Have you tried removing the degraded glue from the audio controller and I/O boards, as well as the connectors on the cable that links the audio controller board to the power amplifier boards (as shown in earlier posts)?

Not sure what's the actual difference between both 110V and 230V versions (since I have not worked on a 110V version), but you can try out and see if swapping/changing those connections will work...

This post has been edited by lex: Sep 26 2014, 12:20 AM

Hi Mr Lex,

I would like to know what kind of equipment you use to desoldering all the faulty components?

Are you using a vacuum desoldering station or just a desoldering braid?

Thank you.

I'm not Lex, but I just recently did this repair and I was just fine with a non-fancy soldering iron and solder wick (braid). Some of the pieces I did have to use a solder sucker to get the remaining solder out of the hole once the piece was out, but I don't think you need a sophisticated vacuum soldering station.

Hope this helps.

Just a 60W soldering iron, ordinary de-soldering pump (solder sucker) and solder flux. Make sure you have a soldering iron of sufficient wattage (minimum of 40W, recommended at least 60W or higher) because this is a double sided PCB. Just becareful of those smaller solder through holes with thin surrounding pads. Make sure you do not damage them with a much hotter soldering iron (avoid heating it up too long).

Hi lex.

I bought this creative s750 yesterday and when i was testing it, I used wrong power cable, it had 3 pins when the original has 2. So the fuse blew. Well I changed the fuse and tried to power it up with original power cable and nothing happens. I opened the amp and saw this. Is there anything what could be wrong now?

Nothing to do with the cable at all. Can actually use 3-pin plug, just that the Earth pin is ignored. From those pictures, highly likely the source of that brown out explosion is that (conductive) degraded glue. And the area affected is the feedback section of the standby power area. If you had read thru the guide (concerning the degraded glue issue) then you will know what I'm talking about...

Lex, any chance to repair my G500 .....?
It has been almost a year de.



Thanks,
chiewming

get in line first, mine more than a year

Opss... Wasted letting my speaker to eat dust for such a long time...
Pity my speaker leh..

Hi, I wud like to join this discussion about the s750 and try and get sum insight into my particular problem. Started with no power (no green light). Cleaned all degraded glue and replaced all recommended caps altho only found one 470 cap leaking, checked all suspect components, cleaned boards and reinstalled without input and without external spkrs. Applied power and green light came on and everything appeared normal. When I powered on the audio control unit I got a high pitch (varying intensity) sound coming from the sub. Changing the volume level on the control unit has no effect on the sound. Checked for ground loop without results. Suspect the filter cap on the audio board which I did not replace (1000 mfd 100v), but have not replaced it yet. Is there something I missed?

Hi,

My Creative Gigaworks stopped working. The light does not turn on, on the hub. I have started to clean the brown glue off the pcb. Please see below some images:







Will this capacitor be fine?
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/products/7153158P/

This post has been edited by LordNubus2: Dec 16 2014, 03:07 PM

Hi @Lex and everybody!

My cousin's Gigaworks S750 stopped working ( he had them repaired once already ) yesterday and he brought them to me to see if I can get it fixed.

I checked the capacitors on the input filtering side of the SMPS ( PSU ), they're Rubycon and they seem to be in perfect condition.

I started troubleshooting it and found out a "blown" capacitor, at position C62, the electrolytic capacitor that was covered inside a black insulation.

After I replaced it with a new Rubycon with similar specs ( same voltage, just a little bit higher capacitance ) the green power light started to light up, but not steadily.
It is blinking.
Whenever I hook up any of the two "amplification boards" to any of the two "outputs to amplifier boards" from the PSU PCB, the light starts to blink and I hear a clicking sound repeating endlessly.

If I disconnect the amplifier boards from the PSU and only connect the PSU with the main circuit board the green power light stays on and doesn't blink.

Any ideas what could be causing this ?

I'm uploading a video on youtube so you can hear the repeating clicking noise that I get once I connect the amplifier board/s to the PSU PCB's connectors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_BAwNEEhOE



This post has been edited by electrified: Jan 28 2015, 02:40 AM

Hi, glad someone else is here, its been lonely since Lex disappeared a couple months ago. I replaced that cap also when I replaced all of them on that board, and when I started up the green light was lit and no blinking. However, as my post sez I still have a problem with noise coming from the sub. Since I have been unable to get a schematic of the amp boards I haven't made any progress. I did find a bad cap c40 on the amp board across the 1000 uf 100v electrolytic and sent for caps to replace the two c40 ceramics and the both of the electrolytics. I hope I don't have to replace all the caps on those boards. Anyway Its good to have you with us and maybe one of us can get this thing fixed.

The clicking noise you are getting, is it from the sub, and if so can you control the volume? I believe these caps I am replacing may be part of your problem as well. The noise I am getting disappears when I disconnect the ribbon connector from the amp that outputs the sides/center/sub only. All of the other outputs which come from the other amp board work fine.

This post has been edited by dlduscg: Jan 28 2015, 05:45 AM

Too high. Try Rubycon MXP 470 uf 200 V 105 Radial Snapin Dia 22mm Ht 37mm lead space 10mm

Hi lex thx for the post.

I followed all the steps to fix the power supply .The speakers in but never heard , not where the problem for please need your help.

The clicking noise seems to be originating ( used a digital decibel-o-meter to pinpoint the source ) was coming from the transformer ( T3 ).
After some modifications things went south due to my lazy and totally confined and out of order workspace, and I happened to turn on the unit with a screw somewhere between the transformer's input and the surrounding mosfets and... kaboom!
Sparks and fire!

I'm giving up on repairing the POS design PSU.
I'll make a custom PSU to drive the amps myself as I have most of the stuff I need here, so long Creative's cheap-ass SMPS.

that sounds pretty damn exciting
do let us know your outcome of the custom PSU

This post has been edited by Quazacolt: Jan 29 2015, 12:41 PM

Hey. Thanks for the reply. I have removed all capacitors from the board, some of the green stuff has pealed away revealing the copper?, hope this will work still :-(. When i have time i will try to replace the caps. This is my first soldiering project. I get confused about things like snap capacitors or ones without snap as i am not sure they will go into the holes etc. I will read more and post some photos , if someone could help me after that especially which capacitor and if i need to replace or test other components, i would be very greatful.

This post has been edited by LordNubus2: Jan 30 2015, 07:59 AM

Hey Lex (or anyone that's reading),

If you've seen my previous posts you know I was successful in resurrecting my S750 by replacing all the capacitors Lex suggested. Just a couple weeks ago wife and I were sitting on the couch and heard a loud pop. Pulled open the sub and found this:

Before cleaning:


After cleaning:


The capacitor with the missing lead (it exploded clean off) is one of the new ones I had replaced in the first round.

My question is, can I just replace the busted capacitor or do I need to replace that blue thing as well (and if so, what is it)?
Is there enough green landscape to make the repair worth it or will it blow up again?
Is there anything else I should do?

Cheers mates.

Sorry to hear that electrified, the hope for my repair depends also on every one else successes. I believe the clicking sound you had was not audio but mechanical possibly coming from the start relay. Now it appears you have complicated things with the blow up you have described. Hope you are still in the game, but if not, good luck and sorry I could not help.