[SOLVED] Fan hub not recognized in BIOS

[mxwiese1]

I'm having this really frustrating problem with my fan hub. My setup right now is four 6-pin RGB chassis fans connected to an ARGB fan hub / controller, as well as a cpu cooler that's directly connected to the motherboard. The CPU cooler is recognized and runs perfectly, however the fans connected to the hub aren't recognized by my mobo Bios. The fans are turned on, RGB is working, and the speed can be changed to 5 different modes from a button on the fan hub. But even though I connected the 4 pin PWM connector to a PWM fan slot on my mobo, it only shows the CPU cooler. I've looked up every other similar thread but none of them worker out. Is there something really stupid that I'm doing wrong here???

Thanks in advance.

 

[Paperdoc]

Tell us the maker and exact model number of the fans, and of the controller Hub they plug into. On SOME hubs similar to yours, they are designed with a bit of flexibility. If you have no connection to a mobo header, you use the buttons on the box to change things. But IF you have a connection to a mobo header, then you may have the option to use a particular button press move to tell it to stop doing its own thing and follow the instructions of the mobo fan header.

You should be aware of another factor, though. Any mobo header can deal with the speed signal returned to it by only ONE fan, so any decent Splitter or Hub will send back to its host header only ONE fan's speed and ignore all the others. You will never "see" those speeds anywhere, but this does NOT affect ability to control those fan speeds.

 

[mxwiese1]

Tell us the maker and exact model number of the fans, and of the controller Hub they plug into. On SOME hubs similar to yours, they are designed with a bit of flexibility. If you have no connection to a mobo header, you use the buttons on the box to change things. But IF you have a connection to a mobo header, then you may have the option to use a particular button press move to tell it to stop doing its own thing and follow the instructions of the mobo fan header.

You should be aware of another factor, though. Any mobo header can deal with the speed signal returned to it by only ONE fan, so any decent Splitter or Hub will send back to its host header only ONE fan's speed and ignore all the others. You will never "see" those speeds anywhere, but this does NOT affect ability to control those fan speeds.

First of all I just wanna say thanks for your involvement in the community, I saw you helping others with similar problems as mine while I was trying to find a way to fix my own.

The fans are the Aerocool Edge RGB 140mm,
And the fan hub features 10 ports with the no difference between them (they are all even labelled just "fan"). It received its power from a psu molex connector and has a 3 pin ARGB cable that isn't plugged in and a standard 4 pin PWM cable for a fan header. A photo of mine and another one I found off google.

Unfortunately there are only three changes I can make with the fan hub, 1) change RGB speed 2) change RGB lighting mode, and 3) change fan speed (very limited, doesn't at any point give control to the mobo).

And yes, I understand that part, but the fact that it's not even showing a one, single chassis fan connected is what worries me.

 

[Paperdoc]

First of all, does your mobo have a 3-pin Addressable RGB (ARGB or ADDR RGB) header? NOT the 4-pin plain RGB type, that is. I'm going to do a bit of guessing here because the Hub you have appears to be an older design, while Aerocool has a new model with a closed case and side ports that has some extra features maybe. Anyway, with the Hub you have, there's a power input cable at one end you have connected to the PSU. At the other end there are two connector pins sets, one with 2 pins that has a connector on it marked LED/RGB SW. Where does that cable go? I presume it connects to some button you push to change the displays, maybe your case's front panel Reset switch. Beside it there is a 4-pin connector marked PWM/DATA on the board. Where does that go? I suspect it ends in TWO separate connectors, one of which goes to a mobo SYS_FAN or CHA_FAN header. That is how it gets from the mobo the PWM signal to control fan speeds, and MAY be how it returns a fan speed to that header. The other connector on that should be a 3-pin female (with holes) connector for a mobo ARGB header. In fact, in the newer model, that cable has TWO connectors on its end, one each for two different types of mobo ARGB header, and you use the one that fits your mobo. HOWEVER, that can ONLY be done if you do have a 3-pin ARGB header. If you have no RGB header, or if your header is of the OTHER type with FOUR pins, you cannot use that. IF you have a 3-pin ARGB header, then you must plug that cable from the Hub into it.

Now, that still does not get you control of the lights immediately. The control signals the cable brings to the Hub are sent out of the mobo header by a lighting control software utility that came on the CD with your mobo - something like MSI Mystic Light, ASUS Aura Sync, or Gigabyte RGB Fusion. You have to install that tool and use it to send out control signals. If you do that, you do NOT need to use the pushbutton control system.

Now, the matter of fan speeds. Any fan header can deal with a speed signal sent back to it from only ONE fan. So any decent Hub will only send back the speed signal from ONE of its fans on ONE of its output ports, and ignore all the others. Your mobo will only be able to tell you that one fan's speed, and the others never will be "seen". I assume that the part of the cable from the PWM/DATA port on the Hub that does plug into a mobo fan header also carries back to that header one Hub fan signal, although that is NOT stated anywhere. But even if it is, then you need to figure out WHICH of the ten Hub output ports will send back its fan's signal. Only one of them can do that, and unfortunately there is no indication which. It MIGHT be one of the ports on the four corners of the Hub board. So, try to move one fan's connector around the Hub's ten ports, one port at a time, until you can "see" a fan speed shown for the particular mobo fan header you are connected to.

