[SOLVED] New Liquid Cooled ibuypower PC overheated 3 times in a row after startup, working now, any damage? Should I return it back to best buy for a new one?

[roadie111]

Just the other day I picked up an ibuypower Pre-built PC from best buy, it has an i7-11700KF & a RTX 3070 both are liquid cooled with the plastic tubing, idk much about liquid cooling. Anyways I'm very detailed and I followed the Start up instructions slowly and perfectly so I wouldn't mess anything up. It started up fine and was working well, soon as I started doing more things on the pc like downloading discord, needed apps, etc, the screen froze and the computer shut off. I was pretty concerned but I waited a couple mins or so then turned it back on, this time it shut off again within less than 3 minutes probably. At this point I figured it was overheating and I let it sit for a bit, once it was cooled off I quickly downloaded HWID monitor to watch the temps. And sure enough the cpu was running at a consistent 70-80 degrees Celsius. I knew this was wrong. Anyways I kept watching the temps while doing stuff and while doing nothing it would be around there but soon as I started to use browsers or download anything it would spike anywhere from 85-95 I might even have saw 100 Celsius. And if I did enough it would just shut off. I think it shut off maybe a total of 4-5 times.

I gave up at this point and was ready to take it right back to best buy but I came across a post on reddit that helped me fix it. Someone said to tip the computer over because there are possible air pockets/gaps in the liquid cooling, and I had already before I saw this unhooked the computer and carried it in the living room to look at it which probably moved the water around. Anyways this time when I started it up after having tipped it around and such I noticed a lot more bubbles freeing up in the system. And sure enough the temps on the cpu were down to a nice 20-30 degrees Celsius.

Long story short the CPU reached very high temps 4-5 times before properly working and this frustrates me it being a brand new PC. I'm wondering if there is any chance this damaged the PC and since I can return it for 15 days should I just take it back and get a new one since I can. Or do you think the CPU is perfectly fine and I shouldn't have to worry about any complications from this incident now or in the future use of the PC. (Note: After I got everything running smoothly at low temps I did play warzone for a couple hours and it ran perfectly and CPU didn't reach even above 65 Celsius, GPU ran at 65-75 I think).

That being said nothing in the instructions said to tip the pc over or anything, it said you will see air bubbles at first and they will work themselves out as you use the computer and what not, and that did happen when I first started it up but I didn't even play 1 game for it to get hot enough to crash and shut off. So this is not my fault, only after I carried the pc around stirring up the water tipping it over and such did it run correctly.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Where is the radiator/with the fans on it to cool it located in realtion to the cpu?

 

[roadie111]

Where is the radiator/with the fans on it to cool it located in realtion to the cpu?

How do I upload a picture to here? It's not letting me for some reason.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

What app are you using?

 

[roadie111]

What app are you using?

Gyazo

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

(7) How to post images in TomsHardware (guide) | Tom's Hardware Forum

 

[roadie111]

Where is the radiator/with the fans on it to cool it located in realtion to the cpu?

Apparently I was copying the wrong link, thanks!

 

[Phaaze88]

So the radiator is at the side, and everything's connected to a distroplate at the front. The pump is that cube at the bottom.
The hardware is designed to throttle to protect itself. What you've described isn't anything too serious. If, for example, it was running like that for days at at time, it might be a different story.
I wouldn't return for that reason, but for another one:
How familiar are you with custom loops? Perhaps you know someone who is, and intend to let them handle any issues you may have?
If neither of those, maintenance(draining, flushing, leak testing, etc) will seem very daunting...

 

[roadie111]

So the radiator is at the side, and everything's connected to a distroplate at the front. The pump is that cube at the bottom.
The hardware is designed to throttle to protect itself. What you've described isn't anything too serious. If, for example, it was running like that for days at at time, it might be a different story.
I wouldn't return for that reason, but for another one:
How familiar are you with custom loops? Perhaps you know someone who is, and intend to let them handle any issues you may have?
If neither of those, maintenance(draining, flushing, leak testing, etc) will seem very daunting...

Appreciate the help! That makes me feel better about the situation for sure, I am not very familiar with custom loops but I'm willing to put the time in to learn and will take it to a reputable professional when needed for maintenance I don't know how to do yet. How often do these things need to be maintained for the things you listed? Maybe I should look into switching to a different build, but I do really like the specs of this one and how it looks and I got a very good price. And as far as I know the liquid cooling does a better job.

Btw don't think this matters but was weird they didn't mention it in the instructions, they have you remove the foam that was inside protecting the components and you can see in the picture there is a plastic film or cover over the pump in the bottom right you referred to. It just looked like a packaging thing so I removed it, hope that was supposed to be on there or something lol. doubt it. Just was confused because I've never seen one of those on the inside of the pc only the outside glass.

 

[Phaaze88]

How often do these things need to be maintained for the things you listed?

At least once a year is good practice.
Sometimes people buy these because they're aesthetically pleasing - I can't blame 'em for a reason like that - then a couple to a few years down the road:
Ahh, thermals are horrible.
Games don't play well, or stutter or whatever.
You find out they haven't had a lick of maintenance done in all that time, and are then presented with images of a nasty, or clogged up loop. Bleh.

While cost is one of the things that turn people away from it, it's not as high up the ladder compared to maintenance, and component compatibility(when changing parts, or doing completely new assemblies).
I'd like to give it a try at least once - but will start off small, and only do it on the gpu.

Btw don't think this matters but was weird they didn't mention it in the instructions, they have you remove the foam that was inside protecting the components and you can see in the picture there is a plastic film or cover over the pump in the bottom right you referred to. It just looked like a packaging thing so I removed it, hope that was supposed to be on there or something lol. doubt it. Just was confused because I've never seen one of those on the inside of the pc only the outside glass.

I'm sure that was meant to protect it from scratching.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Do what you want. Me personally a full water cooling system like that is too much maintenance. Sure they look nice. Keep in mind I’m pc tech and remember working on a guys system from one of the gaming pc manufacturers where their water cooling leaked and toasted the board and graphics card. Suffice it to say we ended up building him a new system.