Modelling Amp not booting up

P0wderF1nger

I have a Fender Mustang GT40 amp (I know I should have bought the Katana). It's a great little bedroom amp, but it started wigging out recently. I switch it on, and the screen lights up, the pedal lights up, but it doesn't get any further than that. Not even the Fender logo screen. So this kind of tells me that it is a software issue rather than anything to do with the actual hardware.
I've tried everything I can think of but no joy at all.
Is this something that can be repaired? Seems a shame to chuck away a five year old amp away, but considering it cost less than £200 brand new, it's not something I would want to throw a lot of money at.
Any advice from the good people of The Fretboard as to who could fix this, or whether I should just cut my losses and get something else.

rpr

Have you tried  a factory reset?  Turn it off off hold Exit button whilst switching on?

P0wderF1nger

Yes tried everything that the manual says to do, including the factory reset. Also tried downloading the software from the Fender website and tried to "posh" the factory reset through from a pc, but still nothing. 

P0wderF1nger

*push

Danny1969

Not familiar with the GT40 but most modern  low end modelling amps  will have 4 basic parts. 

Switchmode power supply - pre amplifier - DSP  - class D power amp. 

Unplug the amp and leave it off for a couple of hours before you open it up. The SMPS will have 320V DC ish 
on the primary side  and the caps will stay charged to that voltage for a while. 

The DSP is often on it's own PCB as it's made by someone else using an ARM or similar DSP chip. It will often connect to the pre amp via multi pin headers so check those connections are good. Basically if it can't read the DSP part it won't be able to boot even if the power supply and pre / pwr sections are good. 

Unfortunately other than checking connections and reseating cables / headers there's not a lot you can do without a fair bit of experience and knowledge but the above is worth a go. 

P0wderF1nger

Thanks for that Danny. Next stage will be taking it apart which will give me something to do over the Christmas break. 

snowblind

Most of these digital amps are essentially landfill if something fails. If you can identify a failed board you might be able to order a drop-in replacement from the manufacturer bu as you say, £200 new means it isn't worth a huge amount of investment. A couple of hours of a good amp tech's time would easily wipe out most of the value. At this time there's one on the auction site for £40 so at worst there's your spares taken care of.