On many of our cases, you may notice that the built-in LED ring around the power button may flicker while the PC is in use but while idle will generally not flicker as much. This behavior is because the power button includes not one, but two LEDs to indicate your PC's current status:
- The Power On LED
- The HDD Activity LED
The Power On LED as its name suggest is an LED that will remain on so long as the PC is powered on. If you run into an issue where the PC is accepting standby power, but this LED will not turn on when pressing the button then this can help isolate if there is an issue with the motherboard or power supply.
The HDD Activity LED or Storage Activity LED is another straight forward LED that will tell you if your PC is actively reading or writing to an attached storage drive, such as an SSD or HDD within the system itself. This can be very useful for checking if your PC is still active, or if the PC may have frozen if it becomes non-responsive. It is generally not recommended to force a PC shutdown while the HDD activity LED is flashing as this can result in data loss or corruption.
How can I disable the flashing on the NZXT power button?
Depending on the model of your motherboard, there may be a UEFI/BIOS setting to enable or disable the HDD Activity LEDs on the motherboard. For more information on this, please check your motherboard user's manual or reach out to the motherboard manufacturer's support team.
If the motherboard does not support disabling the HDD Activity LED in the UEFI/BIOS, you'll instead need to physically disconnect the HDD Activity LED.
Newer NZXT cases utilize the unified F_PANEL cable rather than individual header wires, which will require the use of an F_PANEL extension or breakout cable disconnect the HDD Activity LED.
Older NZXT case models may have come packed with an F_PANEL Breakout Cable to allow use with older motherboards, however as most newer motherboards have adopted the unified F_PANEL layout this Breakout Cable is no longer included with newer cases.
Please note: Due to limited inventory, NZXT will not be able to offer the F_PANEL Breakout Cable for motherboards which support the unified F_PANEL layout. Third party options can be found through online retailers by searching for "Motherboard Extension Wire" or "F_Panel Breakout Cable" as a keyword.
If you have either a third party F_PANEL Extension Wire, or an F_PANEL Breakout Cable, you can disconnect the F_PANEL cable from the motherboard and connect the extension or Breakout Cable directly to the F_PANEL cable from the case. From here, manually connect each of the cable ends to the appropriate pins on the F_PANEL header while keeping the HDD LED cables disconnected.
If properly done, only the following connections should be attached as shown below:
- Power Switch (Power SW)
- +P LED
- -P LED
- Reset Switch (Reset SW)
- Only on older NZXT cases
For the correct layout, please refer to your motherboard user's manual.
Do you have any questions not covered by this guide or need further assistance? Please feel free to reach out to our Customer Support team and one of our friendly support agents will be there to assist you.
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