Lian-Li Refuse Warranty over dying RGBs Lights

[Frizz]

How are they all powered?

https://lian-li.com/product/uni-hub-sl-controller/ using this, each connected to a separate SATA power

 

[Upgrayedd]

https://lian-li.com/product/uni-hub-sl-controller/ using this, each connected to a separate SATA power

You use an individual cable for each one correct? Not daisy chained power

 

[Frizz]

You use an individual cable for each one correct? Not daisy chained power

I think its spread 2 different sata power cables from the PSU

 

[Upgrayedd]

I think your not hooked up totally right. I can see if you had one fan go bad but that's like all of them. Either a controller or something is bad or you've powered them insufficiently.
This isn't just poor quality diodes used by lian li.

 

[Frizz]

I think your not hooked up totally right. I can see if you had one fan go bad but that's like all of them. Either a controller or something is bad or you've powered them insufficiently.
This isn't just poor quality diodes used by lian li.

So youre suggesting to use an entire one of these just for a single controller?

Furthermore, Lian-Li suggests it can handle up to 64 fans daisy chained.. what youre suggesting for proper use is beyond the manual, I dont see how a 1000HX Platinum is unable to provide sufficient power.. the fans also did not fail all at the same time but overtime from within 2 to 4 weeks of use to now which is a year later.

 

[Upgrayedd]

So youre suggesting to use an entire one of these just for a single controller?

Furthermore, Lian-Li suggests it can handle up to 64 fans daisy chained.. what youre suggesting for proper use is beyond the manual, I dont see how a 1000HX Platinum is unable to provide sufficient power.. the fans also did not fail all at the same time but overtime from within 2 to 4 weeks of use to now which is a year later.



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You're confusing the 64 fans part. That's 4 groups of 4 (16 MAX).

I imagine your pulling too many amps through a sata cable with static white and killing your diodes prematurely with heat. That's my guess as to why they say no to static white without sufficient power. Do they feel warm?

 

[Frizz]

You're confusing the 64 fans part. That's 4 groups of 4 (16 MAX).

I imagine your pulling too many amps through a sata cable with static white and killing your diodes prematurely with heat. That's my guess as to why they say no to static white without sufficient power. Do they feel warm?

Cant really check but ill make sure the replacements are setup on separate cables see how it goes, thanks for the tip.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Cant really check but ill make sure the replacements are setup on separate cables see how it goes, thanks for the tip.

Why can't you check? Open the panel and put the back of your hand on one.

 

[Frizz]

Why can't you check? Open the panel and put the back of your hand on one.

I appreciate your help with attempting to pin the root cause however I am at work and last thing I want to do is open a back panel when I get home and spend anymore time and energy on this as it will make no difference. I followed what little documentation Lian Li had regarding installation this certainly wasnt a part of it but for preventions sake I'll ensure to try putting the hubs on separate SATA power lines once I get the replacements.

The issue remains none of this is documented on their website, manual nor any guidelines are in existence for the above mentioned. The fans are installed as per their instruction/leaflet with the issue present. So again this remains a concern for lian li fan owners who are trying to claim warranty as the first thing the rep said, dont use peak brightness, this is normal behaviour with no actual supporting documentation.

I work as an account manager for a PC giant and I can tell you this is really bad practice regardless of the root cause.

 

[MarsM4N]

I think your not hooked up totally right. I can see if you had one fan go bad but that's like all of them. Either a controller or something is bad or you've powered them insufficiently.
This isn't just poor quality diodes used by lian li.

If it where a insufficient power connection they would all be dimmed down, plus the fans would loose power first. My bet Lian Li just cut corners and used the cheapest Chinese LED's they could get their hands on. Companies just cutting corners on every end in the current market conditions. Quality & QA is nose diving across the (tech) board, forums are full of examples.

Lession learned. Buy from a different company.

 

[joemama]

Which one is actually fading? If you are requesting them to replace your fans with these images, of course they would reject you.

 

[Frizz]

Which one is actually fading? If you are requesting them to replace your fans with these images, of course they would reject you.

Lian Li are used to the yellow color to look for, I also sent them a 4K video, for this threads sake look at the fans they are yellow hue not white and then the middle fan on the second pic is a mix of yellow and white hue. Best to use phone or depends on your monitor settings.

