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Post subject: Please help diagnose/fix my Mustang 1 amp issues
Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 6:02 pm
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I have been attempting to find some sort of insight about how to fix the problems that I am experiencing with my Mustang 1 amplifier.

Problem #1: When toggling the power rocker to the on position, it appears to be a crap shoot as to whether I will get any indicator lights or not. *IF* I manage to get indicator lights at all, I will either see an amber light in the first/second position at the bottom or it will be a red light at the very top of the amp selector.

Problem #2: Whether or not I do get indicators, I am only able to use the device as a pass-through speaker by connecting an audio source with the 1/8" aux jack. Further he device will not accept any input from the 1/4" jacks at all whatsoever.

Problem #3: After attempting to locate information regarding any sort of remedy for my amp's ailments, the only information I ran into was the blanket answer: RESET TO FACTORY DEFAULTS. I thought to myself .. Okay, seems easy enough, power off the unit and press and hold the EDIT KEY until the light goes out. That is where everything started to go horribly wrong. First, pressing the EDIT KEY and then toggling the power switch to the ON position resulted in no lights. I pressed the button for a good 3 minutes and nothing happened. I powered it off and tried again, same result. I then pressed the SAVE KEY while powering it on and did get a flashing red light (which from my understanding, the device has entered firmware load mode. I was somewhat happy that I was able to get an actual expected response from the amp, so I downloaded the ASIC drivers and FUSE and installed them. Leading to ....

Problem #4: Plugging the USB cable into my computer does absolutely nothing in normal mode. I am able to put the device into firmware load mode and the computer will see the device and assign it as unknown. There are no drivers for the serial mode of the device, so I am fairly assed out there. Now, with FUSE installed, the ASIC drivers installed (but not registering the device), I hoped that I would be able to upload some firmware to the amp from the program (as this is the only method available) in hopes that maybe there was some sort of corrupted boot image preventing the amp from completing it's boot procedure. To my dismay, since the device is not recognized in normal mode, the option to upload the firmare to the device is greyed out and there is no other plainly available method to complete my task.

Keep in mind that regardless of the indicators being present or not, powering on the device will 95% of the time allow me to use the AUX input to play audio, but 0% of the time will I be able to successfully attach any sort of sound generation device to the 1/4 INPUT jack. All of the problems I am having are NOT cable or instrument related; of that I am beyond 100% certain. This used to be a great little box for jamming on, but it was closeted and moved around quite a bit over the last couple of years. There are no signs of external physical damage and it was housed in the box which it was shipped.

If there are any suggestions by the knowledgeable people on this forum, I would be very grateful. I just want to know one way or another if it is totally hosed as an instrument amp or if it is salvageable. I don't really care to go the way of manufacturing support/RMA, etc. If it comes down to that, I will just spend another 100$ and get another one.

Thanks again in advance!

Whytigr


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Post subject: Re: Please help diagnose/fix my Mustang 1 amp issues
Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 7:42 pm
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Have you tried a factory reset?

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Post subject: Re: Please help diagnose/fix my Mustang 1 amp issues
Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 7:42 am
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Yes, see Problem #3.

I am hoping that there is some sort of manual way to force a firmware code load to the board without having to open the unit and hack into it. Although that might be a fun side project should it turn out the unit is not end user repairable.


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Post subject: Re: Please help diagnose/fix my Mustang 1 amp issues
Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 9:38 am
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My guess is a bad Flash memory. It sounds like the CPU is trying to operate without instructions.
No service data is available, so send it to Fender or recycle it..


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Post subject: Re: Please help diagnose/fix my Mustang 1 amp issues
Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 9:45 am
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Wow! Sounds like a nightmare. Sorry your having so many problems. If this is a new purchase I would definitely return it for a replacement. You have a five year warranty on these Mustangs. By what you report it sounds to me that the power switch has a bad problem. (Could be cold solder joints or just a bad switch) The other problems sound like the main DSP board is malfunctioning. Being able to use the Aux in is a sign that the power amp stage is still operating and the speaker is ok.
CAUTION! If you open it up, you will void your warranty. So be certain that you want to do that. Note. Switches, input plugs and pots you may be able to get. However, replacement boards you will not find for sale. These are only available to Authorized Fender repair centers.
Hope this helps.
John (68 years young disabled Rocker)


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Post subject: Re: Please help diagnose/fix my Mustang 1 amp issues
Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 3:03 pm
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Tim,
That was my thought as well, which is why I was hoping that there was a way to reflash the unit manually as it does answer while in service mode (holding SAVE while turning on the power). Unfortunately, I have yet to discover any method for loading the firmware to the device without using the FUSE software and since my device is undiscoverable in normal mode, this make it impossible to go that route.

