Discussion iCUE Issues w/Windows 11, Can't Uninstall

[Jp42nca]

Built my pc at the beginning of 2023 & its been running without issues. Always did iCUE updates, I'm not a gamer, this is a work pc for photo editing, I'm a real estate photographer.

PC SPECS: ASUS B660i,i7-12700k, Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5 64GB 5200mhz, EVGA GTX 1650 Super, Corsair H100i Elite, SF750, Windows 11 (Home), Keyboard K95 Platinum.

I don't have extensive lighting, just 2 fans on the front radiator, ram, pump info (Temp), & keyboard. I don't go for the rainbow color stuff, fans on front radiator are constant light blue & keyboard is solid white, ram is light blue as well. I turned on the pc and before signing in you get the rainbow stuff on fans and keyboard, once signed into Windows 11 it goes to what I programmed into iCUE, light blue fan/ram lights and white keyboard.

But this time it didn't, stayed rainbow colors on front fans and random swirling rainbow colors flashing on keyboard. The iCUE icon that was on my taskbar went from the iCUE icon to a white rectangle icon. When I clicked the icon it will not open iCUE, it says can't find iCUE and do I want to 'Browse' .

When I go to PC's Apps>Installed Apps, it shows installed but shows nothing about how many MB's or GB's the file is, its blank. When you click on the 3 dots to the right it says Modify or Uninstall, both are greyed out and aren't operable.

When I go to Control Panel>All Control Panel Items> Programs and Features it shows all programs on my pc except Corsair or iCUE software.

When I go to This PC>Local Disk (C)> Program Files there is a Corsair Folder, I can open it and it shows iCUE5 with associated files. I tried to delete it and a dialog box pops up and says 'Folder In Use" 'The action can't be completed because the folder or a file in it is open in another program".

I went on Corsair's website and downloaded the Trouble Shooter Link, when I choose to Uninstall a program, Corsair/iCUE didn't show up in the dialog box.

At this point I downloaded iCUE5 latest version and tried to reinstall, when I go through the steps I get past selecting 'English', click next then it says 'The latest version of iCUE is installed. Under that it gives you 3 options, Open iCUE, Repair App, or Uninstall iCUE. Tried all 3 to no avail.

As for other pc monitoring I use After Burner for my GPU fan curve and it monitors CPU & GPU temps and usage on my taskbar so I always have it in sight.

It's like iCUE is there but it's not letting me in and I can't use it or uninstall it. So I'm stuck with a swirling rainbow flashing color keyboard, rainbow lights on my fans, cpu monitoring seems functional because its monitoring my Liquid Temps and is fluctuating between 28°C to 30°C , no controls for my fan curves or any other controls. I am a Prisoner of iCUE!

I believe I have a corrupted file via a bad update and fragments are in different locations, causing this issue, looking for a way to totally remove all Corsair iCUE software so I can do a clean install. My thoughts are possibly to reinstall Windows 11 new but I don't want to do that if at all possible. I would have to reinstall all my programs for photo editing plus redo all my Actions in Ps. I want to avoid that at all costs.

I have the latest Windows 11(Home) ver 22H2 & iCUE5 ver 5.7.106 updates. This issue started before I did the latest Windows 11 update. Hope someone can help me, I'm over iCUE at the moment and want my pc back to normal. All advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance and for reading my post.

 

[DASBOOT]

The ICUE may be running as a startup item or it may, in fact, be a driver installed in the system. Using the "Control" "Alt" and "Delete" keys to enter the Task Manager you may find Icue is running in the list of running processes or it will be listed in Startup apps. If it is a process you can right-click any process and End Task. If it disappears from the list. You can then delete the Icue folder manually. If the Icue is not an executable but an APP from the Microsoft App Store (very similar to a phone App, not really a program, it may not possibly show as a process). If it is a startup app it can be disabled. (right-click then disable, that does not delete it or remove the startup registry line it just stops its function and turning-on) (You can also type "task manager" in the search box to access it)

