[SOLVED] NZXT Kraken Z73 Pump Not Working

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CloudyFaygo

CloudyFaygo

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Sep 23, 2019
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Hello everyone,

Recently I decided to upgrade my Thermaltake Water 3.0 240 CL-W233-PL12SW-B Water Cooler to a NZXT Kraken Z73 series Water Cooler. I should also add that I purchased Thermaltake Riing Quad 12 RGB radiator fans to replace the NZXT OEM fans. After installation, when I booted my computer (After POST) the bottom of this screen displayed the text: "CPU Fan Error!". About 3 seconds it prompted me to hit F1 to enter the BIOS. Once in the BIOS, I saw that my CPU temps were oscillating around 67 degrees Celsius.....

At first we read online that, "Asus motherboards, limit the wattage that comes from the CPU_FAN and OPT header. From what I've read it can vary from 2-3w sometimes less depending on the motherboard. The Kraken uses 3.3w from the 3pin header to make the pump run like its supposed to. ASUS motherboards are the only ones that have this issue.

My advise, Move the 3pin header to a CHA_FAN or SYS_FAN header and disable that error in bios. That will get rid of that error and allow the Kraken to run as it should. Also, Make sure that your USB header is plugged into your motherboard too."

We also found online that some people are claiming that "Air Bubbles" get stuck in this pump and they shake the radiator to allow gravity to push the bubble out of the line..... but I am not sure how that makes sense as its a closed line so where would the air go? - lol
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNNLWPLqAYM
(Tried this and did not work)

After many google searches, a friend and I were able to find that some folks online were having luck by changing different QFan settings, disabling monitoring of CPU temp, and setting it to both PWM and DC on manual 100% just to be sure. In the end I was able to bypass the "CPU Fan Error!" and enter Windows, although in BIOS the CPU temp is reporting high numbers and so is the pump LCD screen.

I then installed the NZXT CAM software and was able to determine that the pump is not working at all. It shows a status of 0. I AM 99.99% convinced that this is the issue (Look at image here https://imgur.com/a/94iMFnw) Different people online claim that it could be a faulty pump. Bottom line is I want to keep the NZXT Kraken Z73 Water Cooling system because on paper it should work... just maybe looking for other suggestions as I have gone down many rabbit holes on Reddit and tried a lot of different methods.

Current Hardware:
Case: Thermaltake A500 Aluminum Tempered Glass Gaming Case
Case Fans: 3x [RGB] Thermaltake Riing Trio 12 Radiator 120mm RGB LED Fan
Processor: Intel® Core™ i9-9900KF Processor (8x 3.60GHz/16MB L3 Cache)
Processor Cooling: NZXT KRAKEN Z73 LIQUID WATER COOLER
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER - 8GB GDDR6 (VR-Ready) - Single Card
Motherboard: ASUS TUF Z390-PLUS GAMING -- RGB, 802.11ac WiFi, USB 3.1 (6 Rear, 4 Front), TUF Protection
Memory: 32 GB [8 GB X4] DDR4-3600 Corsair Vengeance Pro
Power Supply: 850 Watt - Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB - 80 PLUS Gold, Full Modular
Primary Hard Drive: 1 TB Samsung 860 PRO SSD -- Read: 560MB/s, Write: 530MB/s
Data Hard Drive: 2 TB Seagate Barracuda Hard Drive -- 256MB Cache, 7200RPM, 6.0Gb/s
Network Card: TP-Link Archer T6E AC1300 Wireless Network Card 802.11ac Dual-Band (2.4GHz/5GHz) up to 867 Mbps
USB Expansion Card: PCI-Express USB 3.0 Expansion Card (2x External Port + 1x Header)
 
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CloudyFaygo said:
Asus motherboards, limit the wattage that comes from the CPU_FAN and OPT header. From what I've read it can vary from 2-3w sometimes less depending on the motherboard
Click to expand...
Nope. Cpu_fan headers are rated at at least 1A @ 12v. That's 12w. Period. Some motherboards might not put out the full 1A, in which case the cpu_fan header maximum might differ 2-3 watts, so a range of 10-15w. More than enough to cover the pump and/or fans.

