H100i RGB Pro XT (240mm) Temporarily Changes to wrong color during boot

[DanielD]

I'm seeing a rather bizarre issue with my H100i (amazon link, corsair link).

I am using the latest iCUE 4 software and have set the "Hardware Lighting" to a green color. I don't run iCUE 4 at startup so the hardware lighting is always supposed to be in effect. This is usually the case except for this bizarre phenoma that happens every time I boot the machine cold. When I boot, the water block will light up the appropriate green color for about 3s, then the color will change to red, then after about 5s the color will change back to the correct green color. All of this happens during boot. Even if I enter the BIOS, it will change to red and back to green all on it's own accord. So this is clearly unrelated to Windows or any software that starts running after boot.

I thought hardware lighting was as simple as a static color being saved to the units internal memory and then being loaded on boot. So I have no clue why the color is changing not just once, but twice. This is a rather annoying issue as it's the only RGB component that switches back and forth to the wrong color during boot.

I'm not sure if it's a coincidence, but I originally had all my RGB tuned to red in the beginning. It's almost like the water block still remembers the red part way through booting before switching back to green. I tried setting hardware lighting to yellow to see what would happen and it's basically the same issue. It boots to yellow, changes to red during boot, and changes back to yellow on it's own all after 5-10s.

I would love a solution to this. Perhaps a some kind of reset of the water block's internal memory?

[DanielD]

I'm not seeing a way to edit my original post but I'm using Windows 10 Pro with iCUE v4.23.137 and the H100i is running firmware v2.00.09.

[Corsair Notepad]

Who is the manufacturer of your motherboard?

[DanielD]

I'm using an MSI motherboard.

MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B550M-PRO-VDH-WIFI

I have Corsair Vengeance RAM and several RGB fans. The MSI software controls the fans and I use iCUE for the RAM and AIO. All other RGB components (RAM and fans) maintain the same color even during boot. I've tried disabling the MSI software but it had no effect, particularly because this issue happens during boot before Windows even starts.

[Corsair Notepad]

What happens if you completely remove the MSI software? From your description the MSI software is taking control over the third-party RGB software and defaulting it to red.

[DanielD]

I uninstalled the MSI software but the issue persists. I also performed a "Force Firmware Update" even though it's on the latest version. This didn't fix it either.

[Corsair Notepad]

Does your motherboard BIOS have a disable Mystic Light option?

[DanielD]

There are no Mystic Light options in the BIOS, I believe it is just software. However I did try turning off the physical "RGB" switch on the motherboard, this had no impact.

Also I completely disconnected the USB port from the AIO and the issue persists, so I think we can rule out any issue with the MOBO or software, it seems to be an issue with the AIO. Is there any way to perform a factory reset on it? It seems like the internal memory/saved state may be corrupted.

[reddragonskate88]

I just experienced this turning on from a cold boot on my H100i too running the same iCue version and same FW version, although I'm on Windows 11 Pro. I have my AIO and RAM hardware lighting set to white in iCue, so it was pretty noticeable when it happened. The AIO is the only thing that switched to red.

I have Gigabyte's RGB Fusion installed, but I have its static colour set to white and it is not set to run at startup. I do have iCue set to startup. Whenever I run RGB Fusion, it only detects the motherboards lighting and not my Corsair RAM or AIO, which I read is a good thing to not conflict with iCue.