AX860i fan spins up and down

[AlphaBravo]

 

I have to ask .. do you put your computer to sleep .. have you had the issue that I am having with setting it to run at 40% and having it revert to default when you come out of sleep unless you actually open the programs window?

 

I don't put my computers to sleep. Sorry.

[leftshark86]

I'm having the same issue. I purchased this power supply in part because of the claimed fanless operation at less than 20% load. However, after some time, even at idle and the PSU putting out less than 75 watts, the temperature in the PSU rises to the point where the fan is switched on and off about every 30 seconds. Unfortunately, it's revved up to an audible rate every time this happens which is quite annoying. Manually setting the PWM does fix this problem, but kind of defeats the point of the fanless claims.

 

The settings are saved between reboots and sleeps, so that's not an issue for me.

[jonnyguru]

I'm having the same issue. I purchased this power supply in part because of the claimed fanless operation at less than 20% load. However, after some time, even at idle and the PSU putting out less than 75 watts, the temperature in the PSU rises to the point where the fan is switched on and off about every 30 seconds. Unfortunately, it's revved up to an audible rate every time this happens which is quite annoying. Manually setting the PWM does fix this problem, but kind of defeats the point of the fanless claims.

 

The settings are saved between reboots and sleeps, so that's not an issue for me.

 

With a 75W load, it shouldn't be getting that hot. So we need to look at some of the environmental variables involved here.

 

How is the PSU oriented in your Elite 120? Fan pointing up? What is the ambient temp of the room? Etc.

[JohnOrion]

With a 75W load, it shouldn't be getting that hot.

 

 

I'm sure hes having the same issue ... its not "hot" when the fan kicks on like this ... its around 40C when the fan starts to spin up to 1000-1200 rpm for a second then spin down again.

 

He is at least able to set it to a fixed fan rate to solve the problem .. I can't... well I can but when I put my computer to sleep and wake it back up .. the fan stays in the "default' off until it hits 40c then spinning the fan every few seconds annoyingly loud... unless ... click on the tray icon and launch the main window of the program .. give it a few seconds until i see the fan kick on ... then it works ..until i put it to sleep again

[jonnyguru]

In a CM Elite 120 with the fan pointing up out of the top grill, it certainly shouldn't have4 40°C temperatures.

[leftshark86]

I'll point it up out the top grill and post the numbers. Granted, it's it takes an hour or so to get up to ~43C when the fan kicks in, but I'll switch it around and let you know exactly how long it takes and what the temps and load is exactly.

[leftshark86]

Installed it pointed upward. Used a light load of watching a twitch stream. Use is <100 W. Temp went from 30.5C with fan at 40% and slowly rose over the last 30 min to 45.5C at which the fan spun up. Logging says it spins to ~900 rpm for a moment and then stops. This repeats every 20-30 seconds. Again, I understand that it's simpler to advertise as 20% load fanless, but this is less than 12% load... I mean come on. What use scenario is lower than this that would actually allow for fanless operation?

 

Other info:

 

Case temp: 30C

Ambient temp: 70F

[JohnOrion]

Installed it pointed upward. Used a light load of watching a twitch stream. Use is <100 W. Temp went from 30.5C with fan at 40% and slowly rose over the last 30 min to 45.5C at which the fan spun up.

 

OK leftshark and jonnyguru, the problem is not the same as mine. If your temps go up with your fan at 40% then you do have a problem somewhere.

 

Again tho... it may be the same issue as me ... even tho its set at 40% when I come out of sleep ... it doesn't go to the 40% until I open the main CLink program and after a second or two the fan will go from the 0 rpm's to the 750-800 rpms (40%) ... If I don't launch the program and just leave it in the tray .. the fan will stay off until it hits around 40-42C and then start the cycling. If my fan is on tho (i have opened the program and waited until the fan started spinning before closing it back to tray) the temps stay around 28-30C depending on ambient temps. This is with a AX760i when idling around 200 watts

 

If you are getting 42C when drawing 75 to 100 watts and your fan is running at 700 rpm, then something is wrong. You are either drawing a heck of a lot more than 75 watts or something is blocking the intake so badly that even with the fan on its not circulating air through the PSU. Not sure how old this is or in what "location" its in... I would check for a major dust buildup... if you have pets .. I would check for a buildup of pet hair.