John,
I don't believe that the DSP board is in trouble at this point. While I am not sure how the problem was introduced, it is very similar to what you would see if your computer loses it's boot drive. It does power, EVERYTIME, so I do not suspect the power rocker as much as I suspect corrupted data. This is evidenced by the fact that whenever I toggle the power off, there is the still the normal click/speaker feedback that you get when you do the same while the device is operating properly.

Who knows, it could have been subjected to magnetism at some point during the course of it's hiatus from use and may have caused the troubles that I am experiencing. I do not know for sure as it was packed in it's box for quite some time and moved about many times. If anyone could provide me a method for attempting a manual load of the firmware while the device is in service mode, I would be extremely grateful. Otherwise, I fear that it is probably just going to be condemned to become a speaker for a computer/audio device. Even if that is it's fate, the price I paid for it is fair considering the audio quality it provides and when also considering other consumer electronics which are sold and are designed for only that purpose.

At any rate, I appreciate all of the responses I have received and will continue to monitor this thread for any helpful information. Should I find a solution, I will also post that here in case someone else runs into this issue. While this amp is not very old (maybe only 15-18 months or so) and still under warranty, I do not plan on going down that path. I feel that it would be far simpler to just go purchase another one and not deal with the hassle, associated waiting period or any potential additional costs which that process may incur. If it were a much better/more expensive model, I would more than likely have already explored that avenue.

Overall, for the price, this amp is very satisfying for practicing and performing any sort of hobby based recording. It has tons of features, sounds great and is very easy to use with your computer/recording software. I would definitely buy another one or at least a similar model. It is perfect for the amount of time I play and is very stowable for when I am not using it.


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Post subject: Re: Please help diagnose/fix my Mustang 1 amp issues
Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 11:00 pm
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Update:

I was able to find a way to update the firmware using the PLUG package under Linux, however, to my dismay, the unit is still behaving the exact same way. There is definitely something more going on and I am afraid that the device is headed out to the pasture to live out the rest of it's life as a simple audio speaker, albeit a pretty nice one.

Thanks again for all the responses. I will still monitor for thoughts/ideas, but at this point I am not very hopeful that I will be able to once again use it for what it was designed. :(

P.S. If anyone ever needs to load firmware and for whatever reason cannot use the FUSE software under windows, you can install any of the latest Linux distributions (in my case Fedora 20) and install the PLUG package either with the default package manager for your distro or you can get it here:

https://bitbucket.org/piorekf/plug/wiki/Home

It was really simple for the purposes of installing firmware, but I cannot speak for the rest of it's features as my device is pretty much hosed


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Post subject: Re: Please help diagnose/fix my Mustang 1 amp issues
Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2015 5:08 pm
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I'm glad you were able to force a firmware update and flash the e-prom. Clever way of doing that. Thanks for the information.

1. Now what happens when you do a factory re-set. When the usb cable is attached from amp to computer. Without Fuse up and running?

2.Try doing it without any cables other than the power cord plugged in. What happens then?

3. What happens when you start Fuse up with the amps usb cable connected between amp and computer?Any messages from the software?

The other thing to check now is that none of the push buttons are stuck in a down posisition. Then try a set of phones in the phone jack for any sounds. Then plug them in and out a number if times. This may help if the phone jack is sticking in the open posistion.
Fingers crossed something will happen to help correct the problem.

If nothing helps or changes, and your sure you don't want to use the warranty. I would say, go ahead and open the amp up. Then you can do some other tests. Like check to see if the input jack is ok. Then check all the components on the boards. You may find the problem. It's certainly worth a try.
Good luck, and as always when dealing with open electronic circuits; exercise caution.

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