Finally done it............u have to sort of do it twice, hold the power button until the blue LED stays on perminantly (if you do what the update says the LED turns blue, but then goes off again after a minute or 2 then back on, off...etc)
So keep repeating the process beyond boardom until eventually the LED stays on, THEN run the update process after once it's on......not run the update, reboot the device in to boot loader, like the website says.
Wow creative, horrendous hacky awful mess you made of that, if it wasn't so expensive id replace it with another brand, but, now its done, its working again, and on the PC I want it to run on......not had a bad as experience as that since windows vista.
I know it is kind of an old post, but recently I struggled with the process, and personally would like to elaborate about it. Your second post, the one which I am replying to, just got me into another loop of attempts and it did not help at all. So I wanted to be straight with this one, so anyone who looks for this can understand and do the firmware upgrade correctly.
So, if you are reading this, your firmware upgrade for your Creative Sound Blaster X7/X7 Limited Edition might have gone wrong due to the unclear 'Bootloader mode' message, and you are desperately looking for help on how to do it correctly (so did I). It is not tricky at all, just needs a better explanation of the procedure.
The first thing you must do, if you have already tried the firmware upgrade directly from your OS (Windows/Mac, does not matter which) without knowing about the subsequent device's bootloader mode message popping up, is to do a factory reset to make sure that any modified or corrupt firmware overwritten is restored back to factory standards. And to do that do as follows (recommend reading the process before execution):
Factory Reset
While your device is on:
- Press and hold the 'SBX' button.
- Press and hold the 'On/Bluetooth' button while still holding the 'SBX' button.
- While still holding the buttons the three lights, which means On/Bluetooth, Dolby Digital and SBX indicators, will start blinking rapidly for a short time and then turn off.
- Afterwards the 'SBX' indicator will light up, and in a while will do so the 'On/Bluetooth' indicator. Release both buttons when both light up.
This completes the factory reset process.
Now we are into the firmware upgrade process. I have some previous recommendation for the safety of your device. As we are dealing with DC and a relative high voltage for a digital device, it is recommended to handle the power connection from the power cable to the power outlet, otherwise to the current adapter of the device, than directly connecting and disconnecting from the amplifier's power input to avoid any electrical damage.
So you should proceed as follows: disconnect any audio output device connected to the amplifier, the device power cable disconnected from the power outlet, or power adapter, and having your device connected to your computer via the supplied micro USB data cable.
First we will set our device into bootloader mode, done the right way of course. So do not launch, or execute, the firmware upgrade software in your computer until stated to do so. Let's begin (recommend to read the process before execution).
Creative Sound Blaster X7/X7 Limited Edition Bootloader Mode and Firmware Upgrade
Start with your device off and disconnected from the power outlet:
- Press and hold the 'On/Bluetooth' button.
- Connect the device to the power outlet while still holding the 'On/Bluetooth' button.
- Keep pressing the button, and as soon as the blue 'On/Bluetooth' indicator light turns on release the button.
- Now you are for sure into the evasive Bootloader Mode of your device.
- Go to your computer and run/execute the firmware upgrade file. It should now go right through the upgrading process without any prompts showing up.
- Wait for the process to reload the device's drivers and finish the process correctly. Close the firmware upgrade utility window only by clicking the 'Close' button that appears when the process is complete.
I hope that this information is helpful to many others with the same issue, to give a better and longer life to it.
