Help ! Faulty ARGB controller on case ? XPG Battlecruiser

Tij303

Tij303

Tij303

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6 Jun 2020
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Building my first PC and in the initial power up phase. All looking good but the four case fans aren’t firing up - they came pre installed in the XPG case and I have connected the power to the PSU - which seems ok as its running the gpu and motherboard. Motherboard is a tomahawk x570 so has onboard rainbow and rgb stuff. I just want to get the fans working. I’ve also swapped things around and the sata drive is working etc. There aren’t any cables that I can see that would connect to the motherboard just the extenders and daisy chains. I think the fan wires all come pre connected ready to go so assuming it’s a power issue but there is nothing I can find online that gives any clarity - especially not XPG. I assume I can buy a controller and connect it up to the motherboard if I am stuck as I don’t want to tear it all down again Any advice would be welcome thanks ps tried to attach a pic of the connector to the psu there aren’t any other obvious ones from the front panel ..
 
No worries thanks for the suggestion. The connectors that are free are largely pins as they are on the motherboard. I must be doing something wrong somewhere but there seems so little info around particularly on this case - like I say I can probably work around it but I have an anxious 12 year old who wants to try it out !
 
I read the right review this time (was wrong case before) and it looks like you have to plug something that powers the fans into either the motherboard or PSU, in addition to the SATA power cable?
 
:D thanks so much for having a look for me I do appreciate the help ! Logic dictates that the spaghetti plate of wires to and from the fans are power (clearly I am not a rocket scientist) - I just thought they returned to the controller but as you say if they need an additional power supply then that’s a lead (pun intended) although so far they seem male to male if I try on the mb. There is a 2 pin connector that all the daisy chained fan wires seem to end up at maybe that goes somewhere just not sure where but thanks so far - it’s further than I have got !
 
It looks like ARGB fans normally terminate in a 4 pin PWM fan header, while the controller hub only connects and controls lighting, powered by a SATA cable. With fans, a 2 pin connector is often just a 3 pin missing a pin, used only for monitoring their RPM. I don't have any ARGB fans mind so I'm just going by pictures and videos.

https://youtu.be/sVkxpmGcmd4?t=442
 
Thanks again there are four distinct four and three pin leads coming from the controller that all have caps on - I’m thinking these need connecting to the power somehow and the daisy chain spaghetti stuff is linking them for the controller to alter the light shows etc. I’ll view the link though thanks again !
 
No worries :D It seems like there's often RGB cables that you can connect to the motherboard, from the controller, so that the motherboard can control their lights, so I would guess that at least some of these are optional?
 
Yep fairly certain I need to connect the four headers into a sort of adapter as per the video link you sent me and then into the motherboard - other than that I can’t believe how silent it is with the existing fans and everything seems to be working ok so just need to get them up and running and we are there. Many thanks again !
 
As per your suggestion there are optional cables - reading the various reviews - the four cables coming from the front controller supply three auxiliary connections and the fourth plugs into the fan daisy chain. This then lights up and controls the rgb lights on the four fans so result ! However the fans have two cables one for the connection as mentioned, the second is a strange two pin affair that I assume somehow goes to the motherboard or a power source. This is where I get stuck - the link you sent me suggests if they were three pin they can go to a reverse splitter but there are four fans to supply albeit daisy chained so hopefully one connector will do - just have to figure out where on the motherboard and what the connector looks like. But I’m further forward than I was so once again thanks and all the best !
 
Thanks yes I actually tried before but they didn’t post - I’ve just experimented as one of the four controller based cables ie the three pin one lights all four fans as long as you stick it in the right place on the chain. The connector just slots in and stays there too.
However I have just shoved the second three pin connector into the strange two pin female cable that has three holes and ... one of the fans set off spinning ! However they aren’t designed to be connected so I’m scratching my head as the configuration isn’t the same. In essence there seems to be sufficient power from the controller but why they don’t have matching connectors to power the fans as well seems bizarre.
 
With fans, not all the pins are necessary to either: power the fans, monitor the fans. Usually if there are missing pins you will lose one of these functions.
 
Thanks yes I understand that I suspect that the power leads with the odd two male/three female set up aren’t intended for the controller though even though they will run off that voltage. I tried further down the chain and it couldn’t turn more than one fan so won’t risk it - ideally if I can run the whole chain to the psu or the motherboard fan it should power it but it’s the challenge of finding a converter lead - I suppose I shouldn’t have expected it To be included with the Psu I’ll try and post a pic
 
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You are a star we have lift off ! It’s almost midnight where I am and I said to my wife I’m just nipping back to have another look this helpful PC person has sent some more images and something has triggered ! The strange two pin male connectors feed into a three pin daisy chain affair. The last image on the link you sent shows that the female three pins do fit the four pin motherboard fan connectors. Although they don’t reach easily in their current configuration I powered down the build, and was able to slot them in on little guiders I hadn’t noticed (they are tiny for my spade hands) and held my breath... powered up and all three front fans came to life - the front controller Still alters the lighting So all is good and tomorrow it’s all about tidying things up. I can’t thank you enough I’ve been at this for two solid days and was almost wishing I hadn’t tried to build. I’ve read, researched, googled and was missing the obvious but your help has been absolutely
Invaluable. Don’t know who or where you are but I owe you a pint thanks again !
 
Hello guys,I have the same case but with b550 aorus elite and the images you put isn't loading any help would be appreciated
 
I agree this RGB stuff caught me out this last week.

I dont normally go for this RGB malarkey and I've just upgraded/built two PC's for my son/nephew with RGB fans and I didnt realise there are two types.

ARGB
RGB

ARGB fans are 5v and RGB is 12v.
ARGB in PC cases often use a SATA or Molex for power, then have a 4 pin plug (with one of the middle blocked off) making it a 3 pin plug, with a 3 pin socket to daisychain this connects to either a Motherboard ARGB socket for software control or a controller box for manual button control.

RGB fans have a 4 pin plug containing both the RGB signal and the 12v on the fourth pin. These are usually software controlled.
ARGB is not compatible with RGB and vicer versa.

Unless....

You buy a controller hub which converts the 3 pin ARGB to a 4 pin RGB (which is what I did) so you can use them with Motherboards which have RGB pin socket only.
Some motherboards also have ARGB 3 pin socket and 4 pin RGB at same time.

Also ARGB fans are not usually speed controlled out of the box, RGB fans are off the motherboard.

Very confusing. This is why I dont bother much with colorful fans if mine are thats fine but I dont go out of my way for RGB bling.

Was never like this in my younger days. :)
 
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