How do I turn on the LED's on my older (airflow) LED fans in an NZXT phantom Full tower usb 3.0 case

Dóminion · 2 Jun 2016 at 17:06

So let's set the scene. I recently managed to acquire a number of fans for my phantom case after contacting NZXT' Support Centre. I ended up contacting them in the first instance because it seems that the orange FZ LED fans have been discontinued making it difficult to source them. After a week I received a parcel from them containing a number of reconditioned orange LED fans. All these fans seem to be the older airflow models of the LED variety. Suffice to say I was pleased.

Cut to yesterday and my good luck has come to an end. I decided to install all my new fans. I hooked them all up to the appropriate molex connectors and then powered up. Just one orange fan came on.

I turned the system off and then took a look at the wires and found the route of the problem. It appears that each LED fan has a 3 pin power cable and also a separate LED controller cable which is a 2 pin female connector. The Phantom original case that I own has a switch on the rear of the case, but this only has one male 2 pin connector. Suffice to say I can only plug one fan in at a time.

Now I've spent a lot of time digging around to find a solution to this problem, but so far I've found very little that helps. I don't particularly want to start rewiring my case and sort of hoped there was an actual solution out there.

What little I have found suggests that for other fans such as the BitFenix line, jumper cables are included to turn the fans permanently on or off, but these can also be attached to a controller of switch. I don't know if NZXT fans come with a jumper and the reconditioned ones I was sent certainly didn't seem to.

So as you can see I'm sort of stuck. If anyone has any input into this problem or has come across it before, please let me know. Any help is appreciated.

And yes I have already contacted the NZXT support centre again regarding this, but I don't expect an immediate response from them and I always find mutiple avenues of investigation turns up more.

Thanks again.

Bone9 · 2 Jun 2016 at 17:35

I've just been through the exact same problem as you mate. They sent me a fan also but for months I've been trying to get them to send me the correct splitter for the switch with no joy.

They sent me 2 fan controllers on separate occasions! And just recently a few different wires and plugs. I've managed to make my own splitter from the latest bits they sent me.

This is what you need...

Dóminion · 2 Jun 2016 at 19:03

Thanks for the input. That sounds like a painful process so far. I thought a splitter might be an idea, but I've yet to find one for sale and I also read somewhere that you can only have a max of 2 fans on the switch. I have 7 led fans now. So if that's true I'm stuffed. And to be honest I just want to turn them on. I don't mind if I can't turn them off. It's just that by default they are off which is odd in itself. I mean the LEDs are actually powered by the 3 pin Molex connector presently as far as I can tell

I'm finding it really surprising that not many people have reported this problem and that NZXT don't have a proper solution to what seems to me a very obvious flaw in their case design. If you advertisements showing a case filled with LED fans, you should expect people will want to fill that case with LED fans. The one male connector seems like a huge oversight to me.

Can I be cheeky and ask how many fans you are connecting and also if you had to make that splitter yourself. Was any soldering required?

Bone9 · 2 Jun 2016 at 19:18

Dóminion said:
Thanks for the input. That sounds like a painful process so far. I thought a splitter might be an idea, but I've yet to find one for sale and I also read somewhere that you can only have a max of 2 fans on the switch. I have 7 led fans now. So if that's true I'm stuffed. And to be honest I just want to turn them on. I don't mind if I can't turn them off. It's just that by default they are off which is odd in itself. I mean the LEDs are actually powered by the 3 pin Molex connector presently as far as I can tell

I'm finding it really surprising that not many people have reported this problem and that NZXT don't have a proper solution to what seems to me a very obvious flaw in their case design. If you advertisements showing a case filled with LED fans, you should expect people will want to fill that case with LED fans. The one male connector seems like a huge oversight to me.

Can I be cheeky and ask how many fans you are connecting and also if you had to make that splitter yourself. Was any soldering required?

It was a nightmare, they have no idea what I was talking about even with pictures and details of where it comes from etc. My splitter only comes with the large fans for the roof but as they sent me one that had no box it didn't come with any accessories.

I only have the top 2 large fans on the switch so I can turn the leds off by the switch on the rear.

The rest of the fans in my case are non led. But for a while I had a nzxt 140mm blue led fan in the front and that was permanently on as soon as the 2pin power lead was plugged in.

The splitter that I made was soldered yes but it was very easy to do once they sent me the right plugs.

What fans have you got and what ones are you using?

Tealc · 2 Jun 2016 at 20:01

I thought those fans had a looped wire to basically close the circuit for the power to the led.

So one could easily modify a fan so the wires are shorted out?

Dóminion · 2 Jun 2016 at 20:10

It was a nightmare, they have no idea what I was talking about even with pictures and details of where it comes from etc. My splitter only comes with the large fans for the roof but as they sent me one that had no box it didn't come with any accessories.

I only have the top 2 large fans on the switch so I can turn the leds off by the switch on the rear.

