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RGB fans killed my $1000 motherboard. Dream build failed.

OGSnow
Level 7
Hi.

I have been putting a dream build together since october last year. 6950X, 2080Ti Hall of Fame, the works.
Was super excited, did tons of research cuz it was to be my first time building it myself. You already know
How that worked out by the title but, please, hear me out cuz this depressed me so much i've cried a couple times.

Okay, so, the research, i did tons of it. Like i said. I'm a paranoid person by nature so some tiny details can tick me off
and i don't know what to do with it. Some times its so silly people outright won't respond. Same with the case of the RGB
Luckily i have heard of mobos being killed by RGB fans, i read some cases out there. So i asked around. Got 2 or 3 replies.
Basically it is "perfectly fine" and that fans draw very little energy. By far not enough to killed a board. Specially a high-end board.
Which makes sense yet somehow still happened to some people. I was confused. Didn't know what to trust. And the more
parts i was buying and it was arriving the more excited and anxious i got of firing it up and see all of its glory. So i decided to
Shove my paranoia aside and "just do it". I'll summarize cuz its very long. Fans would spin but not light up, sometimes
would not spin at all. Sometimes half of them would spin. Got them to spin and light up and all went down hill from there.
Only some fans were responding to settings change on software. Then a few more started responding out of nowhere.
Then software started spitting out fan and controller error rapidfire style, then, lights out. Entirely. Like, literally.
The entire system, on desktop with only 1 program opened, freshly installed windows went immediately and totally dark.
Like flipping a light switch. My heart skipped several beats. I just stare at it speechless for a few seconds. Foolishly pressed the power button
on case thinking it was going to magically turn on after that. Naturally it didn't. I did the troubleshooting after i calmed down a bit.
The board is dead. It would normally light up even when not technically on like pressing the power button or start on the board and show
its glorious rgb lighting. Now its just all gone... You see, not only was this a long-coming, dream project, it was also majorly expensive around 7k.
Needless to say, i'm short on cash at the moment. And the board is a Rampage V Edition 10 #RiP that costed me $1000 and the person i bought it from
(sealed) only covers manufacturer defects and stuff like that (warranties aren't good in my country maybe that's why high-end parts don't sell well here). Not something done by the buyer. I installed 8 rgb fans, they kill the board, therefore, to him, i killed the board. So i'm left with nothing.
Idk what to do right now. All excitement was drained out of me. Feel depressed. Like it was my fault not trusting my instinct that 8 rgb fans
would kill the board like it did with other people out there. "just do it" just killed it. Or maybe building it myself was a bad idea. Tho where i live
finding someone that actually knows their stuff and not only pretend they do, is rare. And that's it, i guess. Waited months
and months for this failure. People say building a PC is easy. In all honesty, i might continue the build, MIGHT, after some time to clear my head. but even IF that were to happen what am supposed to do right after i spend another $1000 on a new board? Just re-plug everything so the fans can get a double-kill score? I don't think so. Try doing it myself again? I certainly don't trust my myself after this. Scour the entire country for someone actually knowledgeable about tech and modern pc parts and pay them to do it for me? Pff. I have more luck betting that my board will resurrect itself than that i'd find such a person.

Thank you for hearing my rant. Whether you felt sorry for me or laughed at me due to the massive failure that i am. I know, its pathetic. But it is what it is.
Have a good day, cuz i'm certainly not having one.
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25 REPLIES 25

OGSnow wrote:
I thought the same. They were behaving super weird and really took me for a loop as i was following manual of the fans and hub..

Not precisely, i'd press once, it would light up, then power down after a few seconds, then i'd press a second time, the same would repeat, 3rd time would make it boot properly, i wasn't spamming the power button. I'd only press it once, let the PC do its thing, and only press again once it was powered down

The power cable seems fine. Its a new one. I had to buy a new one cuz my old one is capable of less amperage (my old rig) plus i predicted issues and that i'd need my old rig and didn't want plug and unplug the psu all the time.

Yea i'm only using the cables from the RMi that came. I don't have any other modular cables available so i couldn't even if i wanted to


I wasn't suggesting you were mashing the power button over and over. I wanted to clarify that after the computer attempted to power up, it did not shut down and then automatically (try to) re-start again. (A MOBO will do that sometimes, like after making RAM timing changes). Rather, it would try to power up, shut down, and you had to push the power button again for anything to happen.

Anyway, good to hear that you can take it somewhere and get it tested. I really think you are going to find out that it's the power supply or something annoyingly simple like a pushed in or poorly crimped pin in the ATX 24-pin connector. The erratic behavior of the fans and LEDs I think is a separate problem that is probably not related to the failure. I have never used TT RGB products or software, but if you were seeing a bunch of errors in the software and the fans/LEDs were acting strange, then its a fair bet that there is a problem, but I don't think it caused the overall failure.

You said you have 2 TT hubs with 4 fans in each, with the TT "Bridge" cable connected between them. Once you get the main problem fixed, I would try disconnecting the 2nd TT hub and the bridge cable. See if you can get 4 fans on 1 hub to work properly. Then disconnect the 1st hub and test the 2nd hub with its 4 fans.

Also, the TT hub plugs into a USB port on the MOBO, then a bridge cable connects TT hub #1 to TT Hub #2. Did you also connect TT hub #2 to a USB port on the MOBO? Its not clear from their crappy instructions, but if the 2nd TT hub is not supposed to plug into a USB port on the MOBO (because of the bridge cable), I could see where if it was connected to a USB port, it may confuse the software and cause erratic operation. This is speculation but I would review that wiring carefully.

Good Luck!

