Creative Gigworks s750 7.1 Fix

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downhill

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Ok, this thread either means something or nothing to you.
The Creative gigaworks 7.1 is a very expensive old skool speaker system that has a tendency to die a early death because the amp is housed in the kickass sub.
It's an extremely frustrating problem as the 7 awesome speakers are intact, as is the Subwoofer; It just wont TURN ON.
The sub unit (in most cases) is very hard to fix, and if it's not under warranty (12 mths, Yay) creative will charge you for a whole new unit, which they wont have cuz the stopped making them.
My Sub is no exception, It died over a year ago, and a few times since. But I am poor, so here is a Fix..

OK, this fix is simple enough to do, and if your reading this you were probably attached to it, like me, but it will take some steps..
By no means is this a permanent fix.
It is a very similar to the old 360 ring of death fix heat up fix, and similar to that fix, the unit can get harder to ressurect each time, and should obviously not be attempted unless the warranty is up and you have little to lose.
but..if your dedicated, it can always be done.

-Take your broken (no green light) s750 subwoofer.
- Attach a power cable that you wont have to disconnect for as long as you want them working and connect it.
- Attach the power module as you will need it soon enough. Turn the power switch on the sub to "ON"
- Now the basic premise here is to get the unit HOT.
- When mine dies. I place it on top of a towel on a space heater, changing sides every 15 mins. If you feel this is a bit much; Just take a Fan heater and blow it at the rear of the unit or the port hole.

*PLEASE BE CAREFUL AS THE SUB NEEDS TO BE CONNECTED TO POWER WHILST IT IS HEATED.

- In theory You only need to get it as HoT as it would get through normal operation, but these things CooK during "normal " operation so dont be too gentle.
- Anyway...The green light should start blinking in abut 30 mins.
- Once the Green light is back and blinking; take the 'already' connected power module and place it on or near the sub.
It seems to help if it gets hot aswell, but it is plastic unlike the sub so dont go nutz. Just have it close to the Sub once the green light is back.

- OK that was the easy part.
*The "red" standby light (whilst trusty) is stubborn and can take up to 2 hours to come back on.
And remember all this time the sub needs to being Heated (as described above).
- So 30 mins, maybe 120 mins from your green power light, you should have a red light. on the power module and a solid green on the sub.
At this point you can lose the Heat as it will make it's own ;)

*Take care not to disconnect the revived unit or you will have to start over.Leave it on Standby 24/7 (as you would anyway).
-Finally Reconnect the speaker wires and pc connectors while the standby light is on, Press the magic red power button and your back in Business! :)

*If you like technical stuff, you just heated up the mainboard enough to make glue conductive and engage secondary power supply switch. The unit should function as normal.

Sorry I had no camera to do a youtube video. I hope my english is ok.
 
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Thankyou SO much for this information - my S750 sub started doing the green flashing light problem not long ago and I thought it was stuffed for good (I've had a couple S750 subs do this before), I have been looking everywhere to find out any possible fix and just found this thread - just tried this suggestion of blowing a fan heater on the back while the green flashing light is on and after about 30 minutes the green flashing changed to a full solid green and it works 100% again now :thumb:

downhill you are the man!! The S750 is indeed an incredible system and I am so glad this worked :dance:
 
It Worked!!!!!....After a recent power outage it refused to work, I took it apart thinking an obvious problem would be apparent, but it was not. For some reason I was lucky enough that it just worked after reassembly. Then today it happened again, flashing green light. Followed the recommendation above with a space heater blowing air into the port for about 30 minutes & viola... like a charm.... all good again. Bizarre but for these speakers I would try about anything. You Rule Downhill Thanks......
 
Downhill... You are a legend, it worked within 10 minutes for me, i now have my kick ass speakers working again.
 
I would like to add my 2-cents!

I am now a proud user of a newly "made functional" Creative S700 (S750) sound system due to the instructions followed above! Worked perfectly! Thank you.:dance:

Here are my 2-cents: My light never fully went out. I had been moving equipment around (the system worked previoulsy to this) and then I noticed after plugging it back in that the Green Light was blinking. I was " awe man ". I new somethign was wrong, especially after plugging the pod unit in and getting NO light. I followed the procedure of heating it up and my GREEN light never quit blinking but I left the unit and came back in about 20 minutes and my RED light on the pod was on! YEA! Interestingly my green light never quit blinking until I hit the power button on the Pod Unit.

