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XC7 CPU Block RGB malfunctioning


Navysealsnake

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TL;DR: XC7 CPU block rgb suddenly started behaving erratically seemingly out of nowhere, instant lighting does not display colors correctly (Green illuminates as red for 95% of the LEDS), lighting animations cause strobing/flickering. I've done a fresh install of both windows and Icue, made sure all drivers and firmware are up to date, etc. I haven't messed with any of my cables and such before this started happening, so I'm thinking an Icue update might of messed something up along the way?

 

 

 

Hey all, I'm writing here today because i've had a full hydrox loop set up for about 4 months now, and everything's been going great. Temperatures look good, the leak testing went well, i'm very happy with my system!

However, about a week or so ago the RGB on my XC7 CPU block began to glitch and behave erratically, this was particularly obvious with animated lighting effects. This happens even with some of the colors under instant lighting only part of the block will change color, while the rest remains lit with an unexpected color.

 

For example when I set the instant lighting to Green (particularly bright green, the darker shade works just fine for some reason), it seems only one LED changes to bright green while the other 15 LEDs in the CPU block are illuminated red for some reason. the same happens with the Red setting under instant lighting, one LED is red while the other 15 are blue.

 

I've noticed that when i first boot my system up the default hardware profile for all my lighting devices is rainbow wave, and during the initial boot up the animation plays smoothly with no flickering, jittering, or lag UNTIL i log in to my desktop and it loads my default profile. When I manually set it to rainbow wave in the iCue software it starts flicking erratically and unpleasantly. I should note that the rest of my system's LEDs are behaving normally which consist of: 6 LL 120 fans, D5 Pump, and XG7 GPU block which are all connected to a CP and I have 4 lighting strips connected to a LNP as well.

 

The rest of my components are illuminating fine and without issue.

 

I should also add that I recently (this was after the problem began) got a new SSD to migrate my OS to and I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to do a fresh/clean install of windows, in hopes that a fresh install might fix this issue if it were a software issue.

That apparently did not work even after having to install Icue again to the latest version.

 

I'm wondering if this could potentially be a software issue, and is it a widespread/known issue? I'm really hoping it's not a hardware issue because it would suck to have to take my loop apart (even partially) just to RMA and replace a block for one with working RGB. It sounds silly, but I paid for all its features to work and I really want to get this fixed. I have no submitted a support ticket as I was hoping this could be an easy fix :).

 

Here are links to the videos showing how the CPU block behaves before the Icue software kicks in and after:

 

 

INITIAL BOOT

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POST ICue starting up

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IMG_20191210_154204.thumb.jpg.301623ad18042acfff3ecef5609d3a56.jpg

IMG_20191210_154219.thumb.jpg.fc75da4e5378451da0263e1194eda7b6.jpg

Edited by Navysealsnake
fromatting, additional documentation
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Question - can you try to plug the CPU block *only* into the lighting channel? It's less ... extreme ... than removing the block though I understand it'll be a pain. No need to reconfigure the channel - I'm just trying to see if it is the block or if something on the chain of RGB devices is causing the issue.
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  • Corsair Employee
Question - can you try to plug the CPU block *only* into the lighting channel? It's less ... extreme ... than removing the block though I understand it'll be a pain. No need to reconfigure the channel - I'm just trying to see if it is the block or if something on the chain of RGB devices is causing the issue.

 

I agree with DevBiker, there's a chance that it could be a different component in the chain causing this behavior. Let us know what happens when you have just the CPU block plugged into your LED controller.

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Hey all, I just got home and tried plugging only the CPU block into the lighting channel, it seems the issues still persist, I've attached a photo below of it plugged into the controller for clarity's sake.

 

I should note that I am using the extension cables that were provided with my corsair LED strips expansion kit, I was thinking could the extension cable have gone bad?

 

If it did go bad wouldn't that affect the whole chain and not just the CPU block? I will try my best to route it to reach the controller omitting the extension cable and just plugging in directly with the CPU cable alone and see if that makes a difference.

 

but for now that's what I've got so far, pardon the sea of cables.

1947991569_CPUblockonly.thumb.PNG.11d64035e3c8502d208d46dbec322b29.PNG

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If the extension cable was bad then yes, I'd expect it to affect the entire chain.

 

If it was a software issue - and some of the LEDs in the "chain" got bad data pushed onto the wire and they happened to be at the end - then we'd not see it with *just* the CPU block on the chain (assuming iCUE is configured no differently; with all of the items in the chain).

 

This does make it seem like the LEDs in the block are what have the issue.

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Unfortunately, you may be right, I've disconnected the extension cable and plugged in the CPU cable directly into channel 2, no dice.

 

I then disconnected my fans on channel one, and tried putting the CPU block on there as well to see if maybe the 2nd channel on my CP may have gone bad, but No luck either.

 

I didn't want to RMA this but from the looks of things it looks like the LEDs in the block themselves are bad.

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I think found the culprit, looks like one of the LEDs in my CPU block is completely dead, I was selecting individual LEDs on the block to see if I could find out which ones were being problematic, turns out if I select all of them except for this one (image attached below, purple circle does not illuminate) the animations work just fine, without any flickering, stuttering or incorrectly displaying colors.

 

As soon as I try picking all the LEDs including the dead one, the animations start to spaz out once again.

 

As far as I can tell only one LED is dead, as this is the only one that refuses to illuminate when I manually pick it.

 

EDIT: There's also a second LED that does not illuminate the correct color, I've noticed this before I had this flickering issue a while ago but thought nothing of it, just attributed it to some software bug. However as you can see in the photo, while the rest of the LEDs are a yellow-ish green this one is bright red.

853163259_DeadLED.PNG.2ad2c44e41108fe19d8b3c649c271d88.PNG

1252277997_inccorectlylit.thumb.jpg.8045a1f5c389cdf91f361d78912c68b1.jpg

Edited by Navysealsnake
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Yeah, I think that's definitely it. That sucks.

 

I'd open a case with support. You may be able to get an advanced RMA - they ship you the replacement and when you put it in, you ship back the defective unit. You'd need to provide a credit card for collateral. Personally, I've never done that but I've heard about it lots.

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