windows 10 New PC - strange Windows freezes (probable cause: NZXT CAM)

[MeguBaku]

16 hours ago, ShaoKahnsHammer said:

An update on my situation.  Was still having random lock ups, so left task manager up waiting for it.  It was triggered when I widened a MS Edge window, but TM didn't show an issue as I guess that was also impacted by the lock.  CAM_Helper was running - that was pretty ironic...

So I gave up and replaced the cooler with a Lian Li 360 Galahad to tie in with my Lian Li SP120 fans and hub.  With my setup, I can now control all RGB and fans from Armoury Crate and BIOS.... feels good man.  Shame though, when running, the NZXT AIO was excellent and I actually liked the CAM UI - very clean compared to the 'gamer' style mess ASUS is putting out.

 

So good luck guys / gals if you're sticking this out, super frustrating considering the money some of us are putting into our rigs.

Same, I actually quite liked the NZXT hardware, and it looked very nice aesthetically too.

As for the software, the UI itself of CAM was nice too, and I had the mini-thing on the desktop on a secondary monitor.

 

Shame of the trash back-end code on the software, forced updates, and that it's incapable of properly using the AIO without the software running. If the hardware had worked without the software, I might have had more patience in waiting them to fix it, but this has already been going for 10 months, so it was time to move on...

 

6 hours ago, SeeNoWeevil said:

Has anyone tried blocking CAM in a firewall to prevent it from auto installing updates (super obnoxious btw)? After this is fixed I do *not* want any more CAM updates thank-you.

 

Also, if you're running Armoury Crate just to set gpu rgb, you can actually go into add/remove programs and uninstall ALL asus related services/components except the aurora service. This keeps rbg working on boot and I think removing some of these components helps with the CAM crash problem.

 

Assuming this is fixed, it should be doable to do a windows firewall rule, or any third party firewall software.

Worst case scenario you could figure out what servers is the software contacting and edit your host file to make them unreachable.

[Robioto]

On 4/17/2021 at 7:40 PM, MeguBaku said:

I could get a refund through my retailer by proving that this issue has been for long unaddressed, and the non-solutions from the manufacturer. The purchase was less than a year ago, so hopefully you can get them returned. Also I'm aware of two other cases where it also worked for them.

 

Dealing with that bureaucracy might still be faster than waiting a fix from NZXT, I wish you luck.

Thanks that's really helpful. I'll pursue it. I bought my Kraken from Ebuyer though, so I can't imagine that being an easy ride going by the issues  I've had with them before. But I'll get the ball rolling tomorrow.

[Tomasz K.]

On 4/15/2021 at 7:36 PM, kvmstr said:

My Corsair arrived today. Works perfekt! 

 

Happy End!

 

 

 

I replaced the same (but 360 version of this) AIO with Kraken X72 because Corsair pump had surprisingly loud and annoying buzzing sound.

[Hiddenprocess]

Hello, Sorry for my broken English, I'm from France. I have been suffering from Windows freezes for some time, where I have to force the shutdown of the pc. I think the problem is with the CAM software. CAM BROKEN PIPE "The communication channel is about to be closed" is regularly found in the event viewer. Is there a solution to fix the problem? Thank you

[Arnau]

2 minutes ago, Hiddenprocess said:

Hello, Sorry for my broken English, I'm from France. I have been suffering from Windows freezes for some time, where I have to force the shutdown of the pc. I think the problem is with the CAM software. CAM BROKEN PIPE "The communication channel is about to be closed" is regularly found in the event viewer. Is there a solution to fix the problem? Thank you

there's no official solution yet mate, attached u have an alternative to CAM software. 

On 2/15/2021 at 12:13 AM, gssonda said:

For the people wondering how to install liquidctl, download the latest version for windows and extract to your folder of choice. (take note of the extraction location)

https://github.com/liquidctl/liquidctl/releases/download/v1.5.0/liquidctl-1.5.0-bin-windows-x86_64.zip

 

Then go to your computer settings -> advanced settings -> advanced / environment variables

https://ibb.co/ZXgCN0b

 

System Variables -> Path (double click) and select New (now you add the folder location where liquidctl is located)

https://ibb.co/30fHPtc

https://ibb.co/NpsrVjt

 

All you need to do now is create a Notepad file and save it as .bat

Inside you put your configurations, mine below with a brief explanation for the kraken X62.

