Commander Pro PWM for H100i Fans

Hey guys I just got the Commander Pro and wired it all up in my 570X. My system wouldn't boot because I moved the power connectors for the two fans on my H100i from the motherboard CPU fan power to my Commander Pro ( slots 4 and 5 ). When I moved the power cables back to the motherboard, I could boot.

Is there something in the bios I have to set to make this work? I'd prefer the fans to be connected to the Commander Pro so that everything is monitored through that interface, but maybe I'm losing functionality by doing that? ELI5 please :)

Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix Z270-E Gaming

Couple questions:

One, I'm sure you have the Commander Pro powered by the USB 2.0 motherboard header - right? And I'm assuming you have other fans powered by Slots 1-3 on the Commander Pro? You can't mix fan types with the Commander Pro, as far as I know, so hopefully, that isn't the issue here.

Why aren't your H100i fans connected to the power connectors wires from the pump? Not sure why you are plugging those fans into the motherboard CPU fan power. Only the H100i pump should be connected to the CPU Fan header. Then in iCUE you can control the pump and the two fans. And if you don't have multiple USB 2.0 headers, you can connect the H100i USB power to one of the USB ports on the Commander pro.

Hope this helps.

Tony

You need to disable the "CPU Fan Boot Error" warning system if CPU Fan is empty. It's designed to tell you when there is a device failure for that header. It's a bit motherboard specific and not always intuitive. You may be able to google up "disable CPU boot warning" and your board for specific instructions. Most likely it will be in the Adv. BIOS -> Monitor Tab -> scroll down to the CPU fan readout (0 rpm) and click it. There should be a disable/ignore option on Asus boards.

As mentioned above, you really don't need to power those fans from the Commander Pro instead of the cooler unless they are 3 pin DC motors. There is no inherent advantage. There is one disadvantage. When using the cooler's internal fan controller, it will keep the fans going at your preferred settings with or without the software. That is includes the boot cycle. If you run them from the C-Pro and set the control variable to coolant temp, the C-Pro will loose contact with that data any time the software is not running. You will get a max fan blast at boot.

One, I'm sure you have the Commander Pro powered by the USB 2.0 motherboard header - right? And I'm assuming you have other fans powered by Slots 1-3 on the Commander Pro? You can't mix fan types with the Commander Pro, as far as I know, so hopefully, that isn't the issue here.

Sorry should have included that, yes I have a total of 6 Corsiar LL's in the case, 2 on the H100i and 4 of them are hooked into the Commander Pro now.

Why aren't your H100i fans connected to the power connectors wires from the pump? Not sure why you are plugging those fans into the motherboard CPU fan power. Only the H100i pump should be connected to the CPU Fan header. Then in iCUE you can control the pump and the two fans. And if you don't have multiple USB 2.0 headers, you can connect the H100i USB power to one of the USB ports on the Commander pro.

Prior to this I had the Lighting Node Pro and at that time my H100i fans *were* connected through the power connectors on the pump, but I got got confused when the mobo starting throwing the error about the empty CPU fan controller.

Your context and the info provided by c-attack below clarified this for me. My bios info was telling me to do exactly what c-attack was saying ( disable the error messaging ) but it sounds like you both recommend keeping the power connected to the pump connections like I had it originally. I'll do that and report back for the sake of anyone else asking similar questions in the future. Many thanks.

You need to disable the "CPU Fan Boot Error" warning system if CPU Fan is empty. It's designed to tell you when there is a device failure for that header. It's a bit motherboard specific and not always intuitive. You may be able to google up "disable CPU boot warning" and your board for specific instructions. Most likely it will be in the Adv. BIOS -> Monitor Tab -> scroll down to the CPU fan readout (0 rpm) and click it. There should be a disable/ignore option on Asus boards.

 

As mentioned above, you really don't need to power those fans from the Commander Pro instead of the cooler unless they are 3 pin DC motors. There is no inherent advantage. There is one disadvantage. When using the cooler's internal fan controller, it will keep the fans going at your preferred settings with or without the software. That is includes the boot cycle. If you run them from the C-Pro and set the control variable to coolant temp, the C-Pro will loose contact with that data any time the software is not running. You will get a max fan blast at boot.

Ok this clarified a bunch of stuff. The bios messaging on screen was telling me basically the same thing but I didn't have enough context to understand what to do. This helped a ton. And it sounds like keeping the fans powered via the pump connections is wiser. If you read my response to Tony above, I mention I had things set up that way when I was just running the Lighting Node Pro so I'll go back to that set up. Thanks for the explanation.