[jonnyguru]

Shouldn't be dust build up or anything like that in his case because the PSU is on top with the intake pointing straight up.

 

But something is getting way too hot in that PC. Yes... the load is low, but the temps are WAY too high.

[leftshark86]

With the fan on the PSU is around 30C. When it's off, that's when it rises. There's no dust or build up. I might try just setting the psu outside the case with the fan facing upward and see if it does it then.

[leftshark86]

@JohnOrion I tested my rig again and confirmed my settings are saved after waking from sleep. I'm on Win 10 Pro 64 bit with Link version 3.2.5742.

[JohnOrion]

@JohnOrion I tested my rig again and confirmed my settings are saved after waking from sleep. I'm on Win 10 Pro 64 bit with Link version 3.2.5742.

 

I am also on Win 10 Pro 64 and the same Link version. My problem existed in 8.1 also though. It may be something with my system because my video card also has issues with coming out of sleep with the manufacturers software but I was at least able to get that to work with SpeedFan but Corsair cant be controlled by that program :(

 

You are lucky then... I would just set it to 40% ... at least for me at that speed I can't hear it at all so it's still "silent" .... lucky for you ... you can use sleep and not have to deal with remembering to open the program every time you wake the computer up. (just a note to be clear.... my settings are saved .. it is still set to 40% in the program but when I come out of sleep the fan doesn't return to 40% unless I open the program and after a second or two the fan will go from 0 rpm to 750 rpm... but ... it is set to fixed 40% so the settings are saved ... it just doesn't follow the settings until i open the main program ... it doesn't follow the settings with just the tray icon running)

 

I think the products are just poorly designed and I don't think you are going to be able to run it without a fan. I think the heatsinks in these units aren't good enough to be passive and will allow the temps to rise to 40-43 degrees... which causes this issue....

 

If it wasn't a pain in the butt to get at it in my system ... I would block the fan.. not the intake just keep the fan from spinning up at all with a small screwdriver or something... and then I would watch my temp on the psu .... to see if it raises much higher or stays around that temp.

 

The reason I'm thinking that passively it will stay close to that temp under very light load is because .. when the fan does kick in for that little bit ... it doesn't spin long enough to really cool anything yet the temp never goes any higher.

 

I believe that 40-43 degrees is how hot the PSU runs while passively cooled ... which just happens to be at the threshold of the "fan speed / temp check" ... meaning ... it hits around that temp and the PSU checks to see if the fan is spinning and when it sees 0rpm .. it thinks something is wrong and spins the fans to 100% then sees the temp isn't hot and shuts the fans off again ...

 

I may be reading too much into it but ... this is how it seems to be working.

 

Like I say .. if my system was like yours and would follow its settings and spin the fan back to fixed 40% when coming out of sleep without user interaction, I would be ok with it since as I mentioned .. I can't hear it at that speed .. though my computer is not right next to me.

 

I think you have only two choices... one would be to run the fan at a fixed 40% (since it works for you) and the other choice would be to put a bunch of hardware in there .. get yourself a R9-390X ... and run some programs in the background so your computer will draw around 300W at idle .. then your fan will kick on to about 300 rpm and it will stay at around 30 degrees .. lol

[leftshark86]

I too thought about blocking the fan, but I think that will trigger the psu to shut off. Regardless, I don't feel like I should have to tinker around with what is supposed to be a top-of-the-line psu. For whatever reason, I think they made the fan-on threshold way too low. If the psu is rated to run at 100% capacity at 50C, the absolute minimum temp the fan should run at is 50C. With a low load and safe component temps, it shouldn't run at all.

 

Edit: Confirmed, it will shut off after about 10 seconds if the fan is obstructed regardless of temp.

[jonnyguru]

So what were the temperature of the PSU once you ran it outside of the case and did the fan ramp up much?

