Just bought a Corsair Carbide 500 R cabinet yesterday and was pretty excited about it upgrading from old Cooler Master Elite to it. Well, just as life has a way of screwing you especially when you suddenly feel all good about everything, I have a problem with the stock fans not working at all. Yes, I know the fan controller and connections are a bit weird with this cabinet but I think I have hooked it up all correctly and it still don't work. Here's what I did: 1. Connected the 2 front intake fans to the splitter wire coming from the front 2. Connected the side fan wire to the 2nd wire coming from the front 3. Connected the molex wire coming from the front to one of the smps cables I switch it on and nothing happens. Everything else works fine - I have USB3 front working, audio ports in front working but this damn fan controller does squat. I have a feeling the molex is defective and the front fan controller just doesn't work. To add to my woes, the fan connectors have weird ports and I am not able to connect them to my motherboard so basically, I do not have any of the stock fans working (except the rear exhaust which thankfully had a standard 3-pin connector). Right now I have a build which is actually worse than my old CM Elite thanks to no airflow I have mailed my dealer/distributer for replacement but that is a cumbersome process as well where I live :-/ Can someone help me out here and let me know if there is something I can do correctly (if I am doing it wrong) and provide some pointers to trouble shoot it?
Do the case lights work? It sounds like you have connected it up wrong but I can't remember, so I'll have to open mine up and check for you.
Yeah, man - they work fine. Power button, reset button, hdd led, hd audio - usually this is where people make mistakes but I got them all up and working! The fan controller has a molex connector and I read this online that it has to be connected with the smps else the fans wont power up. Have done that but they still dont Tried fiddling around with the buttons in the front for fan speed and LED on the fans too but nothing - guess that will come in the picture once the damn things actually start spinning!
When you say the case lights work I mean the fans lights, both the front two and the side fan, it's the button next to the fan controller?
No, the fan lights dont work at all. The Pwr button, HDD LED light, Front USB3, Headphone ports - they work. Fan controller & Fan LED Button - don't work. I was under the impression that both fan controller (that slider thingie) and the Fan LED button are powered by the molex connector. Is that not the case?
I had a quick look around and had a hard time working out how I had plugged them in because there are so many cables and the Corsair quick start guide was laughably bad. So the small 3-pin fan connectors, which look like this: http://cwsmgmt.corsair.com/media/Blogs/h100i_install/2013-02-06_16-18-43_212.jpg The cable which the fans connect to, is that attached to the molex connector which has a thin wire going up into the top of the case? EDIT: And yes they both are powered by the molex connector, I just can't see where I've plugged them in. EDIT 2: Just had another look and can now see the connectors I'm talking about come from the top of the case the same as molex connector with 1234 written on them with the two thin wires. The one that the fans plug into is the cable with 3 of these http://oi39.tinypic.com/1zx74no.jpg. So what you should have is the molex connected to a one of your molex connectors from the PSU and each of the 3 fans attached to the 3-pin connectors. Assuming you have done all that and it still doesn't work, then I would suggest looking at where all the cables are connected to the front I/O to make sure the there aren't any lose connections there.
I am sorry but I dont think I quite understand what you are trying to say here.I see 3 wires coming out of the front connector: 1. Wire 1 is a splitter wire with two 3 pin connector heads - I have connected my front intake fan wires to this one. 2. Wire 2 is a single wire with a 3 pin connector head - think this should connect to the side fan wire. For now, I have not connected the side fan. 3. Wire 3 is the one having a molex at the end. I connect this to any of the SMPS wires hoping it will give the power but it doesnt work. Now I dont see any way to join the molex wire with any of the other 2 wires. All 3 wires are coming from the front port so I am assuming whatever circuitry required for all 3 wires to work is there. Hope I am able to clarify my setup and problem?
How do I check the connections in the front I/O? I dont see any way to access it. Its hidden under the top and I dont want to break anything to open and get to it. Can you please provide me a tutorial or walkthrough of how I can check the connections of the cables in the front port?
Ok, just had a proper look around to see all the cables and what you are saying is indeed correct, so I would check the front connections as from what I can see they are easily accessible (unless you have a dvd drive like me!) so you should be able to check for a loose cable. Failing that then there is probably a fault. EDIT: If you go to it from inside the case rather than outside I can see the connectors.
If you do need to take it completely off to access all the cables, it's not very hard, you just take off the front panel like you would to clean the fans and then there are two screws on either side of the front I/O and it just pops out. There are 4 metal clips on the corners of the front panel which hold it in so just pull it off evenly rather than bending it from one side. If you feel under the bottom of it there is perfectly shaped hole where you can pull it off from.
I can see the connections if I shine a torch there but dont think I can do much there as I am barely able to reach it with any of my fingers. Really had a deeply disappointing experience with Corsair and not sure if I ll go for there ****ty products ever again. Also, I read online that in case you plan to replace these stock fans with your own, you will not be able to use the fan controller for them as the 3 pin connectors here are proprietory and any others wont work. This case seems to have been a big mistake!
Ah just saw your response on how to open the front connector. Will give it a try - just hope i dont break anything :|
Just opened it and I think all wires seem to be attached to it. Seems like a faulty case only. Hate Corsair... damn ****heads dont even get their products QA tested.
I'm sorry to hear that. I understand your frustration but there are always going to be some things which are DOA no matter who it's made by, hopefully they resolve it quickly though.
yeah man, thanks for the help though. Hopefully it gets resolved soon and I am back to being a happy customer.
Corsair support will be sending me the front i/o panel and not replacing the entire case. I know you have explained the steps above on how to open but could you do me a favor and put in a video of how I can take it out and replace it with the new one they will be sending? I tried looking online but could not find one. Thanks in advance.. would really appreciate it!
Sorry you had the issue. Looks like our support team has you fixed up. If you have any further difficulties, please let me know and I'll help out.
