Yeah, unfortunately it can also be caused by something like sketchy Wifi,or some problem with the machine, but we can’t check for that…they can sometimes see something by checking the metrics for the machine.
So anyway, we ask about the common ones that we can eliminate up front. 
Yeah, that’s why it’s good to browse the forums first to see if any of the community-suggested ideas work. Sadly, there hasn’t been a straight forward fix based on what I’ve read and tried so far.
I emailed support a couple days back and am waiting to see what they come up with. My hope is exactly what you pointed out – because it’s a cloud platform, they should have access to substantial technical details to help diagnose the issue.
That said, I’m still stuck on the operational difference between opening the lid a few inches (which causes no problems), and opening the lid 6 to 10+ inches (which causes infinite scanning). Combined with the LEDs sometimes turning off when the lid is fully opened and sometimes staying on when the lid is fully opened just screams a loose wire somewhere. I tried a few more times and can reliably reproduce both the LED on/off effect as well as the spinning “scanning” of death.
Nope…doesn’t sound good. 
Did you take a look at the pins on the ribbon cable? Made sure they’re all straight, none bent or broken?
The ribbon cable for the laser head is fine – that was easy to verify, especially since it’s all brand new. The ribbon cable connections at the base of the lid, however, are another story. For the instances when I open the lid and the LEDs turn off completely, I can gently poke the ribbon cable connectors near the lid hinge and sometimes get the LEDs to turn back on. The ribbon connector is on tight and nothing appears broken.
Out of curiosity, what happens when you open your lid? Do the LEDs turn on? Off? Get brighter? Dimmer? I find the LED behavior on my end is generally inconsistent and it would be helpful to know what “normal” is in this case.
When you open the lid they stay on but they get a little dimmer. (They used to really blind us.)
Interesting & thanks for the input… In my case, they’re sometimes much BRIGHTER when I open the lid. Other times, totally OFF. I was really hoping this would be a software issue or operator error, but it’s looking increasingly less likely… Dang.
Well, we don’t know for sure…they’ll be able to tell. Good luck. 
You have a really good bit of trouble shooting done. I think is has been diagnosed down to that ribbon and something loose or broken. I was hoping that a bit of a low spot under one of the machine’s legs might be the problem as that would be an easy fix.
I think they will probably want it back at the shop and I would make sure all the shipping stuff is handy to put it back for sending.
In the meantime a kluge that might work is to see how much movement that ribbon makes when lifting the lid and as it is designed to allow the lid to be all the way up. If you could lift the lid a bit more without the ribbon moving you could manage a bit easier.
Assuming you know which end is causing the problem a bit of tape holding that end steady while the rest moved would allow a more usual operation until you have to send it off.
So, if I solve the problem without shipping the GF+ back, what do I win?
tldr Solution: ribbon cable connecting the lid to the main case was loose on the case’s end (as opposed to lid’s end). Here’s some pics of the problematic connection – it’s where the ribbon connects to the white PCB:
Slightly longer explanation: Was thinking more about the symptoms and how the LED lights were acting irregularly and how the lid opening distance was affecting whether I ended up in scanning spiral of doom. My sense was it had to be a cable or connection related to the lid’s hinge. Last night, I was poking around the end of the ribbon where it connects to the lid, but it was definitely a tight connection. For whatever reason, it didn’t occur to me to check the other end where it’s mounted to the back case. Today, I was walking by and on a whim, decided to open the lid and have another look in the daylight. The ribbon connector looked perfectly fine, but when I gently touched it, it was clear the connection wasn’t snapped shut. (I have some passing familiarity with these types of connections – when replacing the battery in my Nexus phone, I had to disconnected/reconnect several of these hinged mechanisms to finish the job.) Anyway, I snapped the ribbon hinge closed, booted the machine, pulled up the app, and checked to see if the problem had been resolved. It had. Hoo-ray!
You get props man! 
I’ll take it! 
And thanks for going back-and-forth with me. It helped get the brain juices flowing.
There’s nothing quite as gratifying as fixing a problem yourself. Great job! And, also provides us with yet one more idea for things to check when we have something not working as it should.
Agreed. The sense of satisfaction is definitely an endorphin high! Now, the fun begins!
Great work @js11 and @jules. this will be very helpful for folks in this situation. Thanks for the detailed troubleshooting narration. Glad you got it fixed.
I think you should pay yourself at least $100 an hour plus a $75 minimum service call.
Looks like we have a winner. You get cake and cookies today. 
The cake is a lie
Congratulations! You have also laid out a clear path to a solution of finding exactly what it is that was not working.
There is a tendency to believe too much that the Glowforge is having a problem where it says it is having a problem. I hope that @dan might set someone to have some subroutines to test this sort of thing as a part of the scanning and ready process that might identify the exact location of what is messing up with out just a long wait with no clues.
My machine had exactly that issue but with the head ribbon that it looked fine and occasionally acted correctly but implied that the machine was too hot rather than a connection problem.
Since then I have seen several folk on the forum making that same mistake with that connection. Yours is the first where it was that rear ribbon that was not set tightly enough.
The other thing you get is a working Glowforge. And that’s a good thing for sure!
I’m so glad to hear you got it working again!
I’m going to close this thread - If you see this problem return and you’re not able to resolve it, please post a new topic. Thanks for letting us know about this!
