iCue causing CPU usage spikes

Hi all, please bear with me as I am kind of computer illiterate and might not explain this properly.

 

My brother just built my computer for me for Christmas. I am a game developer, so I needed a computer that can handle a LOT. And it does!(the specs are on my profile, but I don't know if they should be copied over to here) It renders and plays high-demand games with no issue at all. It's been running perfectly for about 3 weeks now.

 

I went to use it today to write a word document, and I noticed my fans (water-cooled) were running quite loudly. I checked CPU usage and it was bouncing between 20 and 70% non-stop even with nothing open and no background processes.

 

I shut down iCue for the heck of it, and lo and behold, it solved the spiking. I tried to reinstall iCue with the newest version, but I had the same spikes start happening, iCue kept freezing and saying "not responding" and at some point, my GPU usage fell to 0 and my screen blanked out for a second.

 

As of right now, I no longer have iCue installed and it hasn't had performance issues since uninstalling it. I'd like to have it installed, and really there's no reason my CPU can't handle it. My CPU usage is staying at a fairly level 5% with chrome and discord open, and the fans are nice and quiet.

 

The last time I had used it before this time it was running just fine, so I really have no clue what could be happening.

 

Any help would be appreciated and I'm sorry if I sound like an idiot :[pouts:

You are not an idiot. iCue is horrible and any honest person knows it. The devs don't care, so you are on your own. The only option I found was to remove all my Corsair products and go with another company's products whose software does not do this.

 

I love Corsair hardware, but their software is utter trash and it never really gets fixed. It needs to be re-written entirely and have an x64 native version.

 

It's even worse on Ryzen 3000 series CPUs.

It's really not a huge deal for me to just, not have iCue. This is my first PC ever that hasn't come from garbage-picked or cannibalized hand-me-down parts, so the RGB stuff is just kind of a fun bonus. That being said, I did pay for it, and it would be nice to use it without compromising performance so badly.

 

Glad to know it isn't something I'm doing wrong though. I'd rather it be garbage software than some issue coming from my PC.

 

For now, everything will just have to be default rainbow stuff. :D:

 

Do you happen to know if there are any third party RGB softwares? Aura only recognizes my motherboard obviously, but it would be nice to know if there are options down the road if I want to control the Corsair stuff.

Can you list all your Corsair hardware so we can figure out 1) what might be wrong with the heavy usage cycling; and 2) if there is an easier workaround.

Can you list all your Corsair hardware so we can figure out 1) what might be wrong with the heavy usage cycling; and 2) if there is an easier workaround.

 

- Corsair Hydro Series, H100i RGB PLATINUM SE, 240mm Radiator, Dual LL120 RGB PWM Fans

 

- CORSAIR RMX White Series (2018), RM850x, 850 Watt, 80+ Gold Certified, Fully Modular Power Supply - White

 

- Corsair CMW32GX4M2C3200C16W VENGEANCE RGB PRO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4-25600)

 

- Corsair K55 RGB Gaming Keyboard

 

- Corsair HARPOON RGB Gaming Mouse

 

 

I think that's all of it, lol. :biggrin:

 

Edit: It's also in a Corsair case, but it's an older one and I have no idea what the model is. It's white with black grills on the front, top, and sides.

That's OK. The case doesn't matter. Looking for devices that need iCUE to function. That might be only the keyboard, but the K55 is kind of an odd model different from the others in terms of lighting effects.

 

As to the cycling, the historically the most common issue has been the RAM or two software programs fighting over it. The current driver should not cause this, but go into Settings (top bar), click on the RAM, and uncheck software control. If you have aura or armory crate installed, it should not be doing this either, but you can also uncheck "enable plugins" from the bottom of the settings page. See if that cuts down the power cycling.

 

If not, go to your Windows Apps list, find Corsair iCUE, left click and select the Modify option to run a repair installation. Sometimes things just go wrong and this cleans up the mess.

 

*Side note - Your fans should not have been cycling along with that CPU usage. Make sure the Platinum cooler is using "H100i Platinum Temp" as the "sensor". Coolant temperature is the native and most efficient control variable. That should keep the fans from racing about needlessly.