CRITICAL BUG (can cause PC Hardware to fail!): Steam repeatedly disconnects Corsair Hydro Series H115i Platinum Liquid CPU Cooler (USB) and often crashes it's driver in the process

[Cave Waverider]

ISSUE
Steam disconnects and reconnects Corsair Hydro Series H115i RGB Platinum Liquid CPU Cooler[www.corsair.com], often causing the H115i's driver to crash and CPU cooling to fail.
This could potentially cause grave harm to the hardware so this bug must be fixed immediately as there is no workaround except not running Steam!
This bug might be related to Steam's Controller/USB feature. I have disabled any controller features in Steam, to no avail (alas, there really isn't an option to completely disable it - but there should be!).
Apparently, Steam also does this to other USB devices (as evidenced by multiple bug reports on this very forum), but with a CPU cooler this is incredibly critical and it's high time that you fix this buggy behavior!
I've tested this with Steam's current release version as well as the latest beta, they behave the same.

OS
Windows 10 64bit (v1809 with all latest Updates from Windows Update installed)

STEPS
1. Follow the instructions and Connect the H115i RGB Platinum as instructed to a USB 2.0 controller on the mainboard, the SATA connector, the fans, etc..
2. Start Windows.
3. Install the latest version of iCue Software which controls teh H115i RGB Platinum's pump, fans and RGB LEDs.
4. Reboot.
5. Start Steam.
6. Notice that you hear a USB reconnect/disconenct sound.
7. Let Steam sit there. You'll eventually hear the USB reconnect/disconnect sounds again. Often this will lead to the H115i's driver to crash completely which will set the pump and fans to "quiet" mode which isn't enough to cool many systems. Only a computer reboot will fix this.
8. After the driver crashed due to this, open Windows Device Manager, under Universal Serial Bus controllers you'll see "Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed). You can only fix this by rebooting the PC.
9. I've tested this on multiple PCs, Steam will cause this to happen very, very frequently.

EXPECTED
Steam should NEVER disconnect any USB devices nor access USB devices it has no business accessing. At the very least, give us an option to fully disable Steam Controller/USB device access for good to protect our PCs!
Steam people, please also contact Corsair to work on a fix for this problem together. Thanks!

[austinp_valve]

From your logs I can see that you have an Xbox controller but we open those via Xinput on WIndows. It also look like you have a Thrustmaster Hotas but we're not opening it because it's not a gamepad.

Over USB Steam only opens Steam Controllers, Switch Controllers, and PS4 controller models that we've specifically white listed. We also query the OS for what devices are attached when we get a notification that something has connected or disconnected. Enumerating USB devices should not cause a driver for a USB device to crash. We get several support tickets per week about USB devices misbehaving and they all seem to be related to RGB LED peripherals and the associated software. These tickets have all been resolved without changes from Steam. Troubleshooting ideas:

• Remove USB devices until the problem stops occurring to identify the problematic USB device
  
• Reduce the number of USB hubs between your RGB gaming keyboard and your motherboard. If you don't have any external hubs try using a different USB port as it may be on a different hub internally.
  
• Stop running the Logitech/Corsair/Razer/etc software

Example recent bug report where USB hub was the culprit:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/discussions/0/1741106440039554308/?tscn=1549882380

[Cave Waverider]

Thanks for the quick reply, austinp!

I've read the link you've provided.

To stop running the Corsair software isn't an option, since it is needed to keep Cooling Pump and Fan speeds up and the CPU cool and it's required to run.
Stopping any of the other software like the Logitech Gaming Software for my G910 RGB Keyboard and G500s Mouse doesn't seem to help either.

I don't have any external hubs connected, I do have lots of USB devices connected directly to the
mainboard, however (my mainboard has lots of USB connectors, so I naturally want to use it so I won't have to crawl under my desk to disconnect/connect USB devices manually every time I wish to use a certain device).

That said, not a single device appears to be the culprit, I've tried disconnecting one by one and see if having any single one disconnected helps, to no avail. Nor does switching ports help.
Disconnecting a bunch of them (no matter which) will help with it, though.

Could it be that Steam attempts to enumerate/poll too many USB devices too quickly and thus overloads/overtaxes the USB bus causing the disconnects/reconnects?
Perhaps adding a bit of a delay in between enumerating/polling different devices or the bus in general might help.

That said, would it perhaps be possible to add an option to an upcoming version of Steam to disable enumerating/polling USB devices (or Steam accessing USB devices altogether)?
Personally, I don't really need any controller support for my Steam, I'm perfectly fine with navigating my preferred classic "Small Mode" Steam with my Mouse. Surely adding such a Steam option to toggle the enumeration off or on on demand wouldn't hurt.

Thanks again!

[🐬]

а что тут такое ?

[Ozhamut]

Exactly same problem here. Please solve this problem asap.