Long story short - It works now!! :thumb:

I did find some other info out there about a way to fix the issue.. but it delt with opening it up and doing something with some transistors... I'll have to go find it and come back and post the link!
 
motch6 said:
I would like to add my 2-cents!

I am now a proud user of a newly "made functional" Creative S700 (S750) sound system due to the instructions followed above! Worked perfectly! Thank you.:dance:

Here are my 2-cents: My light never fully went out. I had been moving equipment around (the system worked previoulsy to this) and then I noticed after plugging it back in that the Green Light was blinking. I was " awe man ". I new somethign was wrong, especially after plugging the pod unit in and getting NO light. I followed the procedure of heating it up and my GREEN light never quit blinking but I left the unit and came back in about 20 minutes and my RED light on the pod was on! YEA! Interestingly my green light never quit blinking until I hit the power button on the Pod Unit.

Long story short - It works now!! :thumb:

I did find some other info out there about a way to fix the issue.. but it delt with opening it up and doing something with some transistors... I'll have to go find it and come back and post the link!
Click to expand...


So, ya, i'm back! Had to do this again, BUT going on 2 hours now and can't get it working this time! The light was completely out this time, i've got it back to blinking and have warmed up the POD unit, but still waiting... Doesn't look like i'm going to pull it back to life this time :(
 
was having a bit of the same issue, it was dead (no light at all) eventually it came back 3-4 hours, since it happened again I had unscrewed the back of the unit, propped the internals in front of the space heater. It now takes less than 5 minutes to bring the unit back from completely dead.
 
Might be an idea just to change/bypass what the original post refers to as 'the secondary power supply switch'.
 
Hi, sorry I know this thread is old, but I remember seeing this before and trying it but it didn't work.

I've opened the back of the sub and I can see at least one blown cap, a fairly large one and maybe another smaller one next to it. I assume if there's a blown cap, then there is no chance of getting back up and running?
 
Enigma89 said:
Hi, sorry I know this thread is old, but I remember seeing this before and trying it but it didn't work.

I've opened the back of the sub and I can see at least one blown cap, a fairly large one and maybe another smaller one next to it. I assume if there's a blown cap, then there is no chance of getting back up and running?
Click to expand...

Depends whether the only fault is the blown capacitor. If you're lucky then replacing the one component may reinstate power. Trouble is, it's possible when the capacitor popped it's clogs it may have taken out adjacent components.

A replacement capacitor wouldn't cost much and if you're capable of replacing it then it's worth a try.
 
I'll have to open it up again and have a look. Failing that I'm viewing some stereo amps and AV receivers (for the TV) tomorrow after work and getting a demo, so I should be able to use my satellites with them for the meanwhile and I'll get a smaller stereo amp for my desktop.
 
Enigma89 said:
I'll have to open it up again and have a look. Failing that I'm viewing some stereo amps and AV receivers (for the TV) tomorrow after work and getting a demo, so I should be able to use my satellites with them for the meanwhile and I'll get a smaller stereo amp for my desktop.
Click to expand...
Hello,
This sorry saga makes me very, very angry indeed!!
I have just received a cry of help from a friend from an owner of said equipment.

The fact is that so many manufacturer's are aware that their equipment can be made to fail by simply selecting inadequately rated components in certain key positions in their otherwise excellent designs. I have seen this in all manner of equipment, designed by well known and (unscrupulous?) manufacturers. One just knows that after a set period of time (just out of warranty, it will fail!!). The fact that they will not even offer a repair option is (dare I say) an almost fraudulent act. The word, almost, can be deleted if required.

Electrolytic capacitors are an easy option for them; it is so easy to design their PSUs to fail after a pre-determined period. There are other design scams they can use, of course!

The way out of this is possibly, to:

a. Make them feel uncomfortable with their decision.
b. Never buy their equipment again - though they know that this is probably not going to be a serious threat to them, because of the few people who are willing to take the effort or have the knowledge to complain powerfully enough about their justifiable grievance.

OF COURSE - THEY WANT YOU TO BUY A NEW UNIT/SYSTEM and waste your hard earned cash, which you are often unable to really afford!

Until our governments are made aware of this, I think we are powerless... or are we?? Please be aware that this is a global problem!

Indeed, I am unsure whether this post will even be posted. Hope it is.

With kind regards and best wishes to all,
mdeaco.
 
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