[leftshark86]

I haven't tried it yet, but I'll post when I have.

[MammothJerk]

I get the same problem on my AX860i

 

it hits about 35.5C and the fan will go up to 1200rpm for a second and then turn off, this happens every 2-3 seconds and drives me insane, setting it to 40% fixes it but it's still louder then what i'd like, 20%-30# would be the sweet spot but i dont know why it can't go down that low

[JohnOrion]

i dont know why it can't go down that low

 

According to another post ... they claim its because if they set it to 20 and people are using it Link to control other fans .. if they are low rpm fans they can stall at 20% ... So I guess it's a "protection" to keep them from being or trying to be held liable if someone fries something because they set their fans too slow to turn on.

 

Someone suggested putting a warning about that issue when someone tries to set it that low and then its their responsibility to make sure their fans work properly at the settings they choose to use but I doubt they will take that into consideration .. they don't seem to care about people that have already bought their equipment.

 

I got this information from a link they posted about the Link v3 that they are releasing soon ... lol .. the reason i laugh is that post was from 2/11/2015 .. lol .. in a month .. it will be a year since that post was made and it was supposed to be released in March of last year.

 

I wish they would release their API so that other companies who know how to do fan control can be used... like SpeedFan or at least let us set up a curve for the PSU so it can be controlled by temp instead of by wattage draw.

 

And yes I would also like to set my fan to 20 percent since .. when my computer is drawing about 300-350 watts and i don't have the fan set fixed .. it runs the fan at around 300 rpm and is very quiet and keeps it at 30 degrees.

[jonnyguru]

I get the same problem on my AX860i

 

it hits about 35.5C and the fan will go up to 1200rpm for a second and then turn off, this happens every 2-3 seconds and drives me insane, setting it to 40% fixes it but it's still louder then what i'd like....

 

So everything with Zero RPM mode introduced since the AXi (the HXi, RMi, RMx) uses three variables in the fan controller: Temperature, load and delay. The delay allows the fan to continue to spin for a set period of time regardless of load and temperature, allowing the temperature to drop considerably regardless of the threshold. That prevents the fan from spinning up again for a longer period of time because the delta between the current PSU temp when the fan stop and when it has to start up again is greater.

 

I had not realized that this was not implemented into the AXi. So if the PSU fan cools the PSU down below the pre-programmed threshold, it only takes the PSU to warm back up again for the fan to start spinning. This causes the fan to start and stop and start and stop, etc.

 

20%-30# would be the sweet spot but i dont know why it can't go down that low

 

According to another post ... they claim its because if they set it to 20 and people are using it Link to control other fans .. if they are low rpm fans they can stall at 20% ... So I guess it's a "protection" to keep them from being or trying to be held liable if someone fries something because they set their fans too slow to turn on.

 

Correct. The fan could stop completely at < 40%

 

Someone suggested putting a warning about that issue when someone tries to set it that low and then its their responsibility to make sure their fans work properly at the settings they choose to use but I doubt they will take that into consideration .. they don't seem to care about people that have already bought their equipment.

 

Umm.. I believe they prevent it from being set lower than 40% BECAUSE they care about people that have already bought their equipment. If they start killing things because our software allows them to kill things, how is that NOT Corsair's responsibility? That's sort of a contradiction.

 

I got this information from a link they posted about the Link v3 that they are releasing soon ... lol .. the reason i laugh is that post was from 2/11/2015 .. lol .. in a month .. it will be a year since that post was made and it was supposed to be released in March of last year.

 

Annnnd... it was.

 

And Link 4.0 is due to release next month. I don't get your point. Did you not realize what the current release version is?

 

I wish they would release their API so that other companies who know how to do fan control can be used... like SpeedFan or at least let us set up a curve for the PSU so it can be controlled by temp instead of by wattage draw.

 

And yes I would also like to set my fan to 20 percent since .. when my computer is drawing about 300-350 watts and i don't have the fan set fixed .. it runs the fan at around 300 rpm and is very quiet and keeps it at 30 degrees.

