Computer Repair: An RGB Issue

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Author’s Note: Apologies for the low quality photos in this post, as I only thought of writing a blog post after I had finished with it, so the only photos I had were from my phone, taken for the PC owner’s reference.

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Intro:

This is the first instalment of the Computer Repair series, where I’ll document some of the PC repairs that I’ve worked on! I don’t usually get PC issues, so these posts may be infrequent. However, it helps to have these documented for not just my own future reference, but also for anyone else who may be reading to follow along if they have similar issues.

Okay, enough yapping! What’s wrong with this thing?

Well, take a look at the video below:

We can see 2 of the front fans and the exhaust fan are flashing like Christmas lights on steroids, with the top of the front fans not even lit, despite receiving power and spinning. Despite this however, the two AIO fans on the top of the case and the RAM sticks are functioning perfectly.

As an obvious next step, I tested the RGB button on the case that the fans were hooked up to:

At around the 36 second mark, you can see the RGB actually syncs up almost perfectly when the colour is pure white. While I don’t know for sure what exactly this entails, I find it a rather interesting point to note. White is a unique colour when it comes to RGB, and some fans even use separate white LEDs to get the colour right, instead of simply blasting all three colours which sometimes results in a tinted white colour instead of a pure white.

White lights aside, we note that the button is working fine, along with the AIO and front panel logo RGB. The RAM is separately controlled via the motherboard. While many choose to chain their fans up to the motherboard’s ARGB headers for maximum controllability, others find it more convenient to simply have them wired to a hub controlled by a physical button. Upon inspection of the wiring, I noted that this case was assembled with the latter configuration. That ruled out any issues with the hub itself, since it worked perfectly with AIO fans and front panel.

But what about the connections to the individual fans? Unplugging each of the fans individually, I tested each connection.

Well that was easy…

The top front panel fan seems to be the culprit here, causing the rest of the fans to glitch out their RGB. Simply disconnecting it from the hub solved the issue, no additional work required. That must’ve been one of my fastest repairs!

The Conclusion

Having identified and isolated the issue, I’ve gone ahead to purchase a replacement fan. When it arrives next week, I’ll have it installed and tested to make sure it’s working as intended. I’ll also offer to rewire the fans and hook them up to the motherboard’s ARGB header to allow software control instead of the hardware button, which is, in my opinion, quite limiting. But that’s just down to a matter of personal taste.

Thanks for reading through this post! I hope to release more soon, as I’ve got quite a few more stories to tell…but that’s for another time.

Again, apologies for the amateur videography featured in this blog post. Expect better quality photos to accompany other blog posts, as these were just quick snaps I had taken for the owner, and certainly isn’t my usual standard for blog photos.

Thanks again for reading, and until next time!