Now, there are two other tools, you can use to delete programs and apps. You can use Ccleaner Free or Pro and go to Tools and both Executables and Apps will show and can be uninstalled there. The second Tool is Revo Uninstaller Pro Portable, which is the most professional way of uninstalling. It is not free. This tool uninstalls the program/app and then all the leftover registry lines that Programs and Features and CCleaner leave behind. You can also Hunter mode and point to the Icue folder and it will hunt all instances of connected leftover Icue crap. This is if the program does not show in the uninstaller list. (Note: you must click on the RevoUPPort.exe to start Revo inside the Portable's folder). This is a standalone program, it does not install itself in the registry, so it can run from a flash drive if necessary, hence the word "portable". There is a Free version of Revo, but you lose the force uninstall feature. I have repaired more machines and cleaned up more unwanted Apps and Programs with Revo than I can count and I cannot live without it. Remember this is a powerful program so be careful. Note: when you are finished with the first step of an uninstall (even with Revo) this is where "Programs and Features" ends its Job, you must SCAN for leftovers to remove the registry lines and leftover system crap. "Programs and Features" and Ccleaner do not do this and both depend on the built-in uninstaller from the original install of any program or App. If the original coder does not write an uninstaller or if the uninstaller gets corrupted It will not uninstall anything and Revo is the only option using Force Uninstall or Hunter Mode. How to use Revo

There is one last invaluable tool for uninstalling. It is called "Search Everything" by Void Tools and it is free. You can search for ICUE and Corsair in the search window and find all instances of this crap. Right-clicking a search result and going to Open Path will take you to the item's real location, which may be helpful for using Revo Force Uninstall mode. Note the search function time to completion in Search Everything is much, much, faster than Microsoft's P.O.S. built-in search function. This program comes in portable form as well.

If a program or App does not uninstall cleanly with its own uninstaller it is poorly written code to begin with. If a user is upgrading a program by reinstalling over the older version and the program does not recognize that it is an upgrade during the install it is poorly written code.

Hope this helps.

 

[Jp42nca]

The ICUE may be running as a startup item or it may, in fact, be a driver installed in the system. Using the "Control" "Alt" and "Delete" keys to enter the Task Manager you may find Icue is running in the list of running processes or it will be listed in Startup apps. If it is a process you can right-click any process and End Task. If it disappears from the list. You can then delete the Icue folder manually. If the Icue is not an executable but an APP from the Microsoft App Store (very similar to a phone App, not really a program, it may not possibly show as a process). If it is a startup app it can be disabled. (right-click then disable, that does not delete it or remove the startup registry line it just stops its function and turning-on) (You can also type "task manager" in the search box to access it)

Now, there are two other tools, you can use to delete programs and apps. You can use Ccleaner Free or Pro and go to Tools and both Executables and Apps will show and can be uninstalled there. The second Tool is Revo Uninstaller Pro Portable, which is the most professional way of uninstalling. It is not free. This tool uninstalls the program/app and then all the leftover registry lines that Programs and Features and CCleaner leave behind. You can also Hunter mode and point to the Icue folder and it will hunt all instances of connected leftover Icue crap. This is if the program does not show in the uninstaller list. (Note: you must click on the RevoUPPort.exe to start Revo inside the Portable's folder). This is a standalone program, it does not install itself in the registry, so it can run from a flash drive if necessary, hence the word "portable". There is a Free version of Revo, but you lose the force uninstall feature. I have repaired more machines and cleaned up more unwanted Apps and Programs with Revo than I can count and I cannot live without it. Remember this is a powerful program so be careful. Note: when you are finished with the first step of an uninstall (even with Revo) this is where "Programs and Features" ends its Job, you must SCAN for leftovers to remove the registry lines and leftover system crap. "Programs and Features" and Ccleaner do not do this and both depend on the built-in uninstaller from the original install of any program or App. If the original coder does not write an uninstaller or if the uninstaller gets corrupted It will not uninstall anything and Revo is the only option using Force Uninstall or Hunter Mode. How to use Revo

There is one last invaluable tool for uninstalling. It is called "Search Everything" by Void Tools and it is free. You can search for ICUE and Corsair in the search window and find all instances of this crap. Right-clicking a search result and going to Open Path will take you to the item's real location, which may be helpful for using Revo Force Uninstall mode. Note the search function time to completion in Search Everything is much, much, faster than Microsoft's P.O.S. built-in search function. This program comes in portable form as well.

If a program or App does not uninstall cleanly with its own uninstaller it is poorly written code to begin with. If a user is upgrading a program by reinstalling over the older version and the program does not recognize that it is an upgrade during the install it is poorly written code.

Hope this helps.

Much Appreciated Advice, thanks for responding. I spent yesterday afternoon working on this and got it to work, at least for now everything seems to be working fine and back to normal.

