h115i fans revving up and down when processor heats up

Hi guys,

 

I tried contacting support, but no luck, so I decided to ask here.

Has anyone encountered such issue? I've set the cooler profile to silent in corsair link and everything is fine until I decide to launch a game or something a bit more processor heavy. Then the fans start revving up and down fast and the noise is unbearable.

Is there something I can do about that? The pump is connected to the AIO header on my motherboard, the fans are connected to the pump and are being managed by corsair link.

Any help and ideas would be appreciated!

In the configure panel in Link for the fans (H115i box), click on the fan dial and make sure the Group is set to H115i temp. This is the coolant temperature and the intended variable for the preset curves. What you have described is what happens when you set the control group to CPU temp with a curve that hits 100% at 40C.

Thanks for the suggestions, the temperature is set to h115 this doesn't solve it, so the last thing to check is the firmware.

How do I update the firmware?

I couldn't find anything in Corsair link and there's no firmware download on the site. I'm with the latest version of the software.

The fans were initially set to to h115i, so that's not what's causing the issue

Thanks!

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Are you sure that there's no other control software running in the background (Asus fan Xpert for example)?

I am sure. Q-Fan is disabled for the AIO motherboard header and the fans are connected to the splitter coming out of the pump and not to the motherboard.

That's the version I have as you can see on the screenshot.

So the cooler is probably defective then.

Actually I said that it's connected to the dedicated AIO_Pump header. And the noise is coming from the fans, not the pump. The pump rpms are constant.

My motherboard is Asus Strix Gaming Z270E, it does have a separate header for AIO pump. I tried connecting the pump to the CPU_Fan header too, just for testing, but the situation was the same.

The temps are fine, but the noise is so bad, that if I don't find a solution, this cooler is going to hit the trash can as I can't return it to get my money back.

The problem is the symptoms do not match the described state. You have detailed fan noise that increases in speed (and thus volume) when you launch a game. You likely have noticed many modern games make use of some kind of shader cache loader that creates a very large CPU spike when you launch. The merits of that is another discussion, but the end result is CPU core peak temps that exceed anything else you encounter during actual play. If you were running system fans from CPU temp or a standard air tower, the fans would spike at this moment is a very noticeable way. Coolant temp cannot rise this quickly in a working cooler so that leaves a couple of questions.

 

1) Does the fan revving match CPU temperature activity at all? Or is it random up and down? This hopefully would differentiate between a malfunctioning cooler (the H115i temp is jumping up 3-6C in 2-3 second intervals) and possibly a malfunctioning fan controller in the H115i. If you use the line graph function in Link you may be able to see a correlation or utter lack thereof.

 

2) If the coolant temp is jumping around like that, the unit is defective and that makes for a clear next step. However, even in a defective cooler, the coolant temp would go up, but not come down and this the fans would only cycle up and stay up. For that reason, it would be better to proceed on the other possibility - the internal fan controller has lost its mind. Given the unit appears to be able to keep a steady speed vs coolant temp the rest of the time at the desktop (a bad controller would likely not), the more likely villain would be the source of the instructions - Link. This is why Snapper was asking you about other control or monitoring software that might interfere with the reported values Link shares across the motherboard. AI Suite is notorious for causing impossible high spiked and false readings, like 216C PCH temps or 199C CPU temps. If there are no other monitoring applications running, I would uninstall Link, reboot, and install again. If you have a lot of profiles created, you can save them by copying the hidden folder in C:/Program Data (hidden)/CLink4. Copy it elsewhere then paste it back in after install with Link not running. Try it out again before pasting the profiles back. That also raises another potential issue. If you have multiple profiles, they can be configured with different control variable for each. Make sure H115i temp is the control "group" for your active profile.

 

3) Use a different fan control profile besides Quiet. If it is not responding as expected, try another and see how things change (or not). I would be interested to see what happens when you set the fans to a fixed % or speed. Set them to 700 rpm and leave it. If the fans cannot hold that mark, that will be telling enough. Also, if you really do like quiet this is often the least time consuming way to ensure it. Any kind of fan curve will be dependent on room temperature. The perfect curve in Winter will sound loud in the Summer with room temp +10C. A 280mm cooler can sit there at 700 rpm all day on a Kaby Lake and the coolant delta will be be small. Almost no one needs more than a 1000 rpm on a 280mm and I can benchmark at 1200 with my much heavier 5930K pulling in around 215W and still keeping a +6C delta.