 

That has nothing to do with Link, actually. That would require a different firmware for the PSU. And, unfortunately for some, the PSU is not flash updateable. Unlike a cooler, keyboard, etc: If your flash messes up, there's some path to recovery. You don't completely brick your system. If a flash to the PSU fails, you're done. And you can potentially fry other things. So that's never going to happen.

[JohnOrion]

 

Umm.. I believe they prevent it from being set lower than 40% BECAUSE they care about people that have already bought their equipment. If they start killing things because our software allows them to kill things, how is that NOT Corsair's responsibility? That's sort of a contradiction.

 

 

SpeedFan will allow you to kill your components yet they released it because they know that the people using it most likely have some idea what they are doing ... because of the nature of the product. It's not Corsair's responsibility to ignore the masses because a few may do something wrong. This is the wrong attitude and if you look at it properly you should be able to see that too.

 

Stereotyping is usually inaccurate and never a good thing. If you look at it ... this is stereotyping... its saying their customers don't know what they are doing and cant be trusted because a few may not. I mean its like saying Asians are bad drivers because there are some bad Asian drivers ... That statement is stereotypical and not accurate .. there are plenty of Asian drivers that are better than drivers from other nationalities.

 

I feel anyone buying an enthusiast PSU or an AIO cooler or something like that would have a basic knowledge of how fans work and would realize if they set their fan to 20 and it doesn't turn on .. then they should probably raise it a little... but I guess I give too much credit because I do know that some people don't have common sense but why should the majority suffer because of those few.

 

If Corsair put a warning in when you attempt to set the fan lower than 40% saying that if you set your fan speed at a setting under 40% it can cause your fan not to spin that would keep them safe from being liable and would show that they care about those who use their equipment ... since again, most people who are going to actually buy something from Corsair will usually more than not have enough knowledge to put it in and set it up properly. It's wrong to limit the ability to be able to control the fan properly and force a 'blanket safe mode' because maybe one or two out of 10000 customer's cant figure out that if their fan isn't spinning then you probably have it set to low.

 

Basically people that buy Corsair products are usually knowledgeable so to treat all their customers like morons because there may be a few out there isn't right. If corsair would cater to their customers not to what the general public might do I may not feel this way.

 

If you look at the other manufacturers who deal with high end computer parts ... they cater to their customers ... My MSI video card has fan controls ... you can majorly overheat their cards. MSI gives you full control over the fans ... you can shut them off ... you can set your own curve .. you can totally destroy the card if you set it wrong but .. MSI is smart enough to know that .. they are dealing with people who mostly are knowledgeable so they give them the option rather than setting it to something that is 'safe' because someone could damage the product if they don't know what they are doing.

 

Now if this was a cheap PSU or other Corsair product ... then I could see them 'playing it safe' due to the fact that anyone and their brother may buy one. But considering this is considered a high end enthusiast product, they are not treating their customers with the proper respect.

 

I guess I'm a little tainted because of my dealings with Corsair support... who ... and still as of now .. has an approved RMA for my PSU because of this fan problem. Instead of telling me that this is a design flaw in the product and there is nothing that can be done with it, they want me to take the time and expense to send my unit back just to get another unit that is guaranteed to do the exact same thing.

 

And Link 4.0 is due to release next month. I don't get your point. Did you not realize what the current release version is?

 

 

Yes you are right... it took so long for 3 to come out and the thread was still quite active, I did kind of take it as the new version 4 not 3 so I did mess up there. I just hope version 4 will work with my PSU so I can finally get rid of this frustration.

 

I guess you answered my question I recently asked support... about if the newer versions still have this flaw. I trust you more than the answer support will give me since you were the one who confirmed that this is a flaw that can't be changed on the AXi PSU's. Maybe Ill have to get myself an HXi or look into another manufacturer. I have seen a couple lately that also offer monitoring... going to have to look into their forums and see if they have any issues with limiting control over their product. I guess I could put this one in my server so I don't have to listen to it. Though... the server has Linux on it. It runs 24/7 so i wouldn't have the sleep issue but i will have no way to set the fan 40% and the constant fan turning off and on will probably do damage to the fan eventually ... maybe I will just have to void my warranty and hook up the fan (or replace it if it doesn't have the proper connections) to a controller that I can control. Maybe if I buy one of the aftermarket fan controllers with temp sensors I can rig up something that actually works. After paying so much for this PSU ... I really don't want to have to buy another one.

