Problem with antec khuler 920, possibly related to motherboard drivers

[Frogger4]

My CPU cooler, an Antec Khuler H2O 920, is powered by internal USB 2.0. This allows the radiator and fans to be controlled from a program inside Windows (ChillControl). The fans and radiator pump work, but I am unable to get the fans to run any faster than idle (this is important for doing anything that significantly uses the cpu). Normally controlled by the ChillControl utility, I get this error when the utility starts:

Cannot connect to Chill Control device. Check USB connection on device and restart the Chill Control Application

The cooler is certainly connected because the hardware still works and was not changed at all when upgrading to Windows 8. I contacted Antec customer support about it, and they had no idea.

Here is my speculation: I have an Asus P6-X58E-Pro motherboard, and Asus does not seem to have drivers for Windows 8 available. Because the cooler is powered and controlled by internal USB, and the error I get seems to be related, this may be a motherboard driver issue.
Based on that, I'm not really sure what to do. Thank you in advance for the help

 

[Phone Man]

Can you look at each USB hub in Device Manager and see if it shows up?

Jim

 

[Dwarf]

I don't think that it is a motherboard driver issue, more an Antec one (specifically ChillControl compatibility). If CC worked on previous versions of Windows, such as XP, Vista, or Windows 7, have you tried running it in compatibility mode?

 

[Frogger4]

Can you look at each USB hub in Device Manager and see if it shows up?

Jim

Here is what I am seeing - not exactly sure what to look for, but here is a screen shot:

err.. probably can't see that. http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee291/frogger4pictures/devicemanager.png

 

[Frogger4]

I don't think that it is a motherboard driver issue, more an Antec one (specifically ChillControl compatibility). If CC worked on previous versions of Windows, such as XP, Vista, or Windows 7, have you tried running it in compatibility mode?

I have not tried compatibility mode yet, but let me see if that makes a difference, be right back.

 

[Frogger4]

I don't think that it is a motherboard driver issue, more an Antec one (specifically ChillControl compatibility). If CC worked on previous versions of Windows, such as XP, Vista, or Windows 7, have you tried running it in compatibility mode?

I get the same error as before when I try to start it, after setting compatibility mode for the applications

 

[Dwarf]

I would say that this confirms my earlier theory of it being a compatibility problem with the CC driver. The system has recognised that there is a device connected to the port, hence the Unknown USB Device message, but it doesn't know what it is or what to do with it (which is where the driver comes in).

What OS were you running before? Have you tried installing the driver in compatibility mode as though you were installing it in that OS?

 

[Frogger4]

I would say that this confirms my earlier theory of it being a compatibility problem with the CC driver. The system has recognised that there is a device connected to the port, hence the Unknown USB Device message, but it doesn't know what it is or what to do with it (which is where the driver comes in).

What OS were you running before? Have you tried installing the driver in compatibility mode as though you were installing it in that OS?

Hmm, that makes sense. I was using Win 7 Home Premium x64 before and just did an upgrade install for Win 8. How do you install something specifically in compatibility mode?

 

[Phone Man]

Run the Compatibility Troubleshooter and see what it recommends. I had one driver that was for Win 7 and it recommended I use XP SP3 and it worked.

Jim

 

[Frogger4]

Run the Compatibility Troubleshooter and see what it recommends. I had one driver that was for Win 7 and it recommended I use XP SP3 and it worked.

Jim

Good thought, I tried each of the different options and had the same result regardless (which is why I am concerned it may not be an issue with this application, but something else).

 

[Dwarf]

In exactly the same way as running an ordinary program. Instead of right-clicking the program executable and setting compatibility mode, you do so with the installation program. This is often install.exe or, as in your case, setup.exe. Bearing in mind that these drivers were created long before any versions of Windows 8 were available (official or otherwise), and that there aren't any newer drivers on the Antec website (I've checked), it is possible that this might or might not work.

If that is the case, you might be better off replacing the cooler with a simple HSF assembly that doesn't require a software program to function correctly. I know that the cooler you've got wasn't exactly cheap, but if it isn't working because of the driver problem, you could end up having to replace your processor as well.

 

[Frogger4]

Well, I uninstalled ChillControl, ran setup in compatibility mode, and then ran the new program in compatibility mode (and without compatibility mode). Unfortunately, I still got the same error as before.

Fortunately, the cooler still is working fine for everyday tasks (I've been carefully monitoring temps). I may be downgrading to Windows 7 to fix this problem; it'd be less work than replacing the cooler again. Thanks for the help, and if anyone has other thoughts, I'll try it out.

 

[loquacious]

Antec Kuhler and Win 8

I am running the Antec Kuhler 920 under windows 8 with no problems. I "updated" the driver by putting in the disk that came from Antec and told it to search manually. It found and installed the driver without a problem.