When I first put my computer together, I noticed that the blue LEDs for the fans in my case were pulsating when they should have been emitting a steady beam of light. I couldn’t figure out what the problem was and it didn’t seem to have an impact on performance, so I just left it on for a while.
The flicker has gotten more intense lately and I thought it might finally be worth looking at. The results were really interesting and I found several possible causes of the problem and their corresponding solutions.
# 3 – Re-initialize the drivers
The most common problem with flickering LED fan lights is a driver issue that is easy to fix. If all the fans on the motherboard are blinking the same, then the problem might be with the motherboard and its software.
To reinitialize drivers (Windows 10) you just need to go to Device Manager and then select the dropdown menu for Universal Serial Bus controllers. Everyone will have their own host controller name, but my name is AMD USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller – 1.0 (Microsoft) . Other names you may see include ASMedia USB 3.x or Intel USB 3.x.
All you have to do is uninstall that driver (or an equivalent driver for your installation). Once removed, the light on your fan will go out, which is normal. Right click on Universal Serial Bus Controllers, then click Scan for Hardware Changes and the drivers will be reinitialized and the LEDs will turn on again.
If that doesn’t affect the flickering lights, there might be an issue with the amount of electricity supplied to each fan, leading us to the next fix.
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# 2 – Lower BIOS voltages and adjust fan speeds
Another very common LED flickering issue is also related to the motherboard fan controller. It either doesn’t get enough power or it doesn’t deliver enough power.
A simple solution to this problem is to boot into your computer’s BIOS and adjust the voltages in various parts of your computer to provide more power for the fans. An example of this would be resetting overclocking to the native clock speed of the processor, which in turn consumes less power.
Another solution is to adjust the fan speed. Instead of running the fans at maximum power, try running them at 75% (and vice versa). Try it for all the shimmery fans. In this regard, it is also known that creating specific fan profiles for each individual fan solves the problem.
Reducing the fan speed will reduce the load on each fan, which will increase the system energy. Since my machine is consuming a lot of power for my overclocked cpu, this was a fix that stabilized the lighting of my fans.
# 1 – Unstable Energy System
Another very common cause of this issue is the power supply is not providing enough power for all of your fans and their LEDs. The only way to really fix this problem is to upgrade your PSU. Each fan requires 12V to function properly, so if you have an old PSU this might be your problem.
Also, if you are using any fan splitter and it shares the motherboard connection with another fan, the fan will not receive the minimum amount of power required.
If each fan is plugged into their respective ports and they are still not receiving enough power (blinking persists), then the only step to take is to upgrade the PSU. This will properly power the fans and significantly extend the life of your computer.
I hope these fixes helped, and if the other solution helped you, let me know what you did and I can check it too. If you have any questions, ask them in the comments below!
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