Per your response/suggestion it's possible I might have a fragment here or there but so far nothing is out of the ordinary. I decided to reset my pc back before it all began giving me issues. I had nothing to lose at this point, Control Panel>All Control Items>Recovery. I've been dealing with this for 4-5 days so I went back 8 days and it did work.

However I had to reinstall Lr then necessary updates to bring me current, did the same for Windows 11. Lr did save all my presets which I was happy to see. I found it odd that Lr had to be reinstalled but Ps was just fine. Ps, my Actions (thank god), & Lumenzia no changes all there. iCUE icon back on my taskbar and when I opened it all was good, just needed to update, had to reprogram fan curves & lighting. The only other issue I had was Windows Photo Viewer would not open a jpg image, it reset to tif files, just changed it back to jpg and all is well. This morning signed on tried everything out and all is good, so nice to have my pc back.

Thanks again for your help, I'll keep this in mind if it should happen again. I've heard good things about Revo through google reviews, so when you recommend it I won't hesitate to use it in the future. You've responded to a few of my issues in the past & much appreciate your knowledge & professionalism. Thanks again so much for your insight.

 

[DASBOOT]

one more area of fix, BTW most amateur PC fixers reinstall the OS which always should be a LAST resort. (The Quickest most drastic fix, but most times, unnecessary)
SFC Scannow used the proper way (also there is a big difference between a clean install from a flash drive and what an OEM does to get an OS on a prebuilt machine which is
known as a Ghost Dump. IE the OS is copied in full, with drivers, in a partially activated state There is no check and balances in the write, as with an installer, so errors are high percentage, especially in the registry, but companies such as Dell do not have the time to do it right.

 

[Jp42nca]

one more area of fix, BTW most amateur PC fixers reinstall the OS which always should be a LAST resort. (The Quickest most drastic fix, but most times, unnecessary)
SFC Scannow used the proper way (also there is a big difference between a clean install from a flash drive and what an OEM does to get an OS on a prebuilt machine which is
known as a Ghost Dump. IE the OS is copied in full, with drivers, in an unactivated state There is no check and balances in the write, as with an installer, so errors are high percentage, especially in the registry, but companies such as Dell do not have the time to do it right.

Thanks for the additional info. Leaving town tonight but will check into the SFC Scannow when I return next week. You said IE the OS is copied on full etc...What does IE mean?

 

[DASBOOT]

The OS is not copied (written line by line with checks for errors as it goes to the final boot to the desktop). There are no checks when the OS is imaged to a drive which is called a Ghost Dump, It is one large write with drivers integrated, not loaded afterward. You would be amazed at the amount of registry errors that are present when you check a new OEM machine just after it makes it to the desktop for the 1st time. " I said i.e. the O.S. is copied IN full, not on full" O.E.M.'s keep images for each machine type ready for drive installation when you purchase it from them or in a store. This is what the recovery section of the main drive is that they partition-in is, so you can go back to the original garbage dump. The images are preactivated with Hardware Activation so you can reinstall the OS clean as long as it is the same version.

 

[Jp42nca]

The OS is not copied (written line by line with checks for errors as it goes to the final boot to the desktop). There are no checks when the OS is imaged to a drive which is called a Ghost Dump, It is one large write with drivers integrated, not loaded afterward. You would be amazed at the amount of registry errors that are present when you check a new OEM machine just after it makes it to the desktop for the 1st time. " I said i.e. the O.S. is copied IN full, not on full" O.E.M.'s keep images for each machine type ready for drive installation when you purchase it from them or in a store. This is what the recovery section of the main drive is that they partition-in is, so you can go back to the original garbage dump. The images are preactivated with Hardware Activation so you can reinstall the OS clean as long as it is the same version.

Sorry for not responding sooner, I've been out of town & just returned this morning. Thanks again for your in-depth instructions and information you provide. You are a wealth of knowledge, many thanks.

 

[Jp42nca]

one more area of fix, BTW most amateur PC fixers reinstall the OS which always should be a LAST resort. (The Quickest most drastic fix, but most times, unnecessary)
SFC Scannow used the proper way (also there is a big difference between a clean install from a flash drive and what an OEM does to get an OS on a prebuilt machine which is
known as a Ghost Dump. IE the OS is copied in full, with drivers, in a partially activated state There is no check and balances in the write, as with an installer, so errors are high percentage, especially in the registry, but companies such as Dell do not have the time to do it right.

I watched that video this morning & it was really helpful, great tool. As always thanks fort the help.