 

That has nothing to do with Link, actually. That would require a different firmware for the PSU.

 

I guess I'm not quite sure what part of the statement you are referring too. I'm assuming it was the " or at least let us set up a curve for the PSU so it can be controlled by temp instead of by wattage draw"

 

I'm not sure this is correct. The Corsair Link has access to the API. You can use Link to set your fan to a 'set speed' so the API has control over the fan... The API also has access to the temperature readings. So ... if SpeedFan had access to the API .. you can set a curve from the temp reading from the API and control the fan through the API. If SIV can do it why cant Link? although SIV can't figure out the PSU dongle so if I wanted to set up a curve for this PSU I would have to buy a Link Commander or whatever its called. Unless this is the firmware you are talking about .. and that's why SIV cant figure it out because of something in the dongle. Hell ... Ill buy another dongle if i have to .. probably be cheaper than the commander which is kind of "overkill" since I wouldn't be using the commander for anything but my PSU.

 

I still wish Corsair would release the API. Even if I couldn't set up a curve in SpeedFan, I could at least set the fan at 40% (or maybe even 20%) and have it keep the setting when I wake the computer, Then I could totally uninstall the link software and still be able to monitor the temps and wattage stuff with HWiNFO. It would at least get rid of a basically useless program running in my tray and my fan would work without me having to click on a tray icon and wait for a program to launch for about 5 seconds and then close it again every time I wake the computer.

[jonnyguru]

I'm not going to hit every bulletpoint because we can go back and forth forever. :):

 

But to your graphics card example: Yes. You can turn the fans off if you want, using MSi's software. But the GPU still has throttling built into it and over time, the PC is going to either lock up or shut down from overheating.

 

Do the same to a PSU and the over temperature protection should kick in and the PSU should shut down. But like a CPU or GPU that is allowed to overheat again and again, it's only a matter of time before the part is fried to the point where it doesn't function properly.

 

It's easy to say "most Corsair customers are competent enthusiasts". I'd like to think that was true. But honestly, you don't know the numbers. Neither do I, though. But if you just spent one shift in the customer service department, you might start to think otherwise. ;):

 

Essentially, it's the lowest common denominator ruining it for the rest of us. ;):

[JohnOrion]

 

But if you just spent one shift in the customer service department, you might start to think otherwise. ;):

 

Essentially, it's the lowest common denominator ruining it for the rest of us. ;):

 

Yeah, true .. I worked for an outsource company doing phone tech support for Sony VAIO laptops and Digital Satellite Dishes many years back and yes even those you would normally consider smart can do some pretty foolish things. Like a doctor who couldn't get his fax to work .. and it turned out that he was holding the piece of paper to his screen and trying to fax it.

 

Still though .. the PSU's Video cards and CPU's all have thermal protection, with a disclaimer they would be safe and well sorry to say ... too bad for the few foolish people.. guess hopefully they would learn after breaking something... lol when I was a very young kid I remember taking an old AM car radio and hooking it up to a AC wall socket ... not knowing the difference between ac/dc and voltages... The thing burst into flames. I learned very quickly ... you don't want to do something like that :D lol

 

The community these products are made for shouldn't have to suffer because of a few bad people... but I guess in today's society majority doesn't rule. There are always those few who have all the control.

 

Its just sad to see enthusiasts products that limit the enthusiasts control because some uneducated shmoe might mess something up. I guess corsair isn't the only company that does this the more I thought about it... My Asus Sabertooth MB also has fan control that I don't use because it too has a 40% limit on the fans. At least with the MB I can use a 3rd party solution to still have control over my equipment. I just wish I could at least have the option for that 3rd party solution to control the PSU.