Every supported device can be found here, simply click on your model and all the parameters are going to be listed.

https://github.com/liquidctl/liquidctl#supported-devices

 

FAN SPEED should be set up in pairs (20 is liquid temp. in celsius, 30 is fan speed % / 30 is liquid temp, 50 fan speed and so on)

liquidctl set pump speed 20 30 30 50 34 80 40 90 50 100
                         ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^
                        pairs of temperature (°C) -> duty (%)

 

PUMP SPEED (same first liquid temperature then pump speed)

RING COLOR (see link at the end of page for other rgb modes, just change tai-chi and hex color to your choice)

 

liquidctl set fan speed  30 55  33 65  34 70  35 80  36 90  37 100
liquidctl set pump speed 30 70  33 75  34 85  35 100
liquidctl set ring color tai-chi 274e7f FD6000
liquidctl set logo color fixed 274e7f

 

Now simply add your .bat file to Windows Startup or Create a Scheduled Task

It can also be started manually everytime you boot your pc by double clicking the .bat file.

 

 

 

Voila, your free to ditch NZXT CAM forever while still maintaining pump, fan and rgb control.

 

 

------------------------

 

ALL THE RGB MODES

https://github.com/liquidctl/liquidctl/blob/master/docs/kraken-x2-m2-guide.md

[MeguBaku]

11 hours ago, Hiddenprocess said:

Hello, Sorry for my broken English, I'm from France. I have been suffering from Windows freezes for some time, where I have to force the shutdown of the pc. I think the problem is with the CAM software. CAM BROKEN PIPE "The communication channel is about to be closed" is regularly found in the event viewer. Is there a solution to fix the problem? Thank you

As Arnau said, there's no official fix. Liquidctl should do the job assuming you have an AIO. If you have purchased the AIO less than one year ago, you might want to try to replace it for another brand with the retailer too.

 

If you use CAM for other NZXT components you are, then you may be out of luck. I haven't seen a replacement for the NZXT RGB hubs / Fans for example.

 

Also in case you keep the AIO, open a support ticket with NZXT.

[nihontim]

I've been watching this thread since I began experiencing the exact issue described on 4/7/2021 but have now elected to sign up to add another user to the growing list waiting for a solution. 

 

There doesn't appear to be any further comments from @nzxt_jeff and the changeblog notice on this is not entirely an accurate description of the issue which raises a few concerns given that I personally have 2 support tickets still open on this and a chat transcript offering no timeline on a proper solution and a bandaid remedy for time being.

 

I had actually ordered the kraken x63 prior to this problem manifesting itself on my system and received it a day or so after.  Though it remains unopened at this time, I'd rather not return it given the performance and aesthetic of the product and my previous experiences with NZXT products (including an older kraken series AIO) having been pleasant.

 

My machine is a multi-use system and the specs for it are as follows--

 

Hardware:

Asus Rog Strix x570-F Gaming 

AMD Ryzen 7 3700x

Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32gb (4x 8gb 3200mhz)

EVGA Geforce RTX 2070 Super 

 

Software:

Asus Armoury Crate

Corsair iCue

Razer Synapse

NZXT CAM (currently uninstalled)

Streamlabs OBS 

Elgato Game and Sound Capture

Discord

Steam

[Fakeshemp]

7 hours ago, MeguBaku said:

 

If you use CAM for other NZXT components you are, then you may be out of luck. I haven't seen a replacement for the NZXT RGB hubs / Fans for example.

 

 

I have just last week installed liquidctl thanks to the helpful guides here and documentation with the software and can confirm that one hub and fan set it works with is the smart device v2 in the h510i and the 2 AER 2 RGB fans I have plugged into them. It also says the Hue2 is controllable. One caveat is that it doesn't seem to be able to run the fans in the smart device on a curve just a set speed.  As I haven't changed my lighting profile in months I haven't tried to set them up for colour, but there are instructions for how to set the lighting modes and LED colours for it on the github.

Just want to say thanks for those here recommending it as it's given me wonderful peace of mind to know that my cooling is working as I want and there's been zero crashes in the week since I stopped CAM autostarting and switched to this.  It also means I can run icue to keep my keyboard/mouse programmed keys. If you are having this issue and don't want to leave your Kraken to run however it runs without supervision liquidctl is well worth taking the time to spend a few minutes learning to set up. You will pick it up pretty quickly with the guides and have a curve or even multiple .bat files to switch curves, set in no time.

