Can having two power switches on one molex adapter be a problem?

So I got some computer LEDs in the mail and i hooked them up to a molex power cable which also had my fractal design r4 fan controller connected to it and they started acting really weird..

They would never all light up and then when i would change my fan speed the LEDs would get brighter and darker and in the end only about 10 out of 40 or so of the LEDs stayed working.

 

Is this normal?

I believe so since you are introducing the voltage regulation in the LED switch. Try using a different Molex or if it has a pass through use that. So instead of LED Switch>Fan Hub have it go Fan Hub>LED Switch 

Doesn't seem right, the fan controller shouldn't effect it when they're connected in parallel. Could be that it's overloading the molex connection but it shouldn't use that much power. Have you tried using a different molex plug ideally on another cable?

Wait, the R4 has a fan controller?

Yeah i tried that as well and acted differently there too, it mainly just wouldn't work at all, i think it's faulty as i am getting a replacement one but the fan controller controlling it is still weird..

 

The exact setup at the time was a 4 way pci-molex adapter that would've had the fan controller on the last on and the LED controller before it, but the voltage changing would have to be on teh little chip near the switches, otherwise you'd have dead SSDs and HDDs all over the show.

I think that's what it's called, it has 3 3 pin fan headers going to a 3 way switch (voltage changer, 5, 7.5 and 12 I think) and then a molex cable.

Its this, but in white http://www.overclockers.co.nz/store/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_97_200&product_id=727

Dont run off a fan controller. They're 12v only. Either run em off another molex or 3pin mb fan header.

Why? I want to control my fans..

I think he means the LEDs

I am running them of a molex connector though, it's plugged into one of those 4 way piggy back ones that come with like every single PSU.

what else do you have on that line of 4?

yeah ... a very minimal three speed switch inside the front door

It's a 3 line now because I didn't need the spare molex plug and i had another cable, but that shouldn't make any difference. I also have an SSD and an HDD on a splitter, so the fan controller can't be changing the voltage otherwise my drives would be screwed.

I wouldnt think that the voltage would be a problem because the PSU is a regulated power supply it should put out constant voltage regardless of the load ( at least until its overloaded) Fans do however cause a lot of noise that you might be able to see in the LEDs but that wouldn't explain why not all of them work sounds like the Leds might be faulty but it dosnt look like there is a lot to them. Do they have a little box between the lights and the power connector ?

meant the leds. leds when @ <12v wont work correctly.

if leds dont run as they should off a dedicated 12v cable then A) they're faulty (test in another system to be sure) or B) line is overloaded which would take a shit load of devices for this to occur.

Ha, I never noticed it. And I've been trying to come up with a (free) way to slow the fans down on mine.

Haha yeah, just behind the front panel on the top right :p

yeah, there's one a switch board where the two light strips and the molex power cable plug into.

maybe it is defective then if you have another PSU around you could use the paper clip trick to power it up and test the LEDs with nothing else connected.