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Finally Minelab Take Responsibility For Screwing Up The GPX 6000 Speaker


phrunt

The GPX Audio Fix Poll  

17 members have voted

  1. 1. Have you had the audio/EMI fix done to your GPX 6000 - if you plan to get it done please don't answer the poll until you've got it back and tested it

  2. 2. Did the fix improve your built in speaker EMI stability

    • Yes
    • No
      0
    • Not sure, possibly
    • Not sure, I don't think so
      0
    • Don't care, not getting it done
  3. 3. Did the fix improve overall stability or improve the detector in some other way?

    • Yes
    • No
    • Not sure, possibly
    • Not sure, I don't think so
    • Don't care, not getting it done


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16 minutes ago, strick said:

Have they said exactly what they are fixing yet?  what parts? Looks like I'll be sending mine back again but have to wait till this next trip is over...one of the problems I'm having is that it all seems kinda vague to me...what are thy fixing? I really wish a dealer would get on here and shed some light if they know anything we dont...

strick 

Sad to say, but dealers in the U.S. usually find out about stuff like this by reading forums like this. :mellow:

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1 hour ago, strick said:

Have they said exactly what they are fixing yet?  what parts? Looks like I'll be sending mine back again but have to wait till this next trip is over...one of the problems I'm having is that it all seems kinda vague to me...what are thy fixing? I really wish a dealer would get on here and shed some light if they know anything we dont...

strick 

I haven't been able to find out myself yet what they are fixing. I sent a number of emails (and included in my original report) that I specifically wanted the speaker/EMI fix but got no responses to them.

The guy I spoke to on the phone was not aware of a fix, but said the tech's might be when I got one assigned. After I got one assigned I sent another email saying I wanted the speaker/EMI fix but didn't get a response to that one either. 

I also just finally said something like "the same thing done on TBoykin's detector that got a 1 day turnaround" to perhaps make things more clear. Haha sorry to invoke your name man, but lacking response I wasn't sure if I was going to get the thing I sent my machine in to get and end up stuck wasting 4 weeks sitting there just to come back to me with the same problem, which was the thing I was trying to avoid all along.

Still no responses to my inquiries, but maybe they are busy this week now or something, who knows. 

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Does it void the warranty when you remove the speaker grill? You only sent the box correct? Or did you send the entire upper shaft?

Went back and read the thread from the start and found the removal instructions....duh

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Just send them the product notice PDF that I attached to my first post in this thread.  Then they will find out exactly what the EMI fix is, and they'll contact Minelab Australia asking about it, for me I just contacted Minelab Australia, they had no idea I wasn't in Australia so they must not know which serial numbers are in NZ or Australia and asked me to send mine off to them in Australia, then I replied but I'm in NZ 🙂 They told me that I am welcome to send it in to the NZ service agent.  I contacted them a few days later as I've been too busy skiing every day asking If I could send it in for the EMI fix, they knew what I was talking about and said sure, no problems but I'll have to wait until the 19th as Minelab has only just express couriered them a parcel with the part required to do the repair. 

I think me contacting ML in Australia prompted them to contact the NZ service agent about it and ship them the part, hopefully they've sent "parts" and not a single part as JW is going to be sending his in too of course, some days his has been almost unusable.  And there are two other 6000's in NZ that I know about both are on their second owner now though.

I'm confident the reason other countries don't know about it yet is because Minelab are wanting to get the parts to them before making the notice widely available, this thread probably annoyed them a bit.  I get the impression it's every single GPX except the past couple of months so that's a lot of main PCB's they need to replace.  Mine was purchased in May 2022 for example and it has the problem, others like Sheppo and Northeast were much earlier adopters and also had the issue.

This is the best news possible getting that EMI problem fixed and I'll finally start to really like the detector if it is truly fixed, I'm very happy and every early report of someone having the fix has been fantastic. 

<--- I may even move the detector off my Gear not used: section to my Gear Used: section.

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Alright. Called again to ask about the fix, left a message, got an email update about 15 mins later.

No problems found other than just doing the "audio update". So, just as I was saying for months - no problems with my machine in specific and it's a design/manufacturing issue. I knew this already, I'd travelled enough and seen enough other 6000's to know it wasn't unique to mine. 

In case anyone didn't see it a while back, I posted some videos of the detector losing stability entirely (I also linked these to Detector Center and pretty sure they were given to Minelab too a month or more ago) - completely unresolvable by noise cancels, and highly location dependent. And again - something I've observed on many other 6000's other than my own. Sometimes the owners didn't even realize it was happening until I pointed it out that it wasn't normal.

And I'm still postive there is some part that physical location plays in this whole thing. I believe there are some frequencies that affect the 6000 greatly, only exist in some locations, and it lacks proper shielding for them is one of the most logical explanations. My guess is older/legacy cell tower equipment or something to do with higher elevations and perhaps increased EMI effects from solar radiation or other space phenomenom which would be normally filtered more by more atmosphere at lower elevations. This could explain the instability at ground too, as electrostatic field potential increases with elevation and the tops of objects like mountains, buildings, or lightning rods actually develop a good electric potential difference (voltage), so the field gradient is higher on mountains and moving from chest to ground would actually bring the machine through a compressed band of high potential vs being in NV for instance. 

So, we'll see if this so called audio update fixes the propensity for the 6000 to go completely, entirely unstable in some locations too. And if it fixes the problem I've pointed out numerously of it losing stability entirely when set onto the ground too. If not, they still have problems to fix.

Will report again once I get my detector back and am able to revist some of the locations in the videos I posted - it may be 10-14 days as I'm stuck in town for a number of reasons right now.

"Update Subject: Diagnosis

Message:

Audio update has been performed. I tested the customer's rear control box and coil with our upper control pod and battery. Unit operated well with this set up. No other issues found at this time.

Please contact us if you have any questions in regards to the repair of your equipment

Detector Center

Minelab Authorized Service Center"

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Now all the "yes men" can benefit from the tireless complaining of those who were not satisfied with a detector with obvious issues. Look forward to hearing your results Jason, fingers crossed it's finally a solution, it's certainly sounding like it.

What does it mean being a yes man?
: a person who agrees with everything that is said especially : one who endorses or supports without criticism every opinion or proposal of an associate or superior.
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Well when it rains it pours.

I just got home from work, saw they sent a tracking #, and my detector is now on it's way to the wrong address to someone in Winnemucca, NV. I live 800 miles from there.

Of course they are closed now - being on the East Coast.

Seeing as pretty much all of us prospectors live 2 or 3 time zones away, having a repair center somewhere even remotely close to us and operating on the same hours would probably be good. Not sure why they got rid of the facility in Vegas.

So unless they correct this, I'll be taking my next trip with no 6000 - exactly what I took pains to avoid. Argh.

*Update - In a testament to the repair center, they either saw this post or checked their messages after hours. Sounds like it didn't get on the truck yet and can be corrected still, thankfully. 👌:smile: I was sure this was going to be weeks of lost time and about ready to just give up and sell it whenever it arrived. Back on track though. The 6000 is a great machine when it works, very much looking forward to having a working one and hopefully getting some end of season exploration in places I couldn't work earlier. 

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8 hours ago, afreakofnature said:

Really liking these early reports!

If you have the repair done can you list the serial number and date of purchase too.  Atleast DOP if not comfortable giving serial #.  Maybe we can find the range on our own 🙄

I purchased mine about 4ish months after initial release. When I rang up, I asked about this and was told if your machine had been bought or manufactured in the last fortnight, it will have the update, if not, it wont. That was on the 28/9/22 (9/28/22 for US readers). So in essence, any machine manufactured before mid September is affected.

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