[Shadow306k]

I too, can confirm that Liquidctl works fine with my (NZXT) Smart Hub, fans and LED strips. 6 months worry free thanks to this software!

[MeguBaku]

Great to know that it sorta works with liquidctl, even the non AIO parts.

 

It would be nice if the first message on the topic could be edited for easy finding for new people coming in:

 

- NZXT doesn't have a proper changelog description of the issue as mentioned multiple times, misleading people, so to let people know that these freezes is what NZXT is "investigating" and not just "slowdowns.

 

- And also how to set-up liquidctl / A guide - Link as a replacement in case you don't want to switch to some other cooling solution.

[bunkermagnus]

Hi all.

Add another disgruntled NZXT customer. I was in denial for 30 days that NZXT CAM could be the culprit, I uninstalled everything else but still gets the occasional freeze EXACTLY like shown in the video earlier in this thread. This thread removed any doubt so I signed up.

 

The very reason I bought the Kraken Z73 and the NZXT RGB & FAN hub was to have control under ONE software, not needing any other for RGB and Fan control. I also fell for the aestetics of the Kraken.

 

In the beginning I had Dragon Center installed and during that time I had 1-3 freeze sessions per day, after uninstalling Dragon center all other related software (MSI SDK, Mystic light etc) the frequency of "soft-freezes" fell to about once every 3rd day, sometimes no freeze for over a week but once it happened it was always the same pattern, windows in my browser locking up.

 

One thing I noticed was that most often it happened while doing low intensive stuff, typing like this in a forum, in the MS Edge browser. Often while simultaneously watching a video on youtube in Google Chrome. It's always my browser that takes the first hit then it degrades to lock down the whol GUI through the windows Explorer.

 

So today I have a hard decision to make as it is the last day to return all my €600 NZXT goods to my retailer that offeres a 30 day money back guarantee as it is exactly 30 days since I fell into his "honey trap". while I could use liquidctl, I have played around with it, I can't really justify paying this amount of money for something that is essentially so flawed.

 

 

MB: MSI MEG X570 ACE

CPU: AMD Ryzen R7 5800X

CPU-AIO: NZXT Kraken Z73

RAM: G.Skill Trident NEO 3600 2x16 Gb

GPU1: MSI RX 6900 XT Gaming X Trio

GPU2: Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC

SSD: Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB NVMe + Samsung 980 Pro  NVMe 2 Tb

PSU: Corsair RM850x

Chassis: Fractal Define 7

Screen: Samsung Odyssey G9

Keyboard: Corsair K70 Lux RGB Cherry MX Silent

Mouse: Logitech G602

[kvmstr]

if i were u i would return the stuff and go for a product thats works as it should. i dont think there will be a fix soon. 5k>Amazon reviews are positive, so it seems the problem only occours for a few users in a special scenario. For me the problem occours on 2 brand new systems. first system i sold because of this issue. second system with brand new parts an a new z73 shows same problems. 

 

i will never buy an nzxt product again. 

[bunkermagnus]

1 hour ago, kvmstr said:

if i were u i would return the stuff and go for a product thats works as it should. i dont think there will be a fix soon. 5k>Amazon reviews are positive, so it seems the problem only occours for a few users in a special scenario. For me the problem occours on 2 brand new systems. first system i sold because of this issue. second system with brand new parts an a new z73 shows same problems. 

 

i will never buy an nzxt product again. 

I am leaning towards that, NZXT seems to have gone silent and I just contacted my retailer and explained the situation and they said I am welcome in with the stuff for a refund.

 

Why is it that the companies that make the best hardware also make the worst software....

 

[MeguBaku]

6 hours ago, bunkermagnus said:

I am leaning towards that, NZXT seems to have gone silent and I just contacted my retailer and explained the situation and they said I am welcome in with the stuff for a refund.

 

Why is it that the companies that make the best hardware also make the worst software....

 

I would go for the return as well, if you have that option open.

 

While liquidctl seems to work, IMHO it's not an acceptable solution by the manufacturer to go radio silent on us and have to rely on a third party.

 

Maybe a high percentage of returns will make to finally act, for those who are still being victims of their own software.

Again my biggest beef against them is the lack of speed solving, and the lack of transparency (what are they doing, progress, and properly reporting that their software is causing freezes in their changelogs/blog posts).

 

If there's something I learnt from the H1 case incident, is that this company seems to act only as a damage control when shit hits the fan.

[bunkermagnus]

11 minutes ago, MeguBaku said:

I would go for the return as well, if you have that option open.