The x73 is a simple AIO setup. Pump goes anywhere, aio fans go to cpu_fan header via splitter. Usb hookup. Use Cam software, it'll override the bios settings.
 
EridanusSV said:
Can you do it fast enough to update the driver? And check this article out as well:
https://support.nzxt.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036297634-My-Kraken-is-not-detected-in-CAM

Maybe your pump is at 0% right now(which it shouldn't be). But once the driver is updated, you might be able to crank it up and down on NZXT CAM. Good luck.
Click to expand...

I booted up the computer this morning (Can only leave it on for about 3-5 minutes before the CPU overheats) and I checked Device Manager. It was able to detect the Z Kraken. But thanks for sending me that link.

Karadjgne said:
Nope. Cpu_fan headers are rated at at least 1A @ 12v. That's 12w. Period. Some motherboards might not put out the full 1A, in which case the cpu_fan header maximum might differ 2-3 watts, so a range of 10-15w. More than enough to cover the pump and/or fans.

The x73 is a simple AIO setup. Pump goes anywhere, aio fans go to cpu_fan header via splitter. Usb hookup. Use Cam software, it'll override the bios settings.
Click to expand...

So I have tried to lookup and see what voltage my headers are on my Motherboard, (ASUS TUF Z390-PLUS GAMING -- RGB, 802.11ac WiFi, USB 3.1 (6 Rear, 4 Front), TUF Protection). According to online I should be able to "boost" the voltage on the headers but after searching through BIOS I am unable to find anything. Another thing I will add is I have the Z73 series and it comes with the LCD screen. The odd part is, that the screen turns on, works fine. Its just you do not hear or feel the pump doing anything.
 
Please check out this IMGUR photo I uploaded. It will be a screenshot of my Motherboards Manual page (1-13) for ASUS TUF Z390-PLUS GAMING.
https://imgur.com/GzLDxNk
View: https://imgur.com/GzLDxNk


I have tried to plug the 3 pin plug off the pump into the following locations (Based off internet searches)
  1. CPU_FAN
  2. CPU_OPT
  3. AIO_PUMP
  4. CHA_FAN1
  5. CHA_Fan2
Keep in mind that am I using Thermaltake Riing Quad 12 RGB radiator fans to replace the NZXT OEM fans on the radiator, but just to be clear they are connected to a Thermaltake controller and working fine. It goes back to my original issue where everything appears to be configured correctly in BIOS, but the physical pump mounted the CPU does not appear to be doing anything. The LCD screen pops on (So I know its getting power) but unlike my previous Thermaltake Water 3.0 240 CL-W233-PL12SW-B Water Cooler, I could feel that water was moving through the lines. On the NZXT Kraken Z73, it appears to not be pumping water through it at all.
 
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I've never seen any setting in a bios to 'boost' the voltage on a fan header. Ever. It's 12v. The only time that changes is when set for DC 3pin fan control, in which case voltage changes from 5v-12v or 7v-12v, depending on the fan requirements.

Fan headers are NEVER 'boosted' higher voltage than 12.

Instead of messing with stuff that doesn't require messing with, did you actually check to see if the installation of the pump is correct? It should be snug on the cpu, shouldn't be able to move.
 
Karadjgne said:
Fan headers are NEVER 'boosted' higher voltage than 12.

Instead of messing with stuff that doesn't require messing with, did you actually check to see if the installation of the pump is correct? It should be snug on the cpu, shouldn't be able to move.
Click to expand...

I agree with you but I am just listing everything I have seen on the NZXT reddit/forums page since other folks are experiencing similar issues with the smaller unit Z63. Yes the pump is installed correctly but if it comes to it, I can re-mount it with new thermal compound.

BUT lets say it was not mounted correctly, I should still be able to feel the pump working 🤔
 
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Update: Reached out to NZXT and had amazing customer service... just wanted to add that in because I read a lot of negativity online about their service. BUT they are shipping me a brand new NZXT Z73 unit because they agree that the pump is not turning over water.

At the moment it appears to be a faulty part but I will say that there is a lot of trouble around this brand when it comes to their cooling systems.

Will update the post and change to "Solved" once I have installed the new unit and confirmed it working.
 
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