 

[AsRock]

Running any thing balls to the wall will have any thing failing sooner, goes for pretty much any thing. Even more so how manufactures make things these days just so they can seem better than the other company and ignoring safe guards.

Maybe 80-90% and call it max that goes for any thing.

 

[Frizz]

Running any thing balls to the wall will have any thing failing sooner, goes for pretty much any thing. Even more so how manufactures make things these days just so they can seem better than the other company and ignoring safe guards.

Maybe 80-90% and call it max that goes for any thing.

I'm not against that to be honest, but at least don't refuse warranty if something goes wrong for the customer, there aren't any guidelines or warnings telling me to run it at x brightness to avoid this issue, the use case is all limited to their instructions and software :/

For example: When you run OC on GPU/CPU most manufacturers will warn you of running outside of spec and reducing lifespan of the chip... this does not have that which tells me its considered to be running within spec hence no reason to deny warranty

 

[A Computer Guy]

Hi Guys,

Just wondering what your experiences have been with Lian-Li Warranty and even with other manufacturers. Unfortunately Lian-Li refused to replace my fans with faded RGB lights despite being within warranty.

I get that there is a new explanation as to when RGBs are run white at full brightness that this occurs overtime however there is no guideline for this and it occurred within a month or two of usage, my products are still in warranty, this is not a battery or consumable product, do they have the right to reject my warranty request? I've been told this is not considered a defect.

Thanks.

Is is possible the discoloration is an optical illusion being caused by reflection of other nearby light sources in the case? If you temporarily turn off all the other light sources except for the fans and remove the glass does the discoloration go away?

 

[Upgrayedd]

If it where a insufficient power connection they would all be dimmed down, plus the fans would loose power first. My bet Lian Li just cut corners and used the cheapest Chinese LED's they could get their hands on. Companies just cutting corners on every end in the current market conditions. Quality & QA is nose diving across the (tech) board, forums are full of examples.

Lession learned. Buy from a different company.

Not necessarily the case. I don't mean the fans themselves aren't getting enough watts. I'm saying too much power pulled through a SATA cable causing heat to rise within the wire resulting in the diodes running much warmer that intended.

I can't find a review that tests it cause everyone just lists the specs but I doubt those fans only pull 5watts at 100% white and 100% spin.

 

[MarsM4N]

Not necessarily the case. I don't mean the fans themselves aren't getting enough watts. I'm saying too much power pulled through a SATA cable causing heat to rise within the wire resulting in the diodes running much warmer that intended.

I can't find a review that tests it cause everyone just lists the specs but I doubt those fans only pull 5watts at 100% white and 100% spin.

Very unlikely that a "heated up" SATA is affecting the LED's. Also we are talking about LED's build in a fan, so they should get enough air to stay cool.

It's just very cheap LED's that wear out pretty fast, even faster when used in it's brightest settings.

 

[Mussels]

Can you return to place of purchase instead?


Here in AU, consumer laws demand products be "fit for purpose" so they can't sell something that burns out at 100% brightness on white - they need to design the product to not be able to kill itself with 'regular use and due care from the user' (for example, you can't complain a motorised failed if you never changed the oil)

 

[Frizz]

Can you return to place of purchase instead?


Here in AU, consumer laws demand products be "fit for purpose" so they can't sell something that burns out at 100% brightness on white - they need to design the product to not be able to kill itself with 'regular use and due care from the user' (for example, you can't complain a motorised failed if you never changed the oil)

Yeah I could but PCCaseGear is interstate from me so they need the fans back . Lian Li are sending me the fans without collection of the ones with the bad RGB so its a good outcome even if I had to Karen it up a bit . And yes agree with ACL I wasnt going to tale no for an answer.. he initially said he would only send me 6 fans instead of 9 and I nearly blew a gasket as there was no logic in that for me but the rep quickly saw how poor of an effort it was and agreed to send the entire 9.

 

[Mussels]

Oh you are an aussie
local laws guarantee you for warranty - dispute their claim and say the product isnt fit for purpose and needs to be replaced

 

[Frizz]

Oh you are an aussie
local laws guarantee you for warranty - dispute their claim and say the product isnt fit for purpose and needs to be replaced

Yep this was done I even shared forum posts where people claim to have received a replacement for faulty rgb lights from Lian Li abd other manufacturers. And the rep continued to defend their stance of "this is normal behaviour for rgb leds and not warrantable" so I gave him one last passive aggressive warning before I let hell let loose and he gave in. "Please do not refuse my right to claim warranty for a faulty product" that is where the rep said he can get me a once off replacement, not a great response but again a good outcome. This will be a concern for other people who try to claim fans with faulty RGBs on em despite being in warranty.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Very unlikely that a "heated up" SATA is affecting the LED's. Also we are talking about LED's build in a fan, so they should get enough air to stay cool.

