Creative G500 power not working properly green light comes on and dims out

[Rahul Mahajan]

I had my speakers for about a year now and they have been working fine. But all of a sudden the speakers lost power and i go to flip the switch and then the green light comes on and dims out. Then when i go to turn the switch back on it comes on and stays on for about 3 min. i have checked the fuse and it doesn't look bad at all i even used a tester on it to see if it was ok. Does anyone know what the problem is?

[Unwanted]

I have the same system. I also have pretty much the same problem. It does not matter what connections you have with anything as far as what speakers are set up, if it’s connected to a computer or anything. It’s just a power problem inside the subwoofer box. I plug in my subwoofer, and I do not have the remote connected then as soon as I plug in power and turn the switch to on the back of the subwoofer I get a green light for about 1 second then i hear a click like I tripped a circuit breaker. Then loss of all power. I can unplug power and circuit breaker resets. If I have remote installed, I plug in power and turn switch on, on the back of the subwoofer and I get a green light. If I do not touch anything from that point on I get the green light for ever as if normal operation. However, as soon as I hot the power button on the wired remote, I hear that click again and all loss of power until i unplug and re-plug subwoofer. Now I can turn on the power on the remote, then turn it off again really quickly and I do not lose power. I also can turn on power on the remote then hit the mute button and keep all my power on. I thought maybe if i disconnected all speakers, I even got into the subwoofer box and disconnected the subwoofer speaker from the electronic board. And get the same operations. All fuses are good to go. I had everything working in the setup it was in, then one day it just stopped working. Can you turn on power and then hit the mute button and still have full power?

[Rahul Mahajan]

YES, it sounds like we pretty much have the same problem. Have you taken your subwoofer apart and seen them to electronic boards? You have the 1 with the big silver cylinder connected to it, and on it you have the 2 fuses well there is a black little box that has a picture on it that it is the switch. That seems to be what is tripping the circuit. What are your thoughts?

[Unwanted]

Well, I don't think that replacing that switch would fix the problem. If you notice the wires that come out of the board right next to it, (it’s pretty much touching the switch as far as i can see all the glue makes it hard to see.) I unplugged that connection from the green lower board. I then turn on power and that switch does not click, so I think it’s something on the 2 green boards (the one towers over the other) that might be faulty cause only when the plug is connected to the 2 green boards does that black switch on the tan board click. Hopefully I did not confuse you too much.

[Rahul Mahajan]

My theory is that something on the 2 tower green boards is faulty and spikes power or something then that switch describe above 'trips' and grounds out power. I thought maybe it has something to do with sound as I would turn on power on the remote and get sound for a second then loss of power. So I tried it again with no speakers connected, I unplugged the subwoofer connection (2-pin connection) on the back side of the lower green tower board. Then tried it again (so no sounds involved) and still got the same results. That big silver cylinder is the transformer and maybe it does not do its job correctly but then again I disconnected the two green boards from everything else on that one 4-pin connection and did not hear anything click. But then again I really did not see anything that could use power, like a light or anything. But I still feel about a 70% chance that the problem is on the 2 green tower boards somewhere. maybe you could research more into it and let me know what you think?

[Suigetsu]

I have the same problem. I actually got it to come back on and I never powered it off for 4 months! Then the whole neighbor lost power. This time i could never get it back on. I read your posts and I took apart the board thank goodness that I’m an electronics engineer. I have the easiest solution! It worked for me great now. And it cost literally 30 cents! Put a small magnet on the top of the housing. It will keep the fault protection circuit from closing the switch. The magnet wills override the coil magnetic field. Works like a charm no messing around with that glue! Enjoy! Pass it on! You should have seen the email i got from the Tech support you can buy a new refurbished one. screw that!

[Itachi Uchiha]

I have owned these speakers for 12 months now. They have worked for only 3 months in total. Same problem of overheating. I am currently on set number 5 and I am awaiting set number 6. This problem must have cost Creative a fortune! Having opened the subwoofer up I can say that the build quality is poor and I believe they are overpriced. Having bought Creative products since the late 80's I am totally disappointed with this product. The credibility of Creative has been damaged irreparably.