For the last two years my glowforge pro hasn’t work because is stuck on focusing. And before I throw it out I decided to install it the two led bars, the black cable, the white cable, everything clean, connectors clean, camera clean
Only in two occasions it went to centering but then nothing. So I dont think that I can do anything else. If someone has another solution please let me know.
Thanks
There have been tons of threads about this, it can be really hard to solve. Sorry you’ve been through it.
What does support say about your logs?
Hi! I wrote to them again. I’m waiting for them. But it’s frustrating to have a machine that causes so much trouble.
Yeah it definitely is.
I’d probably try calling them if I were in your shoes, it’ll make the back and forth a lot faster.
TLDR: If you haven’t done so, try moving your GF close to your modem to test and see if it will connect. It was a huge PIA for me to try it, but it solved my 18 month connection issue.
Long version: My GF that worked great in the same spot for almost 7 years was only able to connect twice in the last 18 months, and during those two times it really struggled. I ran wifi meter tests which showed the signal was strong at my GF, and my phone connected to the same wifi in that spot. So I tried different modems, different wifi signals, hotspots, signal boosters; nothing worked. Nothing had really changed on my end that I was aware of that would explain the issue, and I assumed it was bad hardware.
So I gave up and just a few days ago I went through the (at first) painful automatic responses from support telling me to do all the things I had already done, but after a few back and forth messages I finally reached Ben with support. He was amazing and told me that the signal reaching the GF was super weak at -70 dBm. With the knowledge Ben gave me I did a little digging in my Xfintiy app and discovered another one of my 2.4Ghz signals was broadcasting a great signal, but I still couldn’t connect to it because the signal right at the GF was super weak, which meant something was blocking it.
So with that bit of diagnostics I moved my GF to the room with my modem, and BAM!, it instantly connected. I almost cried. lol 
Then I moved it back to the same room it had been in but about 6’ from the original spot, and it connected again. Ben said the signal wasn’t great, but it’s still working fine for me. And interesting enough, I experimented with moving it back to the original spot and it now it will connect there again, but it gets stuck on scanning half the time. So I’ve moved it 6’ away again, and now I’m up and running.
That’s awesome! Wi-if can be a challenge sometimes. I’m so glad you connected with Ben and are back to functioning!
Always good advice to try to isolate WiFi issues. A WiFi hotspot phone test is a good way to rule that stuff out without having to move much.
A message for artsopr: In 2015 I purchased a Glowforge from the Kickstarter program. It has never worked consistently. I could never rely on it from day to day. I have had some success getting it past the focusing stage by first rebooting the desktop PC, checking that Wi-Fi was set to 2.4 and then turning the GF on. The booting of the PC has helped me over the past two years. The GF always been in a corner of a workshop about forty feet from the 2.4 Wi-Fi signal. The workshop and the Wi-Fi are in two separate buildings. The GF is located in a corner with outside windows on both sides. After the first few years, when the GF was powered on it did not finish the boot more than 75% of the time. When the lid brackets separated from the lid last year, I replaced the brackets with an E-bay single strip new hinge (bracket). I also replaced both the white and black cable. The GF failure to boot continued. A few months ago, I purchased a WeCreat(e) 45W laser. My logic was simple, use a machine that does NOT reply only on Wi-Fi. I reorganized the workshop and now the GF is much farther away from the Wi-Fi signal, maybe eighty feet and the other end of the room. It still is in another building away from the 2.4 signal. Since moving it farther away (and away from the three windows) the GF powers on immediately. Years ago, a schoolteacher forum member said that he finally able to boot the GF after putting it on a cart and rolling it out of his classroom and into the hallway. Purchasing a GF from Kickstarter was my choice. I’d do it again, support a product on Kickstarter.
Tbf, glowforge was never a kickstarter, on kickstarter, associated with kickstarter.
Thanks to all!! But after back and forward with the glowforge company they have determined that my machine is suffering from Lid Subsystem failure.
And they offer me to buy another machine or send it for repairs. Like I told them I spent $6000 on that machine new and Im not going to spend $2000 more on them. So is going to be sell for parts and the rest for the garbage.
Im buying other brand.
Once more thanks
Not an uncommon decision. There are an awful lot of folks here who are only a machine failure away from doing the same (or have already done so). It’s something GF has failed to address for several years.
Check out the XTool machines. Reports from GFers who have moved over (as well as many others) have been very good. And XTool has a track record of product improvements and ongoing innovation.
Our GF won’t focus any more and we’ve jsut spent a month back and forth with GF ‘support’ to try and fix it. They have been useless. We have sent video of the head attempting to focus, photos of the bottom of the laser head, close-ups of focus laser/sensor cover windows, pictures of connectors, circuit boards, etc. pretty much the only suggestion has been to clean the focus /windows. We even sourced a new laser head which showed the same problem so we ruled out a head problem. We were asked to send photos 4 times, were asked to perform the head setup 3 times, even after we said it failed because it can’t focus! We werre clearly dealing with a person with no knowledge reading off a screen. Eventually, having read around endless forums and watching endless videos, I suspect the ribbon cable to the head which i understand is a common problem. Why could support not suggest that as an issue? Instead they told us to send the machine back to US from the UK (not going to happen!). I have now ordered a new third party cable and will try fitting it on arrival 
. It is not viable to send it back to the US. We use it for business and would never buy GF again. We chose GF thinking a US manufacturer would provide better support than a Chinese or EU brand, but it is quite the opposite. Now we learn they no longer supply relacement tubes, when that fails the machine will be scrapped.
Hello Wesley - Thanx for the correction. I confused it with a 3d printer Kickstarter.
It was a crowdfunding campaign, just not on Kickstarter
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