It's just very cheap LED's that wear out pretty fast, even faster when used in it's brightest settings.

Well I guess we'll never know since the 30 seconds it takes to feel with the back of a hand is just too much time out of the day.

Yeah I could but PCCaseGear is interstate from me so they need the fans back . Lian Li are sending me the fans without collection of the ones with the bad RGB so its a good outcome even if I had to Karen it up a bit . And yes agree with ACL I wasnt going to tale no for an answer.. he initially said he would only send me 6 fans instead of 9 and I nearly blew a gasket as there was no logic in that for me but the rep quickly saw how poor of an effort it was and agreed to send the entire 9.

I'd say you're lucky. Surprised they didn't ask you to snap the blades on the fans and send pictures, you just got 9 free backup fans. Are they all set to intake?
You going to blast them to the max brightness again? I've never run LED's at max like that. Not on tvs or any type of flash light or screen or anything. Its just known that it degrades them much faster.

 

[Frizz]

Well I guess we'll never know since the 30 seconds it takes to feel with the back of a hand is just too much time out of the day.

I'd say you're lucky. Surprised they didn't ask you to snap the blades on the fans and send pictures, you just got 9 free backup fans. Are they all set to intake?
You going to blast them to the max brightness again? I've never run LED's at max like that. Not on tvs or any type of flash light or screen or anything. Its just known that it degrades them much faster.

My room is absolutely RGB'd out, even my speakers, keyboard mouse and surrounding all my monitors and TV.. guess what, after 2 years they can still display a perfect white at absolute peak brightness.

I also think you're missing the point, if the LED dies it should be warrantable as there are no instructions/disclaimers to not run them at peak brightness otherwise. I get you maybe an expert at making your fan lights last however you as a consumer shouldn't have to work around poor quality components and design especially when they are charging you for a product marketed as being premium and highly customizable. If you're saying this is a limitation of all RGBs I also get that but this shouldn't make the issue non-warrantable, it has nothing to do with being "lucky" and has everything to do with your rights as a paying customer.

Let me make this easier for you: You know if you run your car at 100% throttle all the time there is a good chance the engine will sh*t itself much earlier than designed? This is why your tachometer has a red-line, to let you know if what you're doing is outside of spec/design and this RPM limit varies for the type of car you drive. Figuratively speaking there are no "red-lines" for the RGBs in your PC components and could even be used as a loophole to replace your components.

I hope you're not working in the warranty field.

PS: 30 seconds of physical energy is too much to spare nowadays just to help some stranger online prove a point.

 

[Upgrayedd]

My room is absolutely RGB'd out, even my speakers, keyboard mouse and surrounding all my monitors and TV.. guess what, after 2 years they can still display a perfect white at absolute peak brightness.

I also think you're missing the point, if the LED dies it should be warrantable as there are no instructions/disclaimers to not run them at peak brightness otherwise. I get you maybe an expert at making your fan lights last however you as a consumer shouldn't have to work around poor quality components and design especially when they are charging you for a product marketed as being premium and highly customizable. If you're saying this is a limitation of all RGBs I also get that but this shouldn't make the issue non-warrantable, it has nothing to do with being "lucky" and has everything to do with your rights as a paying customer.

Let me make this easier for you: You know if you run your car at 100% throttle all the time there is a good chance the engine will sh*t itself much earlier than designed? This is why your tachometer has a red-line, to let you know if what you're doing is outside of spec/design and this RPM limit varies for the type of car you drive. Figuratively speaking there are no "red-lines" for the RGBs in your PC components and could even be used as a loophole to replace your components.

I hope you're not working in the warranty field.

PS: 30 seconds of physical energy is too much to spare nowadays just to help some stranger online prove a point.

I just meant you're lucky as in you get to keep your other faded 9 fans in working condition and not have to decommission them.

