CPU Fan Error and Incredibly High CPU Temp - Liquid Cooling setup

[kevinmalluc]

Hi all,

I'm at a loss here. I searched the forums and saw many others have this problem, but it's usually right after they install a new liquid cooling system or recently made hardware changes. I have a desktop with liquid cooling (purchased the desktop completely preassembled, I'm not much of a hardware-assembling guy). Things were running perfectly. I shut down and went out of town for the night, and upon returning home this evening, everytime I try to boot up my PC, I get the "CPU Fan Error!" and can't boot into Windows.

-iBUYPOWER Gaming Computer PC AM5204Ei
-i7-7700k
-GTX 1080Ti 11GB
-16GB DDR4 RAM
-liquid cooled

Now bare with me as I try to stumble through this (remember, I'm not a hardware guy, so lots of searching on this forum and still in need of help)... when booting into BIOS, it detects my CPU fan running at around 6000 RPM, and the AIO Pump running at about 1050 RPM, but the CPU temp steadily rises in BIOS... starting out around 55C or so and within a minute or two, creeps up to around 90+ (at which point I freak out and manually shut off the pc). I bought a can of compressed air and cleaned all of the fans and the rest of inside my case, but no luck. All the fans are running, and when I place my hand on the tubes (the ones that extend from the 'water block?' that covers the CPU on the motherboard), they feel cool to the touch - not ice cold, but definitely cool, and I think I feel a very slight vibration, so perhaps my liquid cooling system/pump are working correctly? But if that's the case, why would the CPU temp be rising so quickly?



Some other info... the PC was preassembled purchased new and worked fine the 13 months I've had it - I began getting the CPU Fan Error without doing ANY modifications whatsoever, just started happening today when booting up my pc. If I have it on for a couple minutes and reboot, then I also get an error saying the CPU temperature is too high. The water block is plugged into the 3 pin "CPU_FAN" slot on the motherboard, and there's also another red/yellow/black cable that's plugged into 'AIO_PUMP' on the motherboard and runs to the fan all the way at the back of the pc (which I'm assuming is the fan for the radiator?)... but in the photo, there's a white rectangular block extending from these cables that's hanging loosely not plugged into anything... should this be plugged into something? Also, if I'm understanding correctly, this liquid cooling system doesn't use a reservoir?

I've tried ensuring all the connections are secure (unplugging/plugging back in), dusting everything off with compressed air, even attempting to change BIOS settings to no avail. Of course, if I set CPU Fan to "ignore", I can boot up windows fine, but the CPU is quickly rising in temp the whole time so that's not solving the issue. Despite feeling the tubes cold once the pc is powered on, could the water pump be failing?

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I've searched and searched and can't find a solution for this sort of behavior happening right out of the blue, so I'm hoping someone can bare with my lack of technical jargon/knowledge and guide me through this. Thanks in advance!

 

[CountMike]

If pump is connected to CPU_Fan header than it would be reported as CPU Fan. and it's speed regulated as it was a fan and by CPU temperature.
I think that pump and radiator fans are connected all wrong. Radiator fans should connect to CPU_Fan header and pump to AiO_Pump header. After all, that's why modern MBs have that header. Most MBs don't even have speed adjustable AiO_Pump headers because pumps are supposed to run full RPMs all the time. It's important to move heat of the CPU as fast as possible because it's hottest and smallest contact point for heat transfer, rest of cooling system has much higher mass and can soak heat energy longer.
The "What's it for" item is a Molex connector for devices like older disk drives and provides steady 12v. from power supply. In this case it's there to connect pump to PSU instead to the header on MB. It should be one or the other and never at same time or bad short may occur. In case you connect pump to Molex you will not get RPM reading for pump and pump would work 100% speed all the time.

 

[kevinmalluc]

Thanks for the reply CountMike. Makes sense, I switched them and instead connected the radiator fan to CPU_Fan header and the pump to the AIO_Pump header (my PC arrived with them in the other order and I hadn't run into any problems until earlier tonight, but I wonder why it was assembled that way?) But anyway, after switching, it takes care of the CPU Fan Error and Windows does boot up normally, but it appears that the CPU temp is still super high (rises about a 1 degree Celcius every couple of seconds, caps out at about 89C), and if I restart my pc after being on for a couple minutes, then I'll run into the 'CPU Temperature overheated' error message and it instead boots to BIOS again.

I noticed that the top tube coming from the cooler (water block? pump? not sure the correct terminology, but the cooler itself that sits ontop the CPU) is a bit warm near where it connects to the cooler, but the bottom tube is nice and cold, as is most of the rest of the top tube. I'm really hoping that it's not a case of my liquid cooler/pump failing and having to completely replace the whole thing (it's about a year old, warranty JUST expired a few weeks back, as it goes!).

From what I've gathered so far from doing more searching on the forums, would my only options be at this point just removing the cooler and reattaching it again with new thermal paste (I've never done this before) and/or just outright replacing the whole dang thing? Thanks again!

 

[CountMike]

Considering that it was assembled wrong way, I wouldn't be surprised it was mounted wrong too. At this stage you can try changing paste and checking if it's making good contact with CPU. But first connect pump straight to PSU instead to MB if you have a free Molex connector. Or check first if pump is working full speed as it is now.
If everything goes right but temps are not lowered significantly when pump and fans are running full speed, than that cooler could be just not enough for your processor.

 

[kevinmalluc]

Unfortunately no luck, I also ordered some new thermal paste a couple days back and it arrived today, so I removed the water block, cleaned off the old paste with alcohol, then applied then new paste - the CPU temp was still skyrocketing, so I redid it (cleaned off paste, new paste) only this time I made sure it was a bit less, like a pea-sized shape. No difference. At this point, I'm thinking my next step is to just bite the bullet and purchase a new cooler. It worked well for a year at least (I've read AIO pumps don't last too long, but I was hoping more than a year's usage). I might go with the Corsair H60, it seems well-rated on Amazon (but again, I'm totally new to this). With shipping time, I probably won't be able to get it installed until Sunday night, but I'll update as soon as it arrives and is installed (because knowing how this is all going, I might run into more problems, haha!). Thanks for all the suggestions CountMike

 

[CountMike]

Yes, your pump may be screwed. If you lookup how they work you'll see that pumps motor and impeller are not connected physically but only a magnet transmission between them so motor may be working but not transferring (enough) torque to impeller.
Corsair looks to be better make than that one so it will last longer. I have Cooler Master Nepton 140 XL on this machine 5 years or more running 24/7 and no problems with pump.

 

[R0GG]

Hi, can you upload an HWMONITOR screenshot, it would show Pump speed (eventually the right one) and radiator fans speed (are both of them spinning, do you have control over their speed and could increase it, are they attached to the same fan header through splitter or attached to the pump built in fan header) what model is your AIO and does it come with it's own software? thanks.
Also I would try to flex those tubing at their origin at the CPU to make them more horizontal, and light percussion / massaging all along the tubing.
Is the pump very noisy or too quiet?

 

[CountMike]

Problem is that any program or BIOS would show only pump motor speed and not that of impeller which may not be turning at all despite motor going full speed. Some coolers (mostly custom kits) have also liquid flow sensors but I don't know of any AiO cooler that has that.