Corsair Commander CORE XT - Very nasty issues

[Anyone]

Hi,

 

The problem is fairy simple. Basically every god damn time when I start my PC the ICUE software only sees the temp sensors and max 1 Fan out of five.

As soon as windows is loading every other fan is stopping and I have to go into ICUE and do what's called a 'force update' in order to be able to start all my fans.

Without that, it basically never works. If I uninstall ICUE, my fans will spin (and I think they use the last config, but this is just an assumption). Does anyone know what can be done? This 'garbage' or, I don't even know how to call it basically makes my blood pressure raise every time I turn on my PC. I was really hoping to be able to control my fans, but turns out Corsair Commander CORE XT + ICUE have their own agenda.

Here is my setup after I do the update: 

 

If you notice my 'Quiet' fan, that was somehow reset by the app because I named all and configured them to work on the 'Extreme' profile. It doesn't really matter what profile I pick, the software will act silly every time I boot up windows.

 

Here are all details that I think might be relevant:

Hardware:

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z690 Gaming X DDR4

Fan controller: Corsair Commander CORE XT

Fans: 5x Be Quiet Silent Wings 3 140mm PWN

PSU: Be Quiet Dark Power PRO 12

Misc: Both temp sensors installed, USB header connector plugged in

Software:

OS: Windows 11 21h2 BUILD 22000.527

ICUE version: 4.20.149

 

Any help/suggestion would be highly appreciated. I can also try to provide extra information (such as config, logs or whatever) if needed. As to Corsair, please investigate and give me something. I just bought this fan controller, but I'm not sure if I got broken hardware or broken software. I was looking at this and some NZXT product, and frankly I'm regretting my decision a bit. 

 

[Anyone]

Just to clarify, if I put my fans into my NZXT built in controller (witch sadly doesn't know PWN) all my fans work but they will spin at max RPM.

Also, the fans were bought at the same time when the controller was bought, witch is like a week and a half ago. 

[DevBiker]

First, if you want Corsair to investigate, you need to open a support ticket, not post on the user forum. You can certainly post here and there's quite a few that will try to help you but if you want that official response, a support ticket is the route to take.

A couple of questions for you:

1) Do  you have any other monitoring software at all running? You mention none of that.

2) Have you tried to reproduce the issue with other PWM fans? This will help isolate if the issue is with the controller or with the fans. Believe it or not, there are some series of PWM fans that just give controllers fits. @c-attack has a near encyclopedic knowledge of various fans known to cause the CoPro grief. At least some may give the CoCoreXT grief as well.

Edited February 28, 2022 by DevBiker

[c-attack]

Go to the cooling tab and click + to create a new custom curve.  A graph will appear below.  Click the anyone of the 'shape tools' in the lower right corner.  Those are intended for water cooling, but it will work in this instance.  Then change the sensor (control variable) for the curve to either of your Commander Core XT Temp 1 or 2.  I am assuming these are measuring ambient temperature somewhere in the case and those will work just fine for this.  

 

The presets tend to be unpredictable and I would not label this as hardware incompatible until you test with better control.  The curve you just created should be better for your purposes regardless and it will allow you to tweak the curve as you see fit, unlike the presets.  It also creates access to the fixed RPM or PWM% selectors, which is useful for testing fan response.  See if things go better now.

 

9 hours ago, Anyone said:

5x Be Quiet Silent Wings 3 140mm PWN

So several years ago this would have been the norm.  BeQuiet have harbored some PWM peculiarities for a long time.  However, recently another user mentioned they did have full control with a Commander Pro and BeQuiet SW3 High Speed and I confirmed the same on mine, with a box about 2 years old.  Older SW2 and SW3 fans may still behave erratically.  You mentioned your SW3 are brand new.  So that leaves open the question of whether there is a difference between the normal and high speed PWM response or whether there is a difference between the Commander Pro and Commander Core/XT.  I will try and test it out tomorrow.  

[c-attack]

I installed a Commander Core this morning and tested a 2020 release BeQuiet Silent Wings 3 High Speed PWM 120mm and several Silent Wings 2 PWM fans.  As expected, the SW2 fans are not controllable and the Com Core fails to detect them.  This is an old issue and most Corsair controllers will not be able to control them and they will have an unusual PWM response curve on any controller that does.  However, the newer SW3 High Speed PWM works exactly as it should, responding to both PWM %, fixed RPM, and the control curve.  

 

I thought I had some standard (non-high speed) SW3 PWM around, but I deliberately bought the DC motor version when it was released in ~2016 because the PWM irregularities were still present at that time.  I suspect they tweaked some circuits since then, so that leaves open the question if there is a difference between the standard PWM and High Speed PWM model or if your fans are from a much older batch with different circuity (seems unlikely).  

 

I also threw on some other difficult PWM fans from the past.  A Noctua NF-A14 Industrial 2000 rpm PWM, EK Vardar 120 EVO-RGB, and EK Vardar Meltemi 120x38mm.  All were fully controllable with the Commander Core.  Of note, some of these were sluggish to respond when testing PWM %, but quickly adapted when using fixed RPM for testing.  This should not impact your use since the control curves use RPM as the base of control rather than PWM%, but just FYI.   

 

If things are still bad, the workaround for this over the last several years is to wash the PWM signal through a powered PWM hub.  You need the kind with a circuit board and additional power supply.  Otherwise it's just a splitter.  You connect the fans to PWM hub and run the control lead back to the Commander Pro/Core/XT.  Typically this solves the response issue.

Edited March 1, 2022 by c-attack

[Anyone]

Hey,

 

Thank you very much for the guidance. Amazing efforts. I will try the first solution and if that doesn't work then I would rather try with a HUB. Can you recommend me anything?

[c-attack]

Any of the commercially available PWM hubs from known brands should work.  I have tried several over the years and don't have a specific favorite.  They tend to be slightly different in shape/capacity, so one that is slimmer, shorter, has a LED light (or not), has a SATA cable extension or not, may be preferred depending on your installation and space.  All of them should be between $10-20 USD.  

[Anyone]

I tried to get a PWM hub but was unable to find anything within a decent range, and since I didn't wanted to buy one from the other end of the world, I decided to try with a different fan controller since the NZXT Grid happened to be purchasable from the supplier. Two weeks and half in the future I got it and then installed it. Surprise, surprise, everything works as intended.

 

 

This is actually nice and I am very satisfied now. I won't throw the Corsair fan controller just yet, because there is still use for it. My girlfriend has a pc with some noisy fans, so I might as well buy two PWN fans and try to silence them. If that won't work, then I'm throwing it in the trashcan because I would not feel that great to sell it to anyone. I don't want to just go around and sell bad products, you know.

Thanks again for the assist.