Also just because you're car has a rev limiter doesn't mean it won't overheat and kill itself that way. Redline it constantly on a hot day and watch it start puking coolant and throw a rod, just because you can doesn't mean you should. I mean you thought you could realistically connect 64 of them together.

About the 30 second heat check with the back of your hand, that's for you so you can check it to make sure that's not your real problem and perhaps prevent it from happening with the new ones but whatever like who cares right just take em to court when you want another 9 free fans or a new house because your sata cable melts your PC and a buncha crypto mining junkies come around and say "yup seen it too many times, overloaded sata".

a single SATA cable is good for something like 54watts I think. 12v 4.5a pretty sure. So if you're using 2 cables for 3 controllers it really should be fine. According to the lian li site metrics the LEDs per fan pull 72% more power than the fan itself, 3watt compared to 2.16w. If we really are under the assumption Lian Li is using a different component in the LEDs that is cheaper or cutting corners or whatever then it could very well be pulling more power than what the documents say they do then why wouldn't you want to check your fans for heat? Hell, for your own safety and concern, you got friggin 12 of em that we think could possibly be cheaped out on running balls to the walls, screw griping about warranty or proving anyone right, protect yourself from a fire caused by a cost cutting company powering everything off the worst power cable you can connect to a PSU.

Premature failure of all 12 fans LEDs points to either a manufacturing problem such as a swapped component, fault in assembly and theres a batch of bad fans like these or you have premature heat death. I can't tell if these are all intake or not but if your radiator fans are in pull, then your pulling direct radiator heat through your fans.

 

[Frizz]

I just meant you're lucky as in you get to keep your other faded 9 fans in working condition and not have to decommission them.

Also just because you're car has a rev limiter doesn't mean it won't overheat and kill itself that way. Redline it constantly on a hot day and watch it start puking coolant and throw a rod, just because you can doesn't mean you should. I mean you thought you could realistically connect 64 of them together.

About the 30 second heat check with the back of your hand, that's for you so you can check it to make sure that's not your real problem and perhaps prevent it from happening with the new ones but whatever like who cares right just take em to court when you want another 9 free fans or a new house because your sata cable melts your PC and a buncha crypto mining junkies come around and say "yup seen it too many times, overloaded sata".

a single SATA cable is good for something like 54watts I think. 12v 4.5a pretty sure. So if you're using 2 cables for 3 controllers it really should be fine. According to the lian li site metrics the LEDs per fan pull 72% more power than the fan itself, 3watt compared to 2.16w. If we really are under the assumption Lian Li is using a different component in the LEDs that is cheaper or cutting corners or whatever then it could very well be pulling more power than what the documents say they do then why wouldn't you want to check your fans for heat? Hell, for your own safety and concern, you got friggin 12 of em that we think could possibly be cheaped out on running balls to the walls, screw griping about warranty or proving anyone right, protect yourself from a fire caused by a cost cutting company powering everything off the worst power cable you can connect to a PSU.

Premature failure of all 12 fans LEDs points to either a manufacturing problem such as a swapped component, fault in assembly and theres a batch of bad fans like these or you have premature heat death. I can't tell if these are all intake or not but if your radiator fans are in pull, then your pulling direct radiator heat through your fans.

So now youre saying the rgbs will die if used as an intake with a radiator which you HOPE theyve tested AND it takes a random dude online to warn me about premature heat death and peak brightness.. if that is the case DO NOT refuse warranty.

Again you continue to miss the point confirmed by how you replied to the example I made with the car, so I will stop here. You are way too invested in trying to prove your point on a technical level based on your own research. This thread was started to let people know about Lian Li refusing warranty for a faulty product and to possibly obtain further feedback from users who have had a similar reply or experience.

Id have been more than happy to continue brain storming and troubleshooting with you if I were using the fans outside of their normal use case and specification but this just isnt the case. I plug them in as per the instructions and use them with Lian Li's software.. If they break, then provide me a remedy until my warranty expires. Also with your stance just becareful with that because you instantly insinuate that it is my fault that my rgbs blew out because I didnt install them how you think I should quote "its not hooked up right". Hence why I said I hope you do not work in any type of warranty department.. so finally.. who says its not hooked up right? Cause Lian Li says it is. You and Lian Li say dont use peak brightness, ok so provide me with documentation or a warning prior to me using the product, welp that doesnt exist.. you see the gray area there? Do you see why I dont care anymore than me getting replacement fans?