BillBittel wrote:
I wasn't suggesting you were mashing the power button over and over. I wanted to clarify that after the computer attempted to power up, it did not shut down and then automatically (try to) re-start again. (A MOBO will do that sometimes, like after making RAM timing changes). Rather, it would try to power up, shut down, and you had to push the power button again for anything to happen.

Anyway, good to hear that you can take it somewhere and get it tested. I really think you are going to find out that it's the power supply or something annoyingly simple like a pushed in or poorly crimped pin in the ATX 24-pin connector. The erratic behavior of the fans and LEDs I think is a separate problem that is probably not related to the failure. I have never used TT RGB products or software, but if you were seeing a bunch of errors in the software and the fans/LEDs were acting strange, then its a fair bet that there is a problem, but I don't think it caused the overall failure.

You said you have 2 TT hubs with 4 fans in each, with the TT "Bridge" cable connected between them. Once you get the main problem fixed, I would try disconnecting the 2nd TT hub and the bridge cable. See if you can get 4 fans on 1 hub to work properly. Then disconnect the 1st hub and test the 2nd hub with its 4 fans.

Also, the TT hub plugs into a USB port on the MOBO, then a bridge cable connects TT hub #1 to TT Hub #2. Did you also connect TT hub #2 to a USB port on the MOBO? Its not clear from their crappy instructions, but if the 2nd TT hub is not supposed to plug into a USB port on the MOBO (because of the bridge cable), I could see where if it was connected to a USB port, it may confuse the software and cause erratic operation. This is speculation but I would review that wiring carefully.

Good Luck!


Really hope so even tho i sort of doubt it... I bet my mobo and psu are dead but i've been wrong before, here's hoping i'll be again lol

No i use the bridge precisely so i wouldn't need to waste 2 usb ports on the hubs. If i can get the main issue fixed (you can sense that optimism lol) i'll probably ditch those fans. People recommended others, like corsair ones that supposedly can be controlled (rpm and rgb) without any connection to the mobo just sata power from psu and their iCue software and costumer support is far better than TT's i was told. So i might look for that in the future.

JimmyH
Level 10
Snow,

I have no idea how this could kill your mobo. I have eight TT fans and a cooler. The fans operate totally seperate to the cooler. I ditched the hubs that came with the RGB Fan Packs and used the TT synch controller premium edition. You don't get the TT's many lighting options, but the fans all synch to the mobo. https://www.thermaltake.com/Cooler/Cooling_Accessory_/Fan_Controller/C_00003143/TT_Sync_Controller_T...

Those errors are only for the RGB, your fans should have still been connected to the fan headers.

What cooler is connected to your CPU header?

Are you sure you didn't have a short somewhere with one of your plugs? And are you sure your mobo is dead?

I know you are a perfectionist and all, so am I, but I had a dodgy 24 pin, one of the pins had recessed slightly. Have you checked that you have power to the board??

JimmyH wrote:
Snow,

I have no idea how this could kill your mobo. I have eight TT fans and a cooler. The fans operate totally seperate to the cooler. I ditched the hubs that came with the RGB Fan Packs and used the TT synch controller premium edition. You don't get the TT's many lighting options, but the fans all synch to the mobo. https://www.thermaltake.com/Cooler/Cooling_Accessory_/Fan_Controller/C_00003143/TT_Sync_Controller_T...

Those errors are only for the RGB, your fans should have still been connected to the fan headers.

What cooler is connected to your CPU header?

Are you sure you didn't have a short somewhere with one of your plugs? And are you sure your mobo is dead?

I know you are a perfectionist and all, so am I, but I had a dodgy 24 pin, one of the pins had recessed slightly. Have you checked that you have power to the board??


The fans were connected through the hub, the TT software didn't recognize some of 'em. The error seemed legit as not all were spinning, lighting up nor responding to settings change on TT software. Could only find 5 fans on TT software if i recall correctly and only 2 were responding to settings change meanwhile the software spitting out controller and fan error

That sync controller is not for sale in my country unfortunately

There is a Noctua D15 in the cpu fan header

The mobo behaves dead i'm not 100% certain that it is, however. Sure looks like it tho. Will know for certain once i'm able to take the PC to the place i mentioned and test every part out

If the there's something wrong with the 24pin i have no idea, will also be tested

JimmyH
Level 10
Any update mate????

JimmyH wrote:
Any update mate????


Yes, in fact. Sorry about that. Dealing with the aftermath of it and ended up forgetting to update here altho i doubt it'll help anyone.

Turns out, my mobo is indeed dead. My cpu too. Oh and also my psu (RMi 850). All the rest is seemingly fine.
"But what happened?" 2 socket pins from the mobo were damaged. One was outright missing (took a trip somewhere and got lost i guess)
And the other was somehow soldered or stuck onto the cpu itself. Both are unusable. I was shown through a magnifying glass thingy
Cuz to naked eye is almost impossible to see without putting your eye half an inch to the cpu.
So, i was wrong. It wasn't the rgb fans that killed the mobo. Tho i wish that was the issue. Would've been far less disastrous.
As it stands, its about $2500 worth of hardware destroyed.

I can't afford to replace the exact same hardware. 6950X are gone. The only ones left are with outrageous prices. Almost twice what i paid for the first one. The mobo (rampage v edition 10) is also at a higher price. While that specific cpu was a long coming dream of mine, i cannot afford another one, at a almost doubled price. So, once things settle down a bit, will make a jump to the x299 platform instead where cpus are less expensive and perhaps equal performance. Currently am thinking on a 7820X, Asus Prime/Deluxe/Rog Strix and EVGA G2 850 cuz better than that i cannot reach financially. And even those, will take a bit of time.

Next time, however, won't be building it myself that's for sure. Won't risk it again. Too much money for rookie hands. Will pay a professional to do it. (if i can find one that is)