[SOLVED] At my wits end with Corsair iCue h115i RGB Pro XT - RGB Lights Not Working

BaphometsAngel

Commendable
Dec 24, 2020
6
0
1,510
Hey all, I've seen similar questions asked on here and I got my hopes up thinking I'd found the answer but it did not work for me. Let me try to outline what's happening and what I'm using.

Case is Corsair Obsidian 500D and it comes with Commander Pro as well as that little RGB Hub
Motherboard is an MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Edge AC
AIO is the aforementioned Corsair CPU cooler

The RGB lights have never come on, this is how I currently have it set up:

2 x FAN 4 pin cables are plugged into to FANS 1-6 on the commander pro unit. I did try to plug them into the cables attached to the cooler itself but the RGBs did not come on either, so the former is the way I have it set up currently.
SATA cable is plugged in, coming from the cooler and it's receiving power. Cooler comes on, fans spin, cooler RGBs work - so I assume no power issues.
2 x 4 pin inputs from the cooler are currently not plugged into anything, as I mentioned before, fans are going straight to the hub.
The USB from the cooler is plugged directly into USB 1 on the commander pro. Wondering if this shouldn't go on the motherboard instead?

Then there's a single cable skinny cable, which kinda splits off from the SATA cable, it's female which has 1 pin it needs (3 sockets) and I am not sure where this goes. At first I thought "Well, it would probably go in one of the CPU fans" and I looked for 3 pins everywhere and could not find anywhere this might go. Yes there are pins coming out that state "system fan" or things of that nature, but all of them are 4 pin. I simply couldn't find / figure out where this goes.

So then I though, "Alright, maybe it goes into the commander LED or RGB hubs", but the issue is, from the CPU to where those hubs are glued onto the case, it does not reach. I thought maybe it would go into LED 2, so i tried to work the cable around the various openings on the case but nothing seems to work - it's completely peeled away from the SATA cable now, to ensure I can re-route it anyway I need to. The other item I have plugged into LED 1 has 2 slivers of metal where the pins touch, this one only has 1 - not sure what you call this, the contact point? Anyway, so then I thought "ok maybe goes into the RGB hub? These are also female and appear to have 2 slivers of contact points rather than just the 1.

The issue now is, getting this single wire to reach and I can't seem to make it happen and not sure where to go from here. So my questions:

  1. What is this lone wire for?
  2. Is there some sort of extension I can buy male to female? If so, what is it called? What am I searching for on Amazon or whatever?
3, Lastly, where would it plug into? I am not sure I understand the difference between "RGB Hub" and the "LED" inputs no these two hubs, sounds like LED and RGBs would be the same thing to me but this is my first time doing an RGB setup.


I took pictures but don't have a place to host them...

Please help!
 
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Solution
Are you serious? LOL. Motherfluffer!!! I bought this specifically for that haha. DOH! So it's just the little cooler piece then? Ugh, so the rest of the case is using LL RGB fans, I wonder if they make those same ones in the same size? This is so disappointing. What's the next upgrade on these Corsair coolers with actual RGB goodness?

You have a few options. Did you just purchase the AIO? If you are able (and want to mess with it) you can take it out and box it up and return it and get the H150i Elite Capellix. It does come with RGB fans as well as the pump is RGB too. That's one possible option.

Or to make it easier, you can purchase three LL120 RGB, or ML120 RGB or QL120 RGB fans off Amazon or if you're in the states Best...

BaphometsAngel

Commendable
Dec 24, 2020
6
0
1,510
FYI - I've moved the USB connector directly to the motherboard (instead of commander pro) and plugged in the sole cable I had available into CPU FAN 1, although it's a 4 pin, hoping won't be problem as the cable is just a 3 pin. So now everything is plugged in and still no RGB on those 2 fans.
 

Notorious^

Reputable
Feb 17, 2019
104
18
4,615
The 3 pin cable coming from the AIO pump goes to the CPU_FAN header on the motherboard.


How i have mine wired is,

  1. Connect the fan power cables for the AIO to the three 4 pin cables coming off the pump (Square block that mounts on top of the CPU) - This covers getting power to the fans
  2. Connect the USB cable from the pump to a USB 2.0 header on the motherboard.
  3. Connect the RGB cables for the fans to the RGB controller.
  4. Connect the USB cable for the RGB controller to a USB 2.0 header on the motherboard or connect it to the commander pro assuming you have the USB cable for the commander Pro hooked up to a USB 2.0 header on the motherboard.
  5. OF course, make sure the pump, commander pro (if being used) & RGB controller are connected to SATA power.


You can use websites like https://imgbb.com/ to host pictures if you still want to post some pictures.
 

BaphometsAngel

Commendable
Dec 24, 2020
6
0
1,510
Thank you Notorious. Merry Christmas btw.

I'm going to unplug the whole thing again (the AIO piece) and start over methodically. That's what I'd done the first time, but perhaps I missed a cable or loose connection somewhere and revert back here when done. I was starting to think maybe these fans simply don't have RGB and it's just the "Corsair Logo" area cause I'm losing my mind.
 

Notorious^

Reputable
Feb 17, 2019
104
18
4,615
Thank you Notorious. Merry Christmas btw.

I'm going to unplug the whole thing again (the AIO piece) and start over methodically. That's what I'd done the first time, but perhaps I missed a cable or loose connection somewhere and revert back here when done. I was starting to think maybe these fans simply don't have RGB and it's just the "Corsair Logo" area cause I'm losing my mind.

You are correct, the fans that come with the XT cooler are not RGB, only the pump. I didn't know if you swapped them out for different Corsair RGB fans or not. If not then yeah they are not RGB. You will need to swap them out for RGB fans. I swapped mine out for the ML120 RED LED fans because i was going for one specific color theme (red & black). I recommend the QL 120 RGB FANS if you don't currently have RGB fans.
 

BaphometsAngel

Commendable
Dec 24, 2020
6
0
1,510
You are correct, the fans that come with the XT cooler are not RGB, only the pump. I didn't know if you swapped them out for different Corsair RGB fans or not. I recommend the QL 120 RGB FANS if you don't currently have RGB fans.

Are you serious? LOL. Motherfluffer!!! I bought this specifically for that haha. DOH! So it's just the little cooler piece then? Ugh, so the rest of the case is using LL RGB fans, I wonder if they make those same ones in the same size? This is so disappointing. What's the next upgrade on these Corsair coolers with actual RGB goodness?
 

Notorious^

Reputable
Feb 17, 2019
104
18
4,615
Are you serious? LOL. Motherfluffer!!! I bought this specifically for that haha. DOH! So it's just the little cooler piece then? Ugh, so the rest of the case is using LL RGB fans, I wonder if they make those same ones in the same size? This is so disappointing. What's the next upgrade on these Corsair coolers with actual RGB goodness?

You have a few options. Did you just purchase the AIO? If you are able (and want to mess with it) you can take it out and box it up and return it and get the H150i Elite Capellix. It does come with RGB fans as well as the pump is RGB too. That's one possible option.

Or to make it easier, you can purchase three LL120 RGB, or ML120 RGB or QL120 RGB fans off Amazon or if you're in the states Best Buy has them too online and swap them out. The Capellix cooler comes with the QL120 RGB fans and the new commander core which i am a big fan of. It does fan speed control & RGB control from one device so you don't have to use splitters or another controller, one controller does it all. Also they changed the pump to where you don't have all those wires coming off the pump anymore. Just the CPU FAN header cable and a cable that connects the pump to the commander core.
 
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