[hugo]

I have the exact same issue. The problem only occurs when i launch DS4Windows to use my PS4 controller with Cemu Emulator. My H115i will disconnect and reconnect over and over, if i want Steam running i either have to stop Corsair iCue, or stop DS4Windows, but like OP says, that's not really an option. If i quit Steam, then i can keep both running.

[Diamond Fire]

I have the h115I and have the exact same issue with steam. icue software runs great until I install steam then it constantly disconnects and reconnects....STEAM FIX YOUR BROKEN SOFTWARE IT SHOULD NOT BE INTERFERING WITH CRITICAL PC COMPONANTS LIKE COOLING!!!

[ᏼꭺꮪꮪꭱꮖꭰꭼꭱ]

Exact same problem here too. Please fix this asap!

[austinp_valve]

Some more troubleshooting steps for you to try:

• Some users have reported that reverting to V1.6 resolved issues w/ Steam - can you try reverting to V1.6 or earlier?
  
• In Feb 2018 they said that they were going to roll out FW updates to fix problems w/ Steam, have you checked that your cooler is on the latest FW? http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=167509&page=6
  
• Have you tried disabling Corsair Cue and letting your Motherboard/Bios control fan speeds? I believe that the only thing that Corsair software is required for is controlling the LED's.
  
• Can you try running the latest Steam Beta client? Corsair cue users also report other gamepad reading programs causing issues - Steam as well as most these other programs use the HIDAPI library which is the most commonly used cross platform USB library. I can't speak for the other programs like DS4Windows but all we are doing is enumerating USB devices a few times when a new device is connected with a 1 second delay in between tries. This behavior shouldn't cause issues with performant FW/drivers, but last week I made some changes to HIDAPI's enumeration function to try and reduce the amount of USB calls.
  
• Can you make a support ticket w/ Corsair and see if they have any other suggestions?

[Element47]

Same problem here with a Corsair H100i Platinum SE on latest firmware

starting Steam makes the driver/service go haywire. Very disappointed, seems the solution is to NOT start steam. Thankfully, we see more storefronts merge, maybe the competition will prompt Valve to actually work with the other parties instead of shift blame.

For me, it is far easier to buy games elsewhere than to replace 2K EUR worth of hardware.

[Ba_ra_Kuda]

Element47 původně napsal:

Same problem here with a Corsair H100i Platinum SE on latest firmware

starting Steam makes the driver/service go haywire. Very disappointed, seems the solution is to NOT start steam. Thankfully, we see more storefronts merge, maybe the competition will prompt Valve to actually work with the other parties instead of shift blame.

For me, it is far easier to buy games elsewhere than to replace 2K EUR worth of hardware.

Having the same problem with mine. Sux that Valve has not taken the initiative to help fix this problem. Seeing that it ONLY happens when their software is run. No problems when running games from Origin or standalone. What are some other storefronts i can try? I only know of a couple, including this one.

[austinp_valve]

It looks like the root cause was a FW issue with the cooler and they will be issuing a fix in a few weeks (4/22):

Additional Note: For users who are experiencing issues with the Platinum Cooler disconnecting when Steam is running, we have been able to isolate the issue related to the firmware, certain Intel Chipsets (Z370/Z390), Steam, and iCUE running together simultaneously. Our vendor for the Hydro Series Platinum Coolers is looking into it but they have given us instructions to implement a software workaround to address the issue for the time being. We will be testing this internally and preparing this fix for v3.15 iCUE release on April 22nd (pending no issues).

Source:
http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=186582&highlight=steam

[Ba_ra_Kuda]

austinp původně napsal:

It looks like the root cause was a FW issue with the cooler and they will be issuing a fix in a few weeks (4/22):

Additional Note: For users who are experiencing issues with the Platinum Cooler disconnecting when Steam is running, we have been able to isolate the issue related to the firmware, certain Intel Chipsets (Z370/Z390), Steam, and iCUE running together simultaneously. Our vendor for the Hydro Series Platinum Coolers is looking into it but they have given us instructions to implement a software workaround to address the issue for the time being. We will be testing this internally and preparing this fix for v3.15 iCUE release on April 22nd (pending no issues).

Source:
http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=186582&highlight=steam

Good looking out austinp. Now that's initiative!!! i've been on the forums for days and have not seen that this past week. Getting it out to you customers timely. That's what i'm talking about!!

But it's been a week bro... What took u so long to post that? Haha, just busting ur oo's .

[Radeondutch]

Same issue here, AMD Ryzen 5, Corsair Hydro H115i RGB Platinum, 470 AORUS ULTRA GAMING. all software and firmware to latest versions but steam likes to disconnect my watercooling constantly. What the duck is this?

[austinp_valve]

They have not issued the patch to fix the FW bug yet. Try running without iCue until the patch is released. They said on their forums that the patch date is estimated at 4/22.

[Stexred]

maybe related
but do a search on google about NahimicService
and you see that also can cause conflicts with software or drivers