Question Residue inside cooling system, plus shorting trouble shooting question

[jigsawman]

Hi,
I recently had to drain my cooling system. The cooling block on my RTX 4060 loosened up due to heat cycling as far as I can tell. It dripped on my psu and shorted it (and maybe something else out. At first I did nothing more than tighten the block up, added coolant and replaced the psu. About half of the fan system and RGB lighting system almost immediately blacked out. The cooling pump stopped running and I smelled hot plastic. No smoke, just that smell, you know? Turned it off immediately and decided I would tear it down comepletely and inspect every single part for any signs of burning.

It was at this poin that I drained the liquid cooling system. An image attached shows my pump. It and the hard lines are coated in this powedery residue that takes a little effort to remove. I used Thermaltake Cryofuel and Thermaltake pigment (blue). An identical machine using green does not have this issue.

Questions:
1. What is the residue from and is it something I can flush out?
2. What the heck burned or got hot on my machine? Any ideas?
3. How would you go about running the machine back up a piece at a time starting with the motherboard to see which component(s) might be fried?

i9 cup
256GM RAM
Asus Rampage Vi Extreme


Thanks,
Jigsawman

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

The image at the end of the thread doesn't work for me. Might want to host the image on a site like Imgur and then parse the link to said image onto the thread. We can move forward with diagnosing the issue.

What is your cooling setup comprised of? Specs wise, to your watercooling gear, I mean.

I used Thermaltake Cryofuel and Thermaltake pigment (blue).
Thermaltake are horrible when it comes to coolants since their fluids and dyes breakdown and gunk up everything it flows through.

 

[jigsawman]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

The image at the end of the thread doesn't work for me. Might want to host the image on a site like Imgur and then parse the link to said image onto the thread. We can move forward with diagnosing the issue.

What is your cooling setup comprised of? Specs wise, to your watercooling gear, I mean.

I used Thermaltake Cryofuel and Thermaltake pigment (blue).
Thermaltake are horrible when it comes to coolants since their fluids and dyes breakdown and gunk up everything it flows through.

Everything cooling is Thermaltake, tubes, connectors, radiators, argb fans and cpu block except the graphics card block, which is an EKWB block.

 

[Misgar]

2). What the heck burned or got hot on my machine? Any ideas?

Check every component (mobo, RAM, GPU, PSU, SSD, fans) for signs of coolant residue or burn marks. If there are any unusual marks, treat that component with suspicion.

3. How would you go about running the machine back up a piece at a time starting with the motherboard to see which component(s) might be fried?

The PSU is an obvious component to replace immediately, because you know the coolant dripped inside. AC mains and high voltage DC plus water do not mix.

The next thing to change is the RTX 4060 because its water block came loose and leaked.

After that, change the motherboard, then the CPU and finally the RAM.

Finally, think about replacing the water system with air cooling. It might not be as effective or pretty, but you won't have any future problems with leaks. A CPU and GPU can often survive if a heatsink fan fails.

 

[Zerk2012]

Everything cooling is Thermaltake, tubes, connectors, radiators, argb fans and cpu block except the graphics card block, which is an EKWB block.

The blue color you added probably caused all the residue.

When replacing the power supply was it the same one that fried?
If not did you only use the cables from the new power supply.