Broken Mackie 1604 VLZ3 channel?

[john909kid]

I bought a used Mackie 1604 VLZ3 off ebay a few months back, described as fully working etc. Anyway for various reasons I have only got round to setting it up today, but I think one of the channels is broken
I follow the Mackie set-up guide in turn for each channel, where you turn down gain, AUX sends, and the fader, and engage SOLO and check the Level Set Meter until its around 0db. Then disengage the SOLO, assign the channel to L+R, and turn up the fader to a good level. I do this fine for each channel apart from Channel 16.
All is well up until where I disengage the SOLO, and assign the channel to L+R output. At that point I can hear the source sound, even though the channels fader is all the way down
Moving the channel fader from this point on, up or down has no effect on the volume.....I've checked all other push buttons on the same channel and made sure they're in the up/disengaged position but still no luck.
I take it It's broken ?

[garranimal]

Same thing happened to me when I used that one. The wire harness cables they used for that model were a bad batch. Normally everything they do is built really well. You might try contacting them for a warranty service number even though you aren't the original owner. Worth a shot.

[john909kid]

Thanks for that. So it's a known fault. I'll try and see if i can get it repaired on warranty.

[john909kid]

The wire harness cables they used for that model were a bad batch.

I've searched the net, but not found any extra info on the bad batch of cables in the VLZ3. Do you have any links, or tell me where you heard about this please?
Will give me more ammunition when i try to get a warranty repair.
Thanks

[garranimal]

Mine was actually 1642 VLZ but this link describes the 1604 also had issues w/ ribbon cables and intermittent channel issues. We used to have some old threads about this here on VSE but it appears they went to the graveyard. I'd like to state again I do have full faith in Mackie products and it is very odd to see any issues with them in general. Also the issue may have arisen in the process of shipping. One time I ordered a brand new synth from a store and during shipping a connector inside popped loose.

[john909kid]

Mine was actually 1642 VLZ but this link describes the 1604 also had issues w/ ribbon cables and intermittent channel issues. We used to have some old threads about this here on VSE but it appears they went to the graveyard. I'd like to state again I do have full faith in Mackie products and it is very odd to see any issues with them in general. Also the issue may have arisen in the process of shipping. One time I ordered a brand new synth from a store and during shipping a connector inside popped loose.

Thanks for the link. I did come across other such info, but as it was not specific to the VLZ3, had hoped this later series was immune to the earlier problems. It appears this may not be the case.
I did try to register at the Mackie forum site to ask there about this problem and if VLZ3 suffers from it too, but it's impossible to register there as the anti spam "image capcha" is not displayed when setting up an account !!