iCUE Not Respecting Custom Fan Speed Setting

[PXAbstraction]

Hey all. I have an H150i Pro AIO that I am managing (among other things) with iCue (at v4.20.169 at time of writing.) I normally run the fans on the cooler at 1,150RPM fixed, enough to keep the case well exhausted of heat, while also not being noisy. It's worked well for over 2 years now but recently, I noticed components running hotter and it seems that iCUE is not respecting my chosen speed anymore. If you look at the attached screenshot, you'll see what I mean.

Deleting and recreating the profile didn't help. More perplexingly, the other stock profiles like Extreme and Zero RPM, work fine when I switch to those. It just doesn't want to respect my custom, flat RPM that I've set.

Anyone else run into this and manage to fix it? I'm at a bit of a loss.

Thanks!

[c-attack]

What happens if you use Fixed PWM % instead?

[PXAbstraction]

Hunh. So, I tried 70% fixed PWM and the attached is what I get. So, that seems to work.

I mean, not really a big deal leaving it that way since I just want a fixed RPM but I'm curious what changed to make the actual set RPM value not work, given that it's worked for 2 years. Curious if that's a bug or something else.

Thanks for the help!

[c-attack]

So I think probably a control bug in the current release (or maybe a one off error).  You are the first to report, but we'll have to see if there are more.  If the PWM% did not work, then I would have been keen to focus on the H150i's controller.  As you stated both the control curves and PWM% work (the controller's natural inclination), so it seems like the problem is the PWM% to RPM conversion in CUE.  

 

You could try quitting CUE and the associated services, then cut and paste the configuration file from C:User/name/App Data/Roaming/Corsair/CUE4/Cooling to your desktop.  When you relaunch CUE will create a default replacement (meaning you need to redo your control curve).  This would be a way to assess potential corruption in the configuration file (only place affected) without doing a full CUE clean install.  Since you don't have a ton of profiles, it's not so bad.  Also, you can delete the newly generated config file and drop the other one back in, again with the software not running).  However, since you have an easy lateral move to PWM% here, you may not be inclined to do a lot of jumping through hoops for a problem that is not longer sandbagging you.  

 

*Completely unrelated to any of this (I hope), your coolant temp (H150i Temp) is pretty warm in both screen shots.  If you are in 30-35C room, then that makes sense.  Otherwise, I might be wondering about the H150i performance in general.  Most people will see coolant temps about 4-7C above their room temperature or at a minimum equal to the case internal ambient.  45C+ is getting up there and I can see why you prefer the fixed speed rather than what the presets would do at that temp.  Those target a more common 23-25C room temp.  I can see the coolant dropped 2C as soon as you initiated the change in speed, so that does suggest environment rather than poor cooler functionality.  

Edited March 12, 2022 by c-attack

[PXAbstraction]

OK, so you bring up a good point there. That CPU temperature reading in iCUE, is that the coolant or the CPU itself? If it's the coolant, that makes way more sense because my CPU usually is 15-20 degrees hotter when read through HWINFO (it's a 5800X so it's a warm boy, though I don't overclock it.) I have a Lian Li O11 Dynamic case, which I love, save for the stupid decision they made to have it support two power supplies (seriously, why?!) at the expense of having a standard size place to put a rear case fan. So all the exhaust is going through the rad and since I have a 3080, the case can get mighty toasty when I'm gaming or rendering video. I looked at putting exhaust fans on the bottom of the case but because of where some of my motherboard's connectors are, they can't fit over the screw holes because they run into the cables.

After letting the fans run with the PWM configuration for a while, the average temp on that readout is not 35-37. So a big improvement, if not still ideal. If the system is idle though, that should drop further.

I definitely welcome any ideas to add more exhaust to this system but I'm at a bit of a loss because of the reasons above.

Thank you again! 🙂

[c-attack]

H150i Temp is the coolant temperature measured after heat pick up in the block.  For AMD, the +15C over the coolant temp is normal, but either way the coolant temp is the lowest possible CPU temp with zero voltage.  Ryzen CPUs keep their voltage up at idle.  If those screens were taken after a video render or any other prolonged GPU activity, then they make sense and is a reflection of case ambient temperature.  Case ambient will be minimum coolant temp, even when you have zero CPU load.  No reason to suspect a blockage or other AIO issue.  

 

As a XL owner, my suggestion would be to move the H150i to the side vertical mount slot and use it as intake.  That then allows you to pump in air from the bottom and chimney the exhaust out the top without negatively affecting the coolant temp in the radiator.  The added heat coming in from the H150i is going to be tiny compared to what the GPU does.  I don't use a rear exhaust either and it mostly creates noise on that case.  That setup would not require it either.  

 

[PXAbstraction]

This is all fantastic advice, thank you! My brain always said that making the rad the intake didn't make sense because you're basically pulling in heat from the get-go but what you're saying makes a lot of sense. I have 3 LL 120mm as side intake right now but could easily turn those into exhaust instead. Or maybe swap those into the rad to keep the RGB and put the AIO's fans onto the exhaust. 

Gt a but of planning to do. Thanks again! 😊