Question Terrible experience with Artic Liquid Freezer III A-RGB, need advice/help.

[Komirai]

Yesterday I managed to finally get all my parts together I decided to begin building my PC , now I'm a complete novice but since I built my previous Intel build and built my mothers PC (Intel as well) I thought I would be okay with this one as well with one change and that is going to AMD, but I made sure to follow along with a video to make sure not making mistakes along the way.

Now, once I got to AIO and placing on the CPU problems started occur immediately and for someone like me after hours and hours trying to figure what I'm doing wrong is making feel disappointed in myself and honestly scared that I damaged anything. ANYWAY, problem is that no matter what I did like going solo I couldn't get it seated properly, then watched an Asian guy on Youtube do it and copied them, still nothing. Then, I even watched GN's video on it and while they had a similar experience on an AMD motherboard (forgot to mention my motherboard is an AM5 MSI B650 Tomahawk WIFI) finally managed to get the screws to bind and finally got it to screw in. However, for me with even assistance from another person I can't seem to (mainly) get the left side to bite into the screw at all, right side would but the left side just pops out and even on some occasion if I focused on the left side. the right side would go as well. This has been an horrible experience as of right now and just been living in my head rent free and deflated.

So as for what I'm gonna do soon is I'm going to contact Artic Support myself soon but I would love advice from this forum as well who have experience with this AIO and even better had the same issues (even better same issue and same motherboard) but managed to fix it.

I have also heard of putting the bracket directly to the heatsink first and then with the bracket and the AIO already together then seat it on the motherboard and screw in that way in a cross shape and then after that secure the bracket more securely with the last two screws (hard to explain), anyone done this method? would there be any issues?

Honestly gutted and the experience so far has been god awful knowing that with the way it would work with Intel would be far easier to install or so I've heard anyway.

Also slightly minor but I thought I would be leave it here as well, since I had so many attempts to no avail some paste got under the CPU a little and I did the best I can to clean it, would it still be okay?

Long post I know but thank you for taking the time to read!

 

[Gururu]

So you have the side brackets in and the paste is spread and you cant get both screws into the bracket? Do the screws go into the bracket without the cooler, just to test make sure the threads are ok?

 

[Komirai]

So you have the side brackets in and the paste is spread and you cant get both screws into the bracket? Do the screws go into the bracket without the cooler, just to test make sure the threads are ok?

Yeah, if you do it the way the manual says just won't seem to go in or at least bite down on the threads.
I mean the screws are just on the cooler, but if you mean tested the brackets onto the cooler before putting it on the motherboard then yes, it was the only way I could get it to thread into the screws but not sure if that affects anything or how should I go about doing it this way if it is okay?

 

[Gururu]

Ok it could be that you've tightened the screw of the brackets too much such that the screws cannot reach the bracket. Longer screws seem like it would help, but I know that is out of the question. Putting the cooler on the brackets first is a second best option with risk that you may not get a good surface to surface on the CPU as you are depending on the tightening of the brackets to motherboard to establish the interface (and I am not sure how you are able to reach the bracket screws with the cooler on the way).

I might try loosening the bracket screws a pinch and then install the cooler to see if it reaches. Tightening the cooler to the brackets will naturally tighten the bracket to the motherboard (I think).

 

[Komirai]

Ok it could be that you've tightened the screw of the brackets too much such that the screws cannot reach the bracket. Longer screws seem like it would help, but I know that is out of the question. Putting the cooler on the brackets first is a second best option with risk that you may not get a good surface to surface on the CPU as you are depending on the tightening of the brackets to motherboard to establish the interface (and I am not sure how you are able to reach the bracket screws with the cooler on the way).

I might try loosening the bracket screws a pinch and then install the cooler to see if it reaches. Tightening the cooler to the brackets will naturally tighten the bracket to the motherboard (I think).

I mean, I was thinking of just having the screws bite to the cooler not actually tighten it all the way, and then install it, those screws would still need tighten I think at the end or that is how I understood from Reddit posts.

EDIT: Is there anyway of practicing at all as well? Like for example, not even installing the CPU nothing, just try and install it as is as practice or will it touch pins and kill the motherboard?

 

[Komirai]

Ok it could be that you've tightened the screw of the brackets too much such that the screws cannot reach the bracket. Longer screws seem like it would help, but I know that is out of the question. Putting the cooler on the brackets first is a second best option with risk that you may not get a good surface to surface on the CPU as you are depending on the tightening of the brackets to motherboard to establish the interface (and I am not sure how you are able to reach the bracket screws with the cooler on the way).

I might try loosening the bracket screws a pinch and then install the cooler to see if it reaches. Tightening the cooler to the brackets will naturally tighten the bracket to the motherboard (I think).

Also, I did all that as well and the screw just pops out, I even did it where I screw one turn and going back and fourth and that still pops out, regardless the experience is just awful. I even had help and I just focused on the screws and when I thought I had it, it just goes out again.

 

[CountMike]

Main problem is to short screws and bracket on pump side is meant to replace springs so it has to be bent for threads to catch. Coming from LF 2 I also had problems and still not sure if paste isn't buggered up, Looking for longer screws to re-paste cooler, all they need is to be 1-2 mm longer, that's how much bracket bends, and all would be much easier.