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Colors washed out after installing iCue 4


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I've used Corsair iCue in the past pretty successfully. I'm more of just a "static" color guy. Am building a system for a friend to hang on his office wall. Running an Asus Z590A Strix MB w/ 4 x 8 GB sticks of Corsair Vengeance Pro PC3200 DRAM and H100i Platinum SE AIO. Did not install Asus Armoury Crate. Went straight to the latest iCUE 4 release. Before installing, got the usual rainbow default on the AIO fans. The RAM default was a nice static, rich green, (which my friend wants - hey this is good, I'm halfway there!). Installed iCUE, and now the colors look like pastels - all washed out. Corsair RGBs have always been rich and vibrant colors. Nothing I do in iCUE seems to remedy this. As I said, there is no other RGB software installed. I've been building PCs for family and friends for over 20 years and have never run across this. Colors have always been rich and vibrant and is reflected in many reviews of Corsair products.

Any suggestions would be welcomed. Many thanks in advance.

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Washed out colors are not a typical RGB conflict response and not typical at all, especially system wide. Try a CUE repair install from the Windows Apps list -> Corsair iCUE -> Modify. This often cleans up weird issues. 
 

Most who report this stumble into new CUE 4 user errors. Common issues are forgetting to remove the water color lighting link effect in the default profile which will make things look off if you layer certain presets on top of it. Also note the color presets in CUE for are not primary (255 or 0) RGB values. Most are 3 color combinations that lighten the color. This is not immediately obvious from the color square. The last wrinkle is the new murals overlay effect. It should not be on by default, but there have a few user reports of it booting up activated with CUE. 
 

I am a bit curious about the green RAM color pre-CUE install.  That is not a normal starting a color. It should have been off or spiral rainbow. I am curious how it ended up on green. 

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Thanks so much, c. You're right. In all my past builds, everything defaulted to the rainbow effect, regardless of mfr. I'm trying to avoid installing Armoury Crate due to its reported bloatware. (The Strix logo on the Z590 MB is currently sporting the rainbow effect, BTW). I'm thinking of installing the latest stand alone AuraSync software. I've got a CX650 RGB PSU and T-force RGB 2.5" SSD connected to the board via 3-pin 5v connection. They're both currently sporting the rainbow effect. I was also thinking about possibly installing Armoury Crate and the Corsair plug-in. This is all in an open frame Thermaltake white P3 (older version w/out fans). I'll report back later this evening after trying what you suggest.

Can't thank you enough for your input. It is much appreciated!

- Bill

  

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So what did you do to fix it? I'm having the same issue with a build I'm doing for my niece. Before icue the colors were vibrant and after installing icue they looked completely washed out and not nearly as impressive. I thought maybe i was supposed to download the (for legacy devices) version instead of the latest. Everything I bought for her is corsair. 

 

Thanks for the help

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4 hours ago, MeepleKing said:

I thought maybe i was supposed to download the (for legacy devices) version instead of the latest. Everything I bought for her is corsair. 

CUE 3 should not do this either.  If you list which devices you have, we can help you figure out whether you need CUE 3 or CUE 4.  Nearly all users are going to CUE 4 capable unless you are carrying around a some peripherals from 5-6 years ago.  

Edited by c-attack
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Right now I have:

Crystal 280X RGB case. I removed the front 120mm fans and replaced them with (2) SP140mm rgb elite fans.

iCUE H100i Elite with CORSAIR Commander CORE.

2 CORSAIR RGB LED Lighting PRO strips

*I plugged the 2 case fans into the Commander Core along with the 2 fans for the AiO.

The led strips had a 3 pin plug that wouldn't fit in the Commander Core so I plugged them into a Lighting Node Pro instead. 

Then I plugged the Core and the Node into the mobo usb headers.

Everything looked really bright and vivid until I installed iCue 4 and then it all looked washed out and crappy.

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16 minutes ago, MeepleKing said:

with (2) SP140mm rgb elite fans.

iCUE H100i Elite with CORSAIR Commander CORE.

2 CORSAIR RGB LED Lighting PRO strips

No reason to run CUE 3. It went end of life 2 years ago and will only complicate things going forward. 
 

You installed everything correctly and as you noticed, there is no LED port for the strips on the Commander Core. The space where it would go is taken up by the power circuits for the Elite Capellix. 
 

The Commander Core should auto-detect fan type and your SP-Elite and ML-Elite on the radiator are all 8 LED fans. Even if you incorrectly forced the controller to “SP fan series”, it would likely turn the first fan white or make it look like the fan LEDs were defective, not make things look washed out. 

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22 hours ago, 1971bill said:

was also thinking about possibly installing Armoury Crate and the Corsair plug-in.

