HD120 RGB Fans reliability

Hi guys,

Diring my build, i ordered 5 packs of 3 HD120rbg fans. On the 5 packs, 3 packs were dead: the fans spins fine, but the RGB don't work: some fans don't light up at all, some onther only have 1 or 2 leds that works, and you can't change color, and some were working when they arrived, and then stopped suddenlty.

I tried everything: making sure it wasn't the RGB hub that was faulty, or the commande pro, i rtied using the HD lightining controller: it's just the fan that is dead.

Does some of you have the same case? Is the HD120 reallky reliable, or will i have to RMA it 4 or 6 times in the next coming months?

Thanks for the feedback !

Hi guys,

 

Diring my build, i ordered 5 packs of 3 HD120rbg fans. On the 5 packs, 3 packs were dead: the fans spins fine, but the RGB don't work: some fans don't light up at all, some onther only have 1 or 2 leds that works, and you can't change color, and some were working when they arrived, and then stopped suddenlty.

 

I tried everything: making sure it wasn't the RGB hub that was faulty, or the commande pro, i rtied using the HD lightining controller: it's just the fan that is dead.

 

Does some of you have the same case? Is the HD120 reallky reliable, or will i have to RMA it 4 or 6 times in the next coming months?

 

Thanks for the feedback !

When I was in the market for fans, I spent way to much time looking at fans. I even compiled list of manufacture stats i.e. RPM, dBA, static pressure, and etc in a spread sheet. I was already leaning toward the HD-120s, I did spend a bit of time looking for qualitative data to show me how reliable/any issues people had. I really couldn't find anything of a concern. That being said there will always be faults that could slip through QA in every company as well as components that are sold to the manufactures that might not always be up to spec that could pass QA, though fail early. I bought one pack a few months ago, then I bought 2 more last week. I have that much confidence in these fans.

The HD-120s do use an asynchronous serial communication to control the fans. Just like with many xmas lights, a bad bulb can prevent the rest from working. So you might have one or more bad RGB Hubs or one or more bad HD-120s. As you have a huge group of fans and hubs it shouldn't be that difficult to test them all. Get a hub and controller that you know that works and plug a fan into the #1 port. Separate good and bad fans. Then test batches of fans populating all ports 1-6. Note you need to have them plug in order or 1-6 or 1,2,3. If you do 1,3,4; then #4 will not work, these are wired in series. Test all the LEDs then sort out that are not working properly in series to the ones that work fine over all. The chances of having 3/5 packs be completely faulty is very unlikely, unless they had a bad batch or something.

I am curious do you happen to have a modular PSU and are you using any non-OEM modular cables? I have seen some people fry components as they used the wrong modular cable on their PSU. It can fit, though it can send 12v to 5v components. I would really check your PSU as you are saying that some were working, but some aren't now. Do you have a pair of multi-meters and are you comfortable using them? My worry is that something might be damaging your devices, it could even be a miss wired RGB hub, or your PSU for all we know.

Lastly where did you buy these fans?