How I fixed my Corsair Link + H100i combo on windows 8.1 Pro 64bit.

[Bassarnis]

I am "forced" to register just to share this story, to lessen the number of people being in the below situation. (TLDR; below)

 

Having build the rig you see in the specs list, even though I don't need water cooling since i don't plan on overclocking, I thought it was a good idea to invest on a H100i.

 

All is good, installation was straightforward and the system booted just fine. Then came the time to install it's software. No surprises here, windows 8.1 and Link Software provided as a download at the time didn't play along. I could not see the pump listed nor configure the fans the way i wanted. Being a computer tech support guy, i made sure all connections were solid and everything related to the pump/fans had power. Also tried switching USB ports in the board.

 

So, the infinite search on Google begun. After having read on tom'shardware that i should upgrade my pumps firmware (firmware upgrades are always nice right?), i begun searching for a firmware. Being led in this forum, i downloaded and followed the instructions provided to the letter to install it, only to receive a "Status: ERROR loading firmware file!" message. Giving up on a firmware upgrade, i continued searching for an answer. I found a forum member here providing a solution for the detection problem via some registry tweaks witch to my surprise, worked. It wasn't perfect though, after a few hours of having the PC on, orange graphic artifacts started appearing on the sensor's readings, rendering the software unusable.

 

So, the infinite search on Google continued. i found a beta version of Corsair's Link software version v2_6_5214 (higher than what i had downloaded from the website in the first place). I remembered to delete all my profiles, go to C:\Users\"your name here"\AppData\Roaming\Corsair and delete everything there, reset every fan and the led to the default option before uninstalling (because even though you delete your saved profile and then load defaults the fan and led settings continue to apply and the fresh installation remembers your custom fan curve/led/ setings)

 

Upon installing the first of the many betas that followed, i was presented with a firmware update. I rushed the OK button, some magic happened and all was good for the first time. Until i realized that having ticked the "run on startup" and "start minimized" option in the settings, is like not having the software at all, even though it runs as a process and consumes CPU. A minor compromise then, just be presented with Corsair Link on boot.

 

However, as i later found out, on my monitor screen only one of the fans was following the instructions i gave it. the other ones completely ignored any of the options unless it was Fixed Rpm or Max Performance. A re-install was en route only to find out that re-installing didn't fix anything. So i tried a new beta. In this beta v2.7.5332 i found out by accident, that if i went in my custom fan curve and change a value to something else, the software actually didn't ignore me. Progress. So i went in all my fans, re-clicking my way to victory. Save, restart, fail. It seemed i only had control of one fan at a time. The others were stuck in either a "Fixed Rpm" or a "Max Performance" mode.

 

 

TLDR; The solution was,

 

1) Uninstall Corsair Link from windows control panel and delete C:\Users\"your name here"\AppData\Roaming\Corsair

 

2) Download the Corsair Link Installer RC v2-4-5110 linked in corsair's download page of the product.

 

3) After installing it, manually download the 1.0.7 firmware and flash it via corsair link firmware.

 

Everything works fine now, but the fact of the matter is (and forgive me for saying this but I am typing all this after 6 hours of uninstalling, re-installing, searching, rebooting, reconnecting and fiddling with the settings). A valued costumer should NOT have to undergo though all this trouble just to get things working as intended out of the factory.

[Bassarnis]

I spoke too soon didn't I?

 

I set up 2 profiles, one custom fan curve/led based on CPU usage, and one custom fan curve/led based on CPU temperature. Every time my computer starts, i have to select the other profile for it to work properly.

 

EDIT: Well, back to v2_6_5214 for me. I repeated the steps above and it works fine for the first 2 restarts. Only 1 profile this time though, and i will have to keep minimizing the program every time my PC starts.

[Speed]

Not that this has any bearing on whether CL detects hardware or not but be advised that the fans should be controlled by WaterBlock Temperature not CPU temperature. More people get this wrong than I can count; and I can count pretty darn high.

 

http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showpost.php?p=666027&postcount=4

[Bassarnis]

Not that this has any bearing on whether CL detects hardware or not but be advised that the fans should be controlled by WaterBlock Temperature not CPU temperature. More people get this wrong than I can count; and I can count pretty darn high.

 

http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showpost.php?p=666027&postcount=4

 

Actually, the web version of CL has a hardwaremonitor.exe application that starts with CL (although for some reason its priority is set below normal, leading to stress testing not allowing CL to work properly. Changing its priority to normal allows CL to work under stress testing)

 

As far as the "wrong" setting is concerned, either i shouldn't have the "wrong" options to select in my settings in the first place, or its a pro-active cooling method, rather than a reactive one which is described in your post.

[Speed]

You can think what you like but disconnecting the energy flow, as it is in the real world by removing a link in the middle, can lead to unexpected results. YMMV. I'll stick with physics. BTW, your pro-active set up doesn't work so well on the other end of the process, because the fans shut down too early.

[Bassarnis]

BTW, your pro-active set up doesn't work so well on the other end of the process, because the fans shut down too early.

 

The fans at their minimum setting is the max that the quiet edition ones go, leading to max pump temps reported as 35-39 C with the a 28 C ambient, in a 900D case, with 2 GPUs below blasting 65+ C into the case while gaming.

[Speed]

..........and?

[Bassarnis]

@protocol48 Sorry, but English is not my native language.

 

Anyway, the point was @Speed, since the "wrong settings" are apparently keeping the temps low for the pump and the CPU in these conditions (gaming / 28-30 ambient temps / sli setup below venting air into the case) and i am allowed to chose those wrong settings to begin with, then they aren't necessarily wrong. In any case, the pump's performance wasn't the purpose of my thread.

[amb7247]

I got it (LED color issue) to work with Windows 8.1 Pro But, it took me a few attempts. I downloaded corsair link 2.7.5339 and noticed I had no LED indicator in corsair link. ok, so I go to google and look on the registry fix. In a video I saw, the guy who fixed it appeared to not reboot but the video was edited possibly to fast forward this. There was no indication he did reboot.

 

In the registry where you edit the 1 values and change them to 0, I did this. I noticed in this location I had more than 1 entry, unsure of which USB was being identified that the corsair link was tied to. At this time, I had a cable plugged in from the pump to a USB port on the case. I change all values to 0 for all entries and rebooted the computer. Presto! The LED indicator was lit. While the computer was running, I unplugged the cable and swapped the USB headers. I rebooted and LED was there but not working in corsair link. So, I decided to go to into the registry again and found a 3rd USB entry, Changed the 3 1's to 0's and rebooted, and the LED indicator was finally working. It to me a bit to get it working but it does work with 2.7.5339. I hoped this helped.