 

While liquidctl seems to work, IMHO it's not an acceptable solution by the manufacturer to go radio silent on us and have to rely on a third party.

 

Maybe a high percentage of returns will make to finally act, for those who are still being victims of their own software.

Again my biggest beef against them is the lack of speed solving, and the lack of transparency (what are they doing, progress, and properly reporting that their software is causing freezes in their changelogs/blog posts).

 

If there's something I learnt from the H1 case incident, is that this company seems to act only as a damage control when shit hits the fan.

Hi, yes I just got home from the retailer, swapped for a Corsair H150i Elite Capellix. I hope this works better!

[BurntToasters]

On 4/18/2021 at 2:10 PM, Hiddenprocess said:

Hello, Sorry for my broken English, I'm from France. I have been suffering from Windows freezes for some time, where I have to force the shutdown of the pc. I think the problem is with the CAM software. CAM BROKEN PIPE "The communication channel is about to be closed" is regularly found in the event viewer. Is there a solution to fix the problem? Thank you

There are two "solutions" to fix CAM freezing your system. One which is pretty simple and straightforward is to just uninstall cam. If you dont really need cam to control devices you should be fine. If you have an AIO what you can do is set the pump speed to whatever speed you want then uninstall cam and the AIO pump will stay at that fixed speed until it doesn't get power (meaning if you unplug your computer). Option two which can be tricky if you dont really tamper with your computer, is to downgrade windows 10 to version 1909. Windows 10 1909 and below doesnt have the issue with Nzxt CAM freezing the computer, the freezing issue only happens on windows 10 2004-20H2. There is no real "fix" yet. What I have just said are work-arounds until NZXT fixes the issue. I have been talking with Jeff the product manager of NZXT and currently am running a devbuild of cam and it hasn't crashed in the 2.5 weeks ive been using it!! The devbuild sadly is very bareboned as is only meant to test for crashes in other areas meaning system monitoring info and device controlling/customization doesn't exist. Its purely for crash testing.

[Hiddenprocess]

40 minutes ago, BurntToasters said:

There are two "solutions" to fix CAM freezing your system. One which is pretty simple and straightforward is to just uninstall cam. If you dont really need cam to control devices you should be fine. If you have an AIO what you can do is set the pump speed to whatever speed you want then uninstall cam and the AIO pump will stay at that fixed speed until it doesn't get power (meaning if you unplug your computer). Option two which can be tricky if you dont really tamper with your computer, is to downgrade windows 10 to version 1909. Windows 10 1909 and below doesnt have the issue with Nzxt CAM freezing the computer, the freezing issue only happens on windows 10 2004-20H2. There is no real "fix" yet. What I have just said are work-arounds until NZXT fixes the issue. I have been talking with Jeff the product manager of NZXT and currently am running a devbuild of cam and it hasn't crashed in the 2.5 weeks ive been using it!!

Thank you for your answer, I have this message in my event viewer 

"request thread encountered an error: Failed to send result: Io(Os { code: 232, kind: BrokenPipe, message: "Le canal de communication est sur le point d’être fermé." })"

Do you have it too?

[MeguBaku]

44 minutes ago, BurntToasters said:

There are two "solutions" to fix CAM freezing your system. One which is pretty simple and straightforward is to just uninstall cam. If you dont really need cam to control devices you should be fine. If you have an AIO what you can do is set the pump speed to whatever speed you want then uninstall cam and the AIO pump will stay at that fixed speed until it doesn't get power (meaning if you unplug your computer). Option two which can be tricky if you dont really tamper with your computer, is to downgrade windows 10 to version 1909. Windows 10 1909 and below doesnt have the issue with Nzxt CAM freezing the computer, the freezing issue only happens on windows 10 2004-20H2. There is no real "fix" yet. What I have just said are work-arounds until NZXT fixes the issue. I have been talking with Jeff the product manager of NZXT and currently am running a devbuild of cam and it hasn't crashed in the 2.5 weeks ive been using it!!

You forgot to mention the liquidctrl workaround too.

 

Also it's nice that Jeff is communicating with some people, and that it seems that it fixed it for you.

Said that, I don't see the point of not making as many people as possible that has the freeze problem test the dev build to see if the freezes continue or not.

[I hate nzxt]

 

On 4/19/2021 at 10:57 AM, MeguBaku said:

Great to know that it sorta works with liquidctl, even the non AIO parts.