Be aware most users are reporting issues with Asus integration in CUE 4.30 and 4.31. The Murals features do not support it at this time and it seems to be causing some basic lighting control issues. 

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Thanks for the heads up, c. And for MK's input as well. So I'm not crazy after all. Sorry I've been away for a day or so. Got all my Xmas errands out of the way. Glad I did considering the weather situation. I'm hunkered down for the duration now. I'm in SC so looking for single digit temps but little if any snow. Just worried about utility poles being blown down.

Well, new vid card arrived. Installed it and tried to run 3DMark. Tried to update my old version, and got error message saying it couldn't find the update files, and just hang collecting system info. Uninstalled iCUE 4. Decided to try OpenRGB and see what happens. Got the Asus logo on the board, the Corsair pump and one of H100i fans to display the vibrant green that I was looking for. Unfortunately the second AIO fan, (they're LL120's), displays no color at all. Open RGB also told me there was something wrong w/the DRAM - about the I2C/SMBus not initializing, plus another notification that the WinRing0 file was missing or something like that.

Reluctantly decided to install Armoury Crate - it wouldn't install (error code 102 - whatever that is). Reinstalled iCUE 4 just looking for static green, Got it but it's the washed out green again and doesn't see anything on the Asus board. So I've got something corrupted. Looks like I'll need to do a Windoze repair or new installation from scratch.

Asus Z-590A Strix Gaming Wifi, i5-11600K, WD SN850 1TB, 4 x 8GB Vengeance RGB PC3200 DRAM, 3060/12GB NVidia GPU, 512GB T-Force RGB SSD, Corsair CX650 RGB PSU (hate to add a node just to get this to work - already using the two onboard USB headers, plus you're supposed to press a button on the PSU to cycle thru a half dozen colors - of course that doesn't work at all - all rainbow all the time).

Many thanks for following this thread. Haven't really participated in a forum since back in the day on TechIMO. I'll work on the Win (22H2) reinstall and report back.

- Bill

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey guys - Sorry I've been lazy, blaming it on holidays and watching football - and avoiding this build as I really do not want to start over from scratch. My first iCUE build 3 or 4 years ago used all Corsair components and as such everything seemed pretty intuitive. This iCUE 4 seems like a different, much more complicated beast. Really don't want to start over from scratch, (I feel like a prize fighter who is black and blue after five rounds and the ref says no it's not right, you have to start the fight over!). Also, my UserBenchmark and Passmark Burn-In scores are outstanding - so everything's running great.

I found the watercolor tab you mentioned, c- , but it wasn't selected. However I did select "static color" under that "Linking" section. I can't seem to find a tutorial on "Linking". Is thatWallhanger_1.thumb.jpg.de3575e198582622293414aed4ff7c11.jpg have to do Walllhanger_2.thumb.jpg.a4e954a80a52529b741b32e30a66e263.jpg/ other third party devices? So some of this is due to my own ignorance.

So what I wound up doing is trying to incorporate three different programs - iCUE 4, OpenRGB (can't seem to locate any tutorials on this yet - YouTube should be helpful), and the Creative Soundblaster software, which controls the lighting for the device plus up to 4 lighting strips that attach directly to the Sounblaster. So between the three programs I've finally come up w/ something that works. My only issue now is getting all three programs to initiate as the default settings, so my friend doesn't have to monkey with the settings every time he boots the system. Open RGB does not start up upon booting the system - I think that's by design in an effort to be as un-intrusive as possible. Soundblaster - no problem. I just need to get iCUE and OpenRGB to play nice, or so it seems. Here's a couple of pics, the bluish glow is from a UV strip, but ineffective, so it's been replaced with two Sounblaster lighting strips controlled by that software. thanks so much for all of the input. I'm an old fart w/ a PC addiction (for about 25 years - anything to ward off dementia - lol!).

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So is that top picture the "washed out" green on the AIO, RAM, and LL fans?  As compared to the MB and PSU?

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  • 8 months later...
On 12/20/2022 at 7:25 AM, MeepleKing said:

Right now I have:

Crystal 280X RGB case. I removed the front 120mm fans and replaced them with (2) SP140mm rgb elite fans.

iCUE H100i Elite with CORSAIR Commander CORE.

2 CORSAIR RGB LED Lighting PRO strips

*I plugged the 2 case fans into the Commander Core along with the 2 fans for the AiO.

The led strips had a 3 pin plug that wouldn't fit in the Commander Core so I plugged them into a Lighting Node Pro instead. 

Then I plugged the Core and the Node into the mobo usb headers.

Everything looked really bright and vivid until I installed iCue 4 and then it all looked washed out and crappy.

i also have this problem and nowhere on the internet has been helpful. I simply want the "demo" mode back which was present before I installed iCUE.

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