Has anyone ever had their Hyper 212 warp?

[Djedi]

Has anyone ever had their Hyper 212 warp?
Mine worked fine for a few months and then I started to get occasional weird win 7 startups with drivers not loading. Usually, after a restart, I was ok. Then, suddenly, I got blue screens.
First, after an hour or so, then, more frequenty, then almost as soon as windows opened.
I replaced the hard drive. Nothing changed.
I replaced the video card- since once in a a while mobo startup would hang on the video LED (Asus M5A99X EVO v1).
Same issues.
I replaced the power supply after finding it fluctuated a bit on the psu tester (but not by much).
Same problem, but it took longer to blue screen.
Then I replaced my FX8120 with a brand new FX8150, figuring the processor was shot.
It worked for a several hours (35-39 degrees idle, but 59 degrees under use) and I made myself a note to look into better coolers. I thought I had it licked, but then... you guessed it, - blue screen.
Now I decided to take all the heatsinks off the board and replacing the heat compound. In doing so, I also had to remove the Hyper 212.
It popped off as soon as I had unscrewed the 4 holding screws. I still didn't think much of it until I went to replace the arctic silver on the cooler and the processor. I noticed that the striations my credit card left from spreading the compound the day before were still evident! Only on the outside of 2 sides was there evidence of contact!
I wiped everything off the cooler base and laid a metal straightedge across it. It looked like a series of waves across the cooling rods. They had expanded above the aluminum base, and not very evenly! There was probably a 1mm gap between the high and low points!
I brought it to my cellar workshop where I have a sheet of glass taped to the bench. I taped 220 grit paper on that, and slowly worked down the base (trying to avoid all "chatter" as I moved it across the sandpaper.) After about 30 minutes I was done. I followed with 500 paper in 2 directions to get a smooth surface.
After applying a fresh, thin layer of arctic silver to the processor and cooler base, I tried to reposition the cooler, but it had created a nice vacuum to the CPU and was difficult to move. I left well enough alone and reassembled everything.
Now I am running at 24-26 degrees idle and 40-45 working hard (at 3950 Mhz).
My question-
Have any of you ever noticed the partially exposed heat pipes on a cooler expanding? I know it was not like that when I first assembled the computer since I always "clean up" the base of every cooler with 500 paper, unless it is polished.
Also, should I replace the cooler ? What are my chances of a repeat occurance of this issue?
Thanks for your help.
Djedi

 

[InvalidError]

It is unlikely that the pipes "expanded" unless the pipes were over-filled or had some more volatile contaminants in it causing over-pressure.

Another possibility is that CM doesn't temper the pipes after bending to reset the copper's "shape memory", the bonding between copper and the aluminum block on your HSF failed and the pipes sprung themselves out of it. (Copper doesn't have much shape memory/springiness so this seems unlikely as well - though CM could be using springy copper alloy.)

 

[Djedi]

OK, so are the pipes actually filled with something? I sanded the Cr... out of them to get them flat and nothing "leaked".
They looked pretty solid to me. Also, they seem to be sunk into the AL about 2/3 of the way, so the AL is closed back "around" them at the flat surface, so little chance of them popping out I think.
Add to that the fact that I did sand the unit down smoother with 500 grit before installation the first time, and everything seemed pretty flat and solid then.

 

[InvalidError]

Yes, the pipes are (partially) filled with something, which is why they are soldered shut at both ends rather than left open. Some people with slightly too shallow cases have tried cutting those heatsinks down to size and discovered it the hard way.

I have no idea what they put in there but there shouldn't be too many non-restricted non-toxic non-flammable non-corrosive liquids with boiling points somewhere in the neighborhood of 50C. Whatever they used also needs to be non-reactive with zinc, silver, copper and whatever else is used in the pipe alloy and solder.

 

[Djedi]

Just found a Noctua 120mm double fan cooler on ebay with a base that has totally enclosed pipes. I don't like the Ni plating on the base, but I can eliminate that pretty quickly. I think I will keep a watchful eye on the temps for now and switch them if things get out of hand again.