Fans Blinking Red

[MIXXX]

A buddy of mine is having some computer trouble. All his fans are blinking red, I have seen the previous forums about the boot issue, and also a pump failure. What are some things I should know before I head over there and take a look? 

[c-attack]

This is on a Elite Capellix AIO unit using a Commander Core as the fan controller?  There are a lot of of these but not always the same underlying cause.

 

It is an alarm state where the pump firmware "thinks" it may be overheating.  On boot, stop in the BIOS and look at the CPU temp.  If the pump is not running, you will see the CPU temp skipping upwards at a quick and steady pace.  It is more likely the CPU temp is steady and this is another one of these false alarm issues.

 

Power down the PC and flip the PSU off.  Now disconnect the power cable from the Commander Core to the pump, then make sure you re-insert it firmly with the white stripe aligned.  The cable can be finicky and a lot of the alarms are the result of a very slight imperfection on the connection.  Now go back and flip on the PSU and start normally.  The PSU power cycle forces the Commander Core and pump to do a deep restart on the next power on.  Hopefully this clears it up.  If not, you likely need to contact Corsair Support or exercise your exchange options with the vendor.  

 

So possibilities are:

1) Genuine pump failure for whatever reason.  If the CPU temp is ramping up and the fans spinning, the Commander Core has power but the wide power cable to the pump may not be in full contact.  Do the power cycle and really check the Commander Core to pump cable.  If the problem repeats on the next boot, then it is likely is a dead pump and it needs to go back to the vendor as defective.  Usually you also get a BIOS 'cpu boot error' with these when the MB doesn't get a signal back from the pump (as long the tachometer cable is connected to CPU fan on the MB).

 

2) False alarm caused by imperfect physical connections.  Same as above but CPU temp normal.  Pump is running but you get the alarm anyway.  All you can do here is shut down, PSU off, disconnect and reconnect the SATA and cables between Commander Core and pump.  This is more prevalent on the LCD top versions and you must pop off the plastic top and reseat it on its connector as well.  Sometimes you can clear this up with one pass.  However, there is another issue that has the same symptoms. Some units experience some kind of tachometer sensor or wire failure that causes the unit to think the pump has failed and you get blocked off from access in CUE.  No amount of connection fiddling is going to fix this and the unit must be replaced.  If you've done the power cycling a few times, the connections look good, and still can't get past this, it may be time to send it back or contact Corsair Support to the same end.  If you get the CPU boot error from the pump but the CPU temp stays level (plus the red flashing max fans behavior), then this may be the issue.   

Edited December 27, 2022 by c-attack

[MIXXX]

Ok. Thank you, I will pass this info on and try it out.

[Bink]

Swap out commander core. I reset every connection swapped between builds and changed out the pump. None of this fixed it. Also did the normal firmware, software checks. The commander core was faulty.