rechargeable 3V button cell on the motherboard which appeared to be supplying about 2V DC unloaded.
If it is a rechargeable on the motherboard, might be worth plugging the H6 into a USB power supply & just leaving it connected for a day or so?
Yes it works perfectly but it's a bit of a rigmarole getting it to boot. Once it has booted and running it performs flawlessly.
What I was trying to understand was if you only see a white screen on the 'bad' boots and nothing else. I was wondering if it is possible that the screen has a dodgy connection but otherwise it works. So I'm really asking if it works with the white screen showing.
Last edited by wireman on Mon Dec 28, 2020 12:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Yes I was thinking of doing that to test whether the rechargeable cell would then recover a bit and behave normally. If that happens then I'm a little further along the road to understanding this strange problem.
It doesn't work at all when it displays a white screen as it freezes there and won't complete the boot cycle into the "H6 Handy Recorder" splash screen etc.
I don't think it has a dodgy screen or screen connector as when it boots successfully the screen functions 100%. I also checked the flat multi cables & connectors a few times when I dismantled it and reassembled it.
Is the button cell in a holder or soldered to the mainboard? if the former then it's easy, and cheap, to change it. Even rechargeable cells die eventually. But, does the H6 boot reliably when it is plugged into it's mains adapter?
The cell is soldered to the board and no, the unit does exactly the same thing irrespective of its power source (batteries or mains).
What I was thinking is this - if that cell is used to assist with the boot process (very much like the CMOS on a PC) and it's in the process of dying then the boot instructions are either missing or confused and the machine freezes without completing the boot process. After a short period of trying there is now sufficient power in the cell to complete the tasks and boots fine. Once the machine is switched off, the residual power in the cell drains and we're back to zero again.
Does this make sense?
Last edited by Rod1813 on Mon Dec 28, 2020 2:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
The cell is soldered to the board and no, the unit does exactly the same thing irrespective of its power source (batteries or mains).
What I was thinking is this - if that cell is used to assist with the boot process (very much like the CMOS on a PC) and it's in the process of dying then the boot instructions are either missing or confused and the machine freezes without completing the boot process. After a short period of trying there is now sufficient power in the cell to complete the tasks and boots fine. Once the machine is switched off, the residual power in the cell drains and we're back to zero again.
Does this make sense?
I think this is very unlikely.
If there was enough voltage to charge the battery that same source would be powering the other components.
Last edited by wireman on Mon Dec 28, 2020 2:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I took 2 photos of the underside of the motherboard when the unit was in pieces but they are not very clear. The button cell is visible but I cannot read the letters on the cell to identify specifically which 3 volt rechargeable cell it is.
I also don't know how to post photos in these posts.