 

4) What are you using for a case fan control variable in the BIOS? If CPU temp, it could be case fans are complimenting the noise. I am also curious what options you have on Asus 270. I really like VRM temp as the control on X99, but not an option on Sky Lake. You also should have some fan delay controls built into the Advanced BIOS -> Monitoring Tab (about half way down). I find about half of mine work (CHA fans) and the HAMP and CPU headers do not. I am curious if this is true for your 270 board as well.

Hi c-attack,

Thanks for the good answer. I know that the symptoms are strange, but that's why I'm posting here :-)

1) It is related to the temperature changing. I need to be 10 minutes in games for the revving to start. It's like the temperature is not high enough for the fans to stay in high and not low enough for they to stay in low, so they are just switching from full speed to low and back.

 

2) The cooling is fine, top temperature in game is 65 - 67 C, so it looks more like a software or fan controller issue.

 

3) I switched between the 3 predefined profiles and the fan speeds are matching the profiles, but I stick to quiet as the other profiles are way too loud (I can hear the cooler through my earphones while in game...). I couldn't find a way to adjust fan speeds in C Link or how to change the fan curves.

 

4) The fans on my NZXT case are not PWM, so I just disabled Q-fan. The noise is definitely not coming from them and they are running on constant speeds. I'll have to get some PWM fans to replace the stock ones in order to check if the fan control of the motherboard are working.The case is Noctis 450 by the way.

Thank you again for your reply!

OK, so definitely not directly tied to CPU activity. At some point, the fan controller begins to min/max cycle the fans. This is not commonly reported, although it appears another user has a similar issue on page 1 today.

 

One way to possibly differentiate between software glitches/interference and a misbehaving fan controller is to fully exit Link from task bar drop down menu. The device will retain your last settings. If still goes bonkers, that would suggest a physical problem with the controller (replace unit) or maybe firmware. It it does what's expected, that would point the finger back at some kind of software issue. You can use another program like HWMonitor, AIDA, etc. to track fan speeds with Link not up and running.

 

You can configure a Link controlled fan by clicking on the reading in the Home panel. For speed, this will work for the H115i fan only. In that H115i box, click on the fan speed and a pop-up window should give you some control options. I don't have anything on my Commander Pro right now so I can't post a screen shot, but it is relatively straight forward (it's the mode drop down box). Try the fixed % or fixed rpm mode for the fans. You can also access the same information from the configure panel by clicking the relevant reading, but I find the Main page much easier to navigate.

 

I didn't ask before, but I am assuming you are using the SP140L (grey fans) that came with the cooler. You certainly do not have to and any PWM fan should work, but thus far I have been ignoring the possibility of a fan issue. The symptoms don't really match and since you are complaining of noise, I am pretty sure the SP140L are still on board. Just for kicks, you can switch the position of the two fan connectors on the Y splitter. It is a classic 3/4 pin splitter and only one fan receives the speed signal and thus both act on that signal. Something of a long shot, but it only takes a few seconds to try.

 

 

EDIT: What build of Windows 10 are you on? Usually when this problem shows up, the control variable has been mistakenly re-assigned to CPU temp. Your issue is uncommon but now we have two. We also have a brand new Fall Creators Update and that typically brings surprises. Might be time to start collecting data. I did update to the FCU this week, but I am still in the process of sorting everything out and I am not using the Link for control.

 

What Link version? If on the FCU, there have been some complaints about minor issues on the 4.9.xx. I am on 4.8.3 and it is doing exactly what it's supposed to do with no strange window placement or bad readings.

Thanks! I'll give those suggestions a try when I get home and I'll update the thread.

And yes, I'm still with the stock fans, famous for their clattering sounds when working on high speeds. I was definitely going to replace those, but if I can't fix the RPM issue, it would be pointless.

OK, here is the Link to the other thread. We'll see if there are any commonalities between your two set-ups. You are both on Asus boards, Win 10 (some version), a H110GTX/H115i, and both have issues with Quiet mode.

 

http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=172553