[sblantipodi]

I finally received a brand new AX860i through the Corsair RMA process. I installed it today, and it behaves the same as my original AX860i.

 

Once Corsair Link reports the temperature as being in the lower 40's Celsius (say around 41-42 Celsius), the fan goes through it cycle of spinning up to about 900 or 1000 RPM for a couple of seconds, then the fan spins down to 0 RPM. This repeats every 15 to 30 seconds.

 

I guess I will have to ship the new unit back to Corsair. :[pouts:

 

I have exactly the same behaviour on my AX860i.

Same temp same behaviour.

What should we do now? Fan is too annoying.

[JohnOrion]

I have exactly the same behaviour on my AX860i.

Same temp same behaviour.

What should we do now? Fan is too annoying.

 

There is nothing you can do. It has been discovered that this is a design flaw and replacements will have the same problem because it's not a "problem" it's "normal" for the PSU to do what it is doing :( The only thing that can be done at this point for us AX owners is to set the fan to "Fixed 40%". This will keep the fan running around 750-800 rpm and is still pretty quite at that speed.

 

At least with the latest Corsair Link, setting the fan seems to work now so once set you won't hear the fan spinning up erratically. Every once and a while when waking from sleep, the "fixed 40%" profile I set wont work and I will have to switch to one of the pre-installed profiles for a second then switch back to my fixed 40% profile I made... but that is now random and doesn't happen often.

[sblantipodi]

There is nothing you can do. It has been discovered that this is a design flaw and replacements will have the same problem because it's not a "problem" it's "normal" for the PSU to do what it is doing :( The only thing that can be done at this point for us AX owners is to set the fan to "Fixed 40%". This will keep the fan running around 750-800 rpm and is still pretty quite at that speed.

 

At least with the latest Corsair Link, setting the fan seems to work now so once set you won't hear the fan spinning up erratically. Every once and a while when waking from sleep, the "fixed 40%" profile I set wont work and I will have to switch to one of the pre-installed profiles for a second then switch back to my fixed 40% profile I made... but that is now random and doesn't happen often.

 

I'm a corsair fan, for this reason I will not criticize this thing but hey, my PSU is the most noisy things on my rig when surfing the web and I can clearly hear it spinning every 10 seconds.

I have 5 fans in the case and when in idle my PC is nearly silent if not for the PSU.

I need to find a solution to this.

 

Yesterday I read somewhere that setting the Quite profile in corsair link solves the problem, I tried it and in effect the fan stopped spinning every 10 seconds.

This evening I will see if that solved my problem and if the fan stopped spinning.

I will keep you posted.

[JohnOrion]

I'm a corsair fan, for this reason I will not criticize this thing but hey, my PSU is the most noisy things on my rig when surfing the web and I can clearly hear it spinning every 10 seconds.

I have 5 fans in the case and when in idle my PC is nearly silent if not for the PSU.

I need to find a solution to this.

 

Yesterday I read somewhere that setting the Quite profile in corsair link solves the problem, I tried it and in effect the fan stopped spinning every 10 seconds.

This evening I will see if that solved my problem and if the fan stopped spinning.

I will keep you posted.

 

Well as of at least the last update before this one, that wasn't the case. If you set it to quiet it would just do the same thing as if set to default. I'm trying it with the latest Link software now but since it sets the fan to 0, I doubt it will work. I'm pretty sure the temps will still hit in the low 40 range and the fans will spin up erratically because it's built into the hardware. They made a mistake on the AXi's by controlling the fan by wattage instead of temp and the fan spinning up is caused by the PSU checking the temp "fail safe"... seeing that it is over 40 and the fan isn't spinning so the PSU thinks something is wrong and spins the fan up to full speed but then it realizes its not overheating and shuts the fan back off again (or at least this is what I have determined by the way the PSU functions).

 

While typing this my PSU has gained 2 degrees and is at 32C ... it wont be long before it hits the 40ish mark ... I will add to my post when that happens and let you know the result.