 

It would be nice if the first message on the topic could be edited for easy finding for new people coming in:

 

- NZXT doesn't have a proper changelog description of the issue as mentioned multiple times, misleading people, so to let people know that these freezes is what NZXT is "investigating" and not just "slowdowns.

 

- And also how to set-up liquidctl / A guide - Link as a replacement in case you don't want to switch to some other cooling solution.

I also tried installing liquidctl, but it didn't work. I did everything that the guide said to do. Another question I had was where should I put the .bat file. Like in which folder. When i tried typing "liquidctl list" in command prompt, it came up with nothing. Any ideas on this?

[MeguBaku]

1 hour ago, I hate nzxt said:

 

I also tried installing liquidctl, but it didn't work. I did everything that the guide said to do. Another question I had was where should I put the .bat file. Like in which folder. When i tried typing "liquidctl list" in command prompt, it came up with nothing. Any ideas on this?

 

No errors at all? You might have to initialize, or try to run the commands with --verbose and see if you get any errors.

[I hate nzxt]

8 minutes ago, MeguBaku said:

 

No errors at all? You might have to initialize, or try to run the commands with --verbose and see if you get any errors.

i figured that out now, but now when i try to change the colors and whatnot, the command runs, but it doesnt actually change the colors. I am also getting another error that says "error too many devices"

 

[MeguBaku]

3 minutes ago, I hate nzxt said:

i figured that out now, but now when i try to change the colors and whatnot, the command runs, but it doesnt actually change the colors. I am also getting another error that says "error too many devices"

For some commands to execute you have to filter by device. For example if the device is listed as ID 1 you run something like:

liquidctl -d 1 status

If that doesn't work, maybe someone else on the thread can be of more assistance, as I ended up replacing my AIO Cooler, I have limited experience with liquidctl.

[I hate nzxt]

2 minutes ago, MeguBaku said:

For some commands to execute you have to filter by device. For example if the device is listed as ID 1 you run something like:

liquidctl -d 1 status

If that doesn't work, maybe someone else on the thread can be of more assistance, as I ended up replacing my AIO Cooler, I have limited experience with liquidctl.

thanks, i will try this out

[I hate nzxt]

50 minutes ago, MeguBaku said:

For some commands to execute you have to filter by device. For example if the device is listed as ID 1 you run something like:

liquidctl -d 1 status

If that doesn't work, maybe someone else on the thread can be of more assistance, as I ended up replacing my AIO Cooler, I have limited experience with liquidctl

I figured out how to make liquidctl work. I am thinking that I should make a guide on youtube to help those who are having these issues. Do u think that this is a good idea and that i should do it?

[bunkermagnus]

I just recieved a reply on my NZXT ticket which just confirms that returning my Kraken was the right choice:

 

Quote

##- Please type your reply above this line -##

Hello!

We’ve got news for you! Your ticket XXXXXX has been updated. Feel free to reply to this email with any questions or follow this link to add an update: camwebapp.zendesk.com/hc/requests/XYZWVY

Hi there,

I am sorry to hear you are having problems with our CAM software. As a potential fix, I would recommend closing the CAM software and ending all instances of NZXT CAM and cam_helper.exe in your Task Manager, then deleting the CAM local cache directory, which can be found at the following path: C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\NZXT CAMAlternatively, you can access this folder by typing %appdata% into your windows search bar and press enter.

After this, if that doesn't resolve the issue, please remove CAM with this software called Revo Uninstaller, as this software allows users to delete all residual files from CAM. https://www.revouninstaller.com/products/revo-uninstaller-free/

Then you can do a fresh install of the CAM software.

If you are still having issues, please reply to this email and your ticket will be sent to the next available technical support agent for further assistance.

CAM by NZXT
camwebapp.com

Thanks,

Your friends at NZXT

 

Just another automated reply. What are the odds that an application, will bring a whole operating system down just because a settings file or it's DB is corrupt. Usually an application with corrupt settings will hang or crash itself but not bring the whole OS down regularly!

 

This also shows me that NZXT has not taken any extra steps to ensure collecting more data for their developers regarding this particular issue with NZXT CAM.

IF they were really interested in solving this they would immediately reach out and ask for more details, enabling extra logging or something to that extent.

 

It's so sad, hardware wise my new Corsair Cappelix feels like a tractor next to the NZXT Kraken, whick feles like a Porsche.

But hey, the tractor actually works and doesn't assasinate my Windows.