The rest of the fans in my case are non led. But for a while I had a nzxt 140mm blue led fan in the front and that was permanently on as soon as the 2pin power lead was plugged in.

The splitter that I made was soldered yes but it was very easy to do once they sent me the right plugs.

What fans have you got and what ones are you using?

So I have the stock 200mm fan. I also have 3 120mm fans of the same variety but in orange. They are NZXT FN-120's as far as I can tell. I also have one other 200mm fan (performance variety) which was sent that is different from the stock one. I'm not certain what fan it is to be honest. All I know is that it set up exactly like the others. By default the light is off and it works as an LED fan once plugged into to the 2 pin connector and the switch is set to the on position. I also currently have a non LED fan soon to be replaced by an LED one (NZXT FZ-140 AIRFLOW ORANGE LED FAN).

That's a real shame to hear. To be honest I wish I'd have waited at the time and then opted for one of the later models of their cases along with newer fans. I feel like I made a mistake with this case now.

Anyway I'm waiting now, but I'm not certain I'll get an immediate response. The last time I contacted them, they answered quickly but then never responded to any of my other queries in that same call. They just sent the fans and that was it.

Dóminion · 2 Jun 2016 at 20:17

I thought those fans had a looped wire to basically close the circuit for the power to the led.

So one could easily modify a fan so the wires are shorted out?

I was under the impression this may be the case. I thought there may be jumpers for them, but I can't find evidence of this. As I was given the fans, without any sort of boxing or accessories by NZXT I'm not sure these exist and I definitely don't have them if they do.

My abilities in the area of soldering and messing with electronics are sorely lacking these days too. I really was hoping for a more obvious solution. I'm not exactly certain how one would go about shorting them? Would I just wire one pin to the other on the female 2 pin connector attached to the fan?

Bone9 · 2 Jun 2016 at 20:39

The case if fine mate, just the same as others. Your new fan will light up as soon as you plug it in.

Just cut the plug off the others and connect the 2 wires together and they should light up.

Dóminion · 2 Jun 2016 at 21:24

The case if fine mate, just the same as others. Your new fan will light up as soon as you plug it in.

Just cut the plug off the others and connect the 2 wires together and they should light up.

From further research it looks as though NZXT shipped splitters for the switch with the 200mm fans. It seems that these splitters only allow 2 LED's on at the same time. You can daisy chain these. However the LED's stay on all the time then, which sort of defeats the purpose of the button.

From what I've read elsewhere it may be possible to rewire all the fans and daisy chain them to the button, but to be honest I don't really care about that. So I will look into your suggestion about cutting the wires to short circuit them. I'll see what NZXT say though. I'm not confident in their response however. I still can't believe that there isn't a more elegant solution though.

Bone9 · 2 Jun 2016 at 21:28

That is your best bet. Have the top 2 on a switch and the others permanently on. Good luck with nzxt their useless.

Was it Dominic you have been talking to?

Dóminion · 2 Jun 2016 at 21:45

That is your best bet. Have the top 2 on a switch and the others permanently on. Good luck with nzxt their useless.

Was it Dominic you have been talking to?

Haha, thanks. Yeah it was! Fancy that. He started ignoring me after about 3 days. Haven't heard from him since.

Bone9 · 2 Jun 2016 at 21:47

Ha ha yeah he started to ignore me to, then I just had some wires turn up after about 6 weeks of no contact!

Dóminion · 3 Jun 2016 at 16:38

Bone9 said:
Ha ha yeah he started to ignore me to, then I just had some wires turn up after about 6 weeks of no contact!

Well I've yet to hear from him yet. Initially I was quite pleased with their customer service, but that initial impression isn't lasting.

Regarding the mod for the 120mm fans. Am I right in thinking I either need to remove the 2 pin female connector and join the two leads that are left or can I short the connector with a piece of wire running from one socket to the other? Any idea's. I'd ask for a schematic of the fan from NZXT but I'm not sure I'd get one.

Bone9 · 3 Jun 2016 at 18:50

Yeah just try shorting it first. If it works do a proper job.

Dóminion · 19 Jun 2016 at 03:39

Bone9 said:
Yeah just try shorting it first. If it works do a proper job.

So yeah I guess an update is in order. I managed to use a jumper wire on each 2 pin female socket attached to the fan. The fans now light up!

Still no response from NZXT though. You're right they don't even understand the problem even though I've explained it several times. They just seem to be trying to fob me off. *grumble grumble* Thanks for all the help though.

Bone9 · 19 Jun 2016 at 09:00

Dóminion said:
So yeah I guess an update is in order. I managed to use a jumper wire on each 2 pin female socket attached to the fan. The fans now light up!

Still no response from NZXT though. You're right they don't even understand the problem even though I've explained it several times. They just seem to be trying to fob me off. *grumble grumble* Thanks for all the help though.

Glad you got it sorted in the end mate