Also referred to as the blinking red light of death, the Elgato Wave 3’s blinking red light indicates that something has gone wrong with your device and you’ll need to reset it or reconnect it to your computer to fix the problem. Getting the Elgato Wave 3’s red light to turn off can be confusing and frustrating, especially when you go through all the troubleshooting steps only to get nowhere.
The specific cause and solution vary depending on what exactly happened, but most cases can be resolved with one of the following techniques.
The most common cause of the Elgato Wave 3’s blinking red light is a firmware issue. However, there are a few other things that can cause this problem. Here are some troubleshooting tips to help you fix your Wave 3:
How To Fix Elgato Wave 3 Red Light?
1. Checking the Updates
Check for updates. Make sure you have the latest firmware installed on your Wave 3. You can check for updates by going to the Elgato website and downloading the latest version of the software. Install it.
2. Keeping Elgato Unplugged
Before installing, just make sure your Elgato wave 3 is unplugged, so windows don’t cause interference when installing the software. When successfully installed, plug your microphone back into the computer and see if the red light goes away or not. If not, try the next one.
3. Using Different USB Port
Try a different USB port. If you’re using a Mac, try using a different USB port. If you’re using Windows, try plugging your device into another computer. This will eliminate the doubt between your PC and microphone, if your mic works fine on another PC, then troubleshoot your PC.
4. Using USB 3.0 Port
If you’re using a USB 2.0, try plugging it into a USB 3.0 port. Many motherboards and laptops come equipped with at least one USB 3.0 port and probably going to replace it with 2.0 shortly. As the device is pretty new so, it makes sense to plug it into a 3.0 port.
5. Unplugging Every USB port
Another most known fix for it is, unplugging every USB port and installing the software. When it states to plug in the Wave 3, close out the Wave link and then plug in the mic, after uninstalling everything and unplugging everything before reinstalling it on the main computer. Then, after starting the Wave link in administrator mode and selecting the “repair” icon, the firmware installation process eventually will progress and your issue will be fixed hopefully.
Conclusion
The red-light issue of Elgato wave 3 is a rare one, not many people come across this issue. Usually, this problem has to do with the firmware not being correctly installed. Or, users try to mess up the firmware while updating it. The best approach to this problem is first, to try plugging your mic into another computer, if the light is still red, then it’s the firmware update.
If it works fine, then try troubleshooting your computer. Unplug every USB device and install the software, and after when it asks you to plug your mic in. It’ll fix the issue and the firmware update will go through.