[bug] iCUE Causing Unresponsive Windows 10

I built a new PC a couple of months ago and this issue has persisted since the very beginning. If you read the following bug report you will see that I've narrowed it down to a single service.

 

SYMPTOMS:

Random unresponsiveness in Windows 10 Pro (2004 & 20H2). This happens about once every couple of days, but I have had it more than once in a single day. The unresponsiveness is debilitating to the point that a hard reset is required because a shutdown/restart is impossible.

 

CAUSE/FIX:

This issue is being caused by the CueLLAccessService.exe. This is a Windows service and if I manage to kill it before my PC is completely dead everything returns to normal. If not, hard reset.

 

VERSIONS:

Confirmed on iCUE version 3.34.161. I just upgraded to 3.34.170 and will be monitoring it for the next few days.

 

Thank you,

Mel

Following because I've been having this issue since I had to reinstall the OS and in so doing, wound up with 20H2. Previous to that, I was running iCUE without issue. It's the same symptoms as yours, though I haven't been able to track it down as closely. But it's completely random, and can even happen while idle. And you're right...it seems to be every 2-3 days that it happens. No errors are thrown, nothing that I can see out of place in the event log or reliability tracker...other than the forced shutdowns that I have to initiate to get the system back. The only way I know it's going to happen is that my case fan lights (controlled by the Commander Pro) will reset to default. I then have about 20sec of iffy responsiveness before a complete freeze happens. By "iffy" I mean that I can't initiate a restart, but I can close browser windows and stuff like that. Because of the case fans going all wonk-a-doo, and after uninstalling some other programs that I figured might have been causing a conflict (Razer's app and EVGA PrecisionX), I had my sights on iCUE being the culprit.

 

Next time it happens (as long as it doesn't happen at idle), I'm going to see if I can find that service you mentioned. Do you restart the service or end it to stop the freeze?

Melissa, you can just kill the service. If it's like mine your machine will immediately become responsive again. The service itself will restart almost immediately without the need for you to do anything. If this indeed turns out to be your issue you can disable the service entirely from my experience. I hope this helps.

 

Mel

Melissa, you can just kill the service. If it's like mine your machine will immediately become responsive again. The service itself will restart almost immediately without the need for you to do anything. If this indeed turns out to be your issue you can disable the service entirely from my experience. I hope this helps.

 

Mel

 

I found it alright, but the system hasn't borked again on me yet. I'm wondering if I should just go ahead and disable it...I'm so ultra paranoid about something getting wonked from all the hard resets. I've had my BIOS go bad in the past (prompting a reset on the board) so I'm really gun shy with that thing.

 

Do you know what that process is supposed to do? *edit* Apparently it controls the DRAM software lighting. I do use Corsair Vengeance LED RAM...I wonder if I can still disable the service?

 

*2nd edit* ...it's like I summoned the bad behavior upon myself...because not 10min later, it decided to do it again. Stopping the service did bring my fans back, but then it went down again. And now that I've tried to disable it, it won't even give me a chance to change the dropdown to "disabled" because it restarts itself that fast. I wish there was an alternate software I could use to control my lighting and fan speeds...if the BIOS gets borked again, I'll know what to blame.

 

*3rd edit* Well, I uninstalled iCUE and reinstalled Link. Sure, it can't control the lighting on my headset stand and keyboard...but honestly I don't care as long as I can control what's in the case without my system blowing up. I'll report back if this works or doesn't work on stopping the freezes.

Edited December 2, 2020 by MelissaGT

I have Corsair Dominator RAM (RGB) and it works fine with the LLA service stopped and disabled. I'm not sure if that helps you or not.

I have Corsair Dominator RAM (RGB) and it works fine with the LLA service stopped and disabled. I'm not sure if that helps you or not.

 

That's good to know, but I couldn't figure out how to stop and disable the service. I'd right click and then select stop, but immediately it would start up again on its own...and it wouldn't give me enough time to then click and disable it from a stopped position. I wasn't sure where to go from there, so I just uninstalled it and then installed the old Link software instead, so I could at least control the case fans and RAM.

Just wanted to post an update - I continued to suffer the same freezes even with Link. So I ended up reinstalling Windows and trying again...still the same freezes with Link. I then uninstalled Link and tried iCue again (the latest version) and figured out how to disable the CueLLAccessService.exe process so it no longer runs. It's been about 10 days now and no freezes, so I'm confident that is the problem! There is something about iCue (and even the old Link app) that is not compatible with the latest version of Windows 10.

The iCUE software is indeed compatible with the latest version of Windows 10. Most likely you have another piece of software, driver, or hardware that is conflicting and causing the issue.

 

I'm not using any software I wasn't before (less, in fact, because I uninstalled quite a bit in trying to figure out where the problem was)...this all started after I updated to Windows 10 20H2...before that, all the kids were playing in the pool together quite nicely. Either way, the issue seems stable (at least) with that service disabled.