 

[mxwiese1]

First of all, does your mobo have a 3-pin Addressable RGB (ARGB or ADDR RGB) header? NOT the 4-pin plain RGB type, that is. I'm going to do a bit of guessing here because the Hub you have appears to be an older design, while Aerocool has a new model with a closed case and side ports that has some extra features maybe. Anyway, with the Hub you have, there's a power input cable at one end you have connected to the PSU. At the other end there are two connector pins sets, one with 2 pins that has a connector on it marked LED/RGB SW. Where does that cable go? I presume it connects to some button you push to change the displays, maybe your case's front panel Reset switch. Beside it there is a 4-pin connector marked PWM/DATA on the board. Where does that go? I suspect it ends in TWO separate connectors, one of which goes to a mobo SYS_FAN or CHA_FAN header. That is how it gets from the mobo the PWM signal to control fan speeds, and MAY be how it returns a fan speed to that header. The other connector on that should be a 3-pin female (with holes) connector for a mobo ARGB header. In fact, in the newer model, that cable has TWO connectors on its end, one each for two different types of mobo ARGB header, and you use the one that fits your mobo. HOWEVER, that can ONLY be done if you do have a 3-pin ARGB header. If you have no RGB header, or if your header is of the OTHER type with FOUR pins, you cannot use that. IF you have a 3-pin ARGB header, then you must plug that cable from the Hub into it.

Now, that still does not get you control of the lights immediately. The control signals the cable brings to the Hub are sent out of the mobo header by a lighting control software utility that came on the CD with your mobo - something like MSI Mystic Light, ASUS Aura Sync, or Gigabyte RGB Fusion. You have to install that tool and use it to send out control signals. If you do that, you do NOT need to use the pushbutton control system.

Now, the matter of fan speeds. Any fan header can deal with a speed signal sent back to it from only ONE fan. So any decent Hub will only send back the speed signal from ONE of its fans on ONE of its output ports, and ignore all the others. Your mobo will only be able to tell you that one fan's speed, and the others never will be "seen". I assume that the part of the cable from the PWM/DATA port on the Hub that does plug into a mobo fan header also carries back to that header one Hub fan signal, although that is NOT stated anywhere. But even if it is, then you need to figure out WHICH of the ten Hub output ports will send back its fan's signal. Only one of them can do that, and unfortunately there is no indication which. It MIGHT be one of the ports on the four corners of the Hub board. So, try to move one fan's connector around the Hub's ten ports, one port at a time, until you can "see" a fan speed shown for the particular mobo fan header you are connected to.

I'll go through your questions 1 by 1:
No, my mobo doesn't have a 3-pin ARGB, rather a 4-pin standard rgb header. Aerocool was supposed to include a 3-pin to 4-pin RGB connector and accidentally didn't put it in the box (waiting on a reply from Aerocool for a reppacement part). But honestly, the RGB thing doesn't bug me too much right now, since the hub offers a variety of RGB modes to choose from.

Concerning the LED / RGB SW, you would be correct in assuming that it connects to the front of the case for quick and easy control of the RGB modes.

You are also right in assuming the cable splits. The cable consists of one standard PWM 4-pin fan connector (which I can plug in) and the 3-pin ARGB connector, which I cannot plug in, hence why I am waiting for Aerocool to provide me a replacement 3-pin to 4-pin converter. After I get the converter, I will also install the RGB software, and in this case Aura Sync.

And finally regarding the fan hub, I just plugged one of the chassis fans into each of the ports and none of them made the motherboard recognize the fan hub, or rather, as you said, a singular fan.
Looking forward to your reply

 

[Paperdoc]

Sorry, but you are misunderstanding the RGB headers and types. There are basically TWO types of RGB lighting systems dominating the market now, and they are VERY different and incompatible. You cannot mix the two types in one circuit, and there is NO simple way (like a connection "adapter") to change one to the other.

The plain RGB system uses a 4-pin connector, and it contains one common 12 VDC power line and three separate Ground lines, one for each of the three basic LED colours. In the lighting device (e.g., a strip or a fan frame) all of the Red LED's are connected to their common Ground line, all of the Greens to theirs, etc. The controller (or mobo header) changes each of the three Ground lines to change the brightness of the corresponding LEDs all along the strip. So a large number of colours can be generated, but at any moment the entire strip is all the same colour.

The more complex Addressable RGB system uses a very similar connector but with one pin missing, so it's called a 3-pin system. They supply common +5 VDC and Ground lines, plus a Digital Control Line. Along the strip, the LED's are organized into Nodes. Each Node contains one LED each of the RGB colours plus a controller chip for that group only. The controller chips all have their own individual digital addresses and they all listen to the Control Line. The Controller (or mobo) sends out on the Control Line a series of instruction packets, each with an address for one Node, and each Node does only what its instructions say. Thus at any moment every Node group can be different colours and brightnesses, and you can get much more complex displays like rainbows or even rainbows chasing each other around.

Given the two major differences - the Voltage supplied, and the method of controlling the LED's along the strip - you can see that no adapter can convert one to the other. A real converter could be made, conceptually, to convert from a plain RGB signal system to ARGB, since any plain RGB pattern could be done by every Node along an ARGB strip. But you could not convert the other way. A converter from one display type to the other, though, would be no cheaper than simply buying a real Controller box for the system you want and using that.

Your fan Hub from Aerocool is designed for their fans with ARGB lighting systems in their frames. They can NOT be controlled by a plain RGB controller. Aerocool cannot supply you with an adapter to make it work that way. A caution here: some people have tried to make their own "adapter" with custom wiring, and the result usually is burned out LED's on the ARGB lights, ruining them.

From what you say, it appears the Hub does NOT send any fan speed signal back to the mobo header. For their other closed-in Hub model, the H66F, I note in the instructional video I found that the connector that goes to the mobo fan header is a 4-pin one with only TWO wires to the two END contact holes. Those two pins are the Ground and PWM lines, so there is NO connection to the mobo speed pin #3. I assume yours is the same, and that confirms you will never "see" any of those fan speeds.