Latest iCUE update broke software completely

[Ikarius]

A few days ago I rebooted my computer and got a message that iCUE wanted to perform an update.  I accepted, and let it do it's thing.  After it updated, the software is completely broken.  I cannot uninstall, I cannot repair, I cannot start the iCUE software anymore.

Running the "installer", which gives me options to Open, Repair, or Uninstall... Open simply exits.  Repair and Uninstall download packages... and then exit.

I found the following KB article:  https://help.corsair.com/hc/en-us/articles/6771456768013-How-to-Fix-issues-with-installing-or-uninstalling-iCUE

Which would be helpful, except that iCUE does not appear in the uninstall list for the troubleshooter, and the article advises me to use a 3rd party tool to find the product code for an installer.  The only 3rd party software I can find is MSI Viewer..... which requires an MSI, and iCUE installer download is an EXE and not an MSI.  It probably downloads an MSI, but it hides where that is.

The latest iCUE software update broke the software completely for my computer, and I have not been able to find a way to fix it.

 

[John Hoang]

You can boot to Safe mode and delete the following folder:

%appdata%/Roaming/Corsair

%appdata%/Local/Corsair

C:\Program Files\Corsair

C:\ProgramData\Corsair

Reboot to normal mode and re-install the software.

 

[Ikarius]

@John Hoang  - Those steps did not work.  I successfully rebooted to safe mode, deleted all 4 of those directories (yes, all 4 existed before I attempted this), rebooted to normal mode, and the installer still believes "The latest version is installed", and only provides options to Open, Repair, or Uninstall... and all of those options are still broken, in the same manner they were before.

Edited November 23, 2023 by Ikarius

[Ikarius]

@John Hoang  - additional notes

 

I confirmed that all 4 directories were not present initially after a reboot, but running the corsair installer re-created the "C:\ProgramData\Corsair" directory.... and then went on to indicate the software was already installed.

 

My guess is that the installer is relying on registry values to determine the software is installed, and I wouldn't be very happy to go mucking about in the registry.

 

Another question is... why did a standard run-of-the-mill update through the corsair notifications completely break the software install??

 

I am no longer able to set my keyboard to a consistent single color, the default color swaying is distracting and obnoxious.

Edited November 23, 2023 by Ikarius

[John Hoang]

What happened when you already delete all those folders and then run installer to "Repair" the software?

[Ikarius]

@John Hoang  The "Repair" option appears to download some files, then exits without displaying any error, or changing anything I can observe.

 

After running the "Repair" option, none of the other 3 directories I deleted under safe mode have been re-created.

 

 

why did a standard run-of-the-mill update through the corsair notifications completely break the software install??

Edited November 23, 2023 by Ikarius

[c-attack]

This seems to be a more prevalent issue since CUE went modular but It does not seem to be version specific.  The repair option typically does not work in this state  

 

The suggestion above should have worked, but you definitely will need to clean out the registry. It’s not as complex as it seems. Just two spots and directions below. 
https://help.corsair.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025166712-Perform-a-clean-reinstallation-of-the-Corsair-Utility-Engine-iCUE-
 

If you’re still stuck after that, you might consider using a professional software removal tool like Revo or another free uninstaller. Some users report safe mode works and the 3rd party uninstaller doesn’t and vice versa, so it can be hit or miss. Likely also means the corruption is happening in different ways. 

[nnnkm]

Once again, why did a standard software update break the software completely? All over this forum I see people dancing around this question, this thread is another perfect example. I've got an open ticket with support since the auto-update and I'm still sitting with a completely non-functional config because of iCUE crashing on launch. We need a hotfix, and we need it yesterday. I can't control my fan temps, I can't control anything that is going on with my computer.

Sick and tired of seeing people being pointed to help articles that simply state you should clean reinstall the software. What? No way - I have various profiles and configs I've refined over months or even years at this point, and you want me to just delete everything and start again? Absolutely not. Many people have tried and failed to resolve the problem with 5.8.130 via this reinstall method. Just be honest with the people who bought Corsair products, stop ignoring their very pertinent and reasonable question about what the ******** has happened, and give us a heads up on the state of the problem and how you are addressing it. How hard can it be?

Edited November 23, 2023 by nnnkm

[Ikarius]

After removing the registry keys, I was able to get the installer to work, and after that, the software to work... again.  What an enormous pain the butt. I just lost 3+ hours of my time to farting around trying to get this to work again.   And I'll Echo @nnnkm 's comment.  This state of the software is not acceptable.  Even if the developers cannot figure out why it's occurring sporadically, it's should not be rocket science to get the installer to detect the state and fix it.  There's already a repair option in the installer. 

[c-attack]

13 minutes ago, nnnkm said:

Once again, why did a standard software update break the software completely?

Can't say, but it is definitely an ongoing issue since CUE 5 launched.  I have a high degree of familiarity with this stuff, make meticulous back ups, and am methodical with installation procedures.  It happened to me once as well and I had to use Revo to get it out.  Safe Mode couldn't uninstall.  Whatever is going on, users need to be aware it is something beyond their control and to prepare.

 

To that end, you need to make backups and export your valuable profiles.  You don't need to do it every version, but if you spend 45 minutes crafting something, export it when you're done.  You will get burned eventually.  While you can be upset about the failure to resolve the issue, not backing up your data is a user side error and and we all have doing this stuff long enough to know that can cost you.  A clean install is going to be the remedy for underlying software corruption.  The above example is one of many of where simply uninstalling or the repair option is not enough.  You can have a separate conversation about why the issue is not corrected, but these are still the tools to fix it.  

[nnnkm]

1 hour ago, c-attack said:

Can't say, but it is definitely an ongoing issue since CUE 5 launched.  I have a high degree of familiarity with this stuff, make meticulous back ups, and am methodical with installation procedures.  It happened to me once as well and I had to use Revo to get it out.  Safe Mode couldn't uninstall.  Whatever is going on, users need to be aware it is something beyond their control and to prepare.

 

To that end, you need to make backups and export your valuable profiles.  You don't need to do it every version, but if you spend 45 minutes crafting something, export it when you're done.  You will get burned eventually.  While you can be upset about the failure to resolve the issue, not backing up your data is a user side error and and we all have doing this stuff long enough to know that can cost you.  A clean install is going to be the remedy for underlying software corruption.  The above example is one of many of where simply uninstalling or the repair option is not enough.  You can have a separate conversation about why the issue is not corrected, but these are still the tools to fix it.  

Forgive me, but I simply didn't think that iCUE was going to destroy itself so catastrophically as it has done. I am an engineer, have all sorts of data being backed up, software, files, photos, etc. It just didn't occur to me that iCUE itself was going to burn me 'eventually' because frankly I don't really think about iCUE in the way I might think about OneDrive, Dropbox or my mobile phone. Sure, I could have exported my profiles somewhere, fair enough. Had I known that iCUE was as buggy and broken as this from the software development point of view, I would have done so. But alas, it's basically fan and LED control software to me - it really shouldn't auto-update and destroy itself. Why can't my profiles be captured from config files in some Windows folder somewhere? Who decided that it had to be so inordinately problematic when something goes wrong? And why are Corsair saying nothing about it?

I already binned Steelseries out of my home computing environment for the same dogshit treatment of me as a consumer, and having spent a solid amount of money on Corsair products in my last PC build, I'm very much regretting having done so now.

Corsair - PR wise, I don't know what the hell you are doing, but between here, Reddit and Discord basically everyone I know with iCUE has been negatively affected by 5.8.130. Make the previous software available for download so we can revert, or FIX THIS VERSION.

Edited November 23, 2023 by nnnkm