[SOLVED] Thermaltake water pro 2.0, pump dead?

[richardgarcia892]

Hi guys!
today I come asking for a bit help,
this is my rig:
mobo: Intel DX79SI
CPU: Intel core i7 3820
GPU: AMD R9 380
PSU: EVGA Bronze 600B
RAM: 2X DDR3 Samsung 8GB (each)

CPU cooling: Thermaltake Water Pro 2.0

I recently left the PC turned ON in the night downloding something, (my internet is painfully slow).
then when I wake up, BIOS post showed a message telling me that the last session ended due to temperture event (overheating).

then I downloaded HWMonitor to check the CPU temp, after the computer just turn on everything was fine, even with just 20 - 40% usage the CPU temperature starts to peak over 70°.

I've downloaded a software called "Heavy load" and "CPU-Z" to benchmark the CPU with 100% usage.

after a few menitues temperature goes over 90, hitting 100°, my mobo starts to flash a LED (looking at the user manual, I figured out that this LED tells that the CPU is too hot). See the picture below!.

this is BEFORE running the benchmark:

This is DURING THE benchmark (10 minutes):

this is 5 minutes AFTER the benchmark

some minutes later it goes back to a cool temperature (about 50 - 60°)

so I asume that the water cooler is STILL WORKING but it is not doings its jobs the way it should.

¿could this be due a faulty water pump?, ¿faulty radiator?

some pics of the rig in case you could need then:

This is the the rig:

this is the water pump:

those are the coolant tubes, the one of the right is gets really evenly hot, the one of the left isn't getting cool nor hot.

this is where both fans are connected to the motherboard

this is where the water pump is connected to the motherboard

hope you can help me to finally know if the problem comes from the water cooling system or if it is something else.

If the water system is the problem, would be better to buy the so called EVO 212 Fan cooler?

I use the computer mostly to play and development, and my enviroment temp use to be around 28 - 32° (in case this mathers)


PD: I live in Venezuela, we have being heaving some really terrible electrical troubles, high and low current and voltage peaks, I have the whole computer connected to a Trip Lite UPS (750W), I've just realized that its battery is dead (after any blackout, or any short electrical failure it just turn of and start beeping).
due to these electric failures I had to buy a new PSU (right after the UPS battery's died) could this be a possible cause for the pump's dead?
should I buy a new battery for the UPS?.

I kindly appreciate any help and your pattience for this pretty long post!.

 

[Karadjgne]

Yes, I'd get another battery, they aren't that expensive. Your ups stands a good chance of being line-interactive, meaning it regulates the voltages to the psu with the battery. Which sounds like you could use.

When was the last time you cleaned out the radiator? I see dust on the tubing, so if the radiator has a 'dust donut' behind the fan, it's going to be next to useless in its ability to cool.

 

[richardgarcia892]

Yes, I'd get another battery, they aren't that expensive. Your ups stands a good chance of being line-interactive, meaning it regulates the voltages to the psu with the battery. Which sounds like you could use.

When was the last time you cleaned out the radiator? I see dust on the tubing, so if the radiator has a 'dust donut' behind the fan, it's going to be next to useless in its ability to cool.

I've cleaned the radiator just before running those test in the screenshots.
I was even able to see through the Radiator.
I've also cleaned the whole computer with one these:

EDIT:
something I've missed in the main post:
The radiators fans ALWAYS flows cold air, even with 100% CPU usage (and above 80 - 90°), The air coming out fron the fans (and radiators) is always cold. At high temperature I can listen how the fans starts spin faster (you can also notice this in the speed fans paremeters in the motherboard section on the screenshots)

 

[Karadjgne]

Ok, so you have the fans on a splitter to cpu_fan header, and the pump on the rear_fan header.

According to the table, you only have 2x active headers, the cpu and auxfanin0, so that's the 2x headers. The problem I see is with the aux header, it's reading just under 1000rpm. That's slow. Asetek pumps generally run 2000-3000rpm. So I'd check bios and make sure that header is set wide open, 100% duty cycle or uncontrolled to allow the full 12v to the pump. You aren't running any software that would overwrite bios values, like SpeedFan or asus suite?

 

[richardgarcia892]

Ok, so you have the fans on a splitter to cpu_fan header, and the pump on the rear_fan header.

According to the table, you only have 2x active headers, the cpu and auxfanin0, so that's the 2x headers. The problem I see is with the aux header, it's reading just under 1000rpm. That's slow. Asetek pumps generally run 2000-3000rpm. So I'd check bios and make sure that header is set wide open, 100% duty cycle or uncontrolled to allow the full 12v to the pump. You aren't running any software that would overwrite bios values, like SpeedFan or asus suite?

Yes! You are right!.

I did check the Bios, and there is not any kind of duty cycle limits.
also, I'm not running any kind of tool for overclocking or fan speed / voltage.

the CPU isn't overclocked by any means.
PD: Bios loaded by default setting, nothing's changed.

this is the overall look:

Rear (pump):

CPU fan (radiator's fans):

processor's temperature details:

 

[Karadjgne]

Ahh. 2nd picture, the minimum duty cycle is set for minimum 30% [proposed] and thats exactly what it's running. You need to change that to minimum 100% / maximum 100% for the pump. That coolant is barely moving through the radiator.

What I find odd is its also registering the cpu fan at 1300 rpm, yet that's at 20%. I seriously doubt the fans on that radiator are rated as 5000 rpm. Possibly it's double reading, each fan running at 650rpm, that's easy to check, just pop one of the fans off the splitter.

 

[richardgarcia892]

Ahh. 2nd picture, the minimum duty cycle is set for minimum 30% [proposed] and thats exactly what it's running. You need to change that to minimum 100% / maximum 100% for the pump. That coolant is barely moving through the radiator.

What I find odd is its also registering the cpu fan at 1300 rpm, yet that's at 20%. I seriously doubt the fans on that radiator are rated as 5000 rpm. Possibly it's double reading, each fan running at 650rpm, that's easy to check, just pop one of the fans off the splitter.

Hello Mate!.
I've configure the fan's duty cycle for both fans to 100% minimum / maximum in the bios and then restarted the PC.
there you go some screens about how it looks like now:
General:

Header fans (both connected to the splitter):

Rear (pump):

this is how the CPU temp looks like (both duty cycle's to 100%)

note: The temperature doesn't go above 63° in this point, I left the PC for about half an hour in this screen, previously it does quickly ramp the temperature up to 70 - 80°.

for the RPM troubles, i found the user Manual, there was a page specifying the nominal values for both, the pump and fan:

note: The pump should be (as you stated) around 2800 RPM, and the current maximum is 1600. Unfortunately, I can't recall if it used to hit the 2800 in the past.

after this, I've disconnected one of the fans from the splitter, as you see here:

this is how it look like in the BIOS:

then I've disconnected the another fan, like this:

thi is what was showing up in the BIOS:

note: In this case, the the BIOS shows 0 RPM, but the fan was spinning with no troubles (aparently at healthy speed). my conclusion: The splitter only consider one fan for the bios readings.

after upcalling duty cycles to 100%, I've runned again the CPU-Z stress test, this is the result:

before (100% duty cycle for both, pump and fan):

stres test (100% duty cycle, for both, pump and fan), 30 minutes test:

note: in the previous test, with duty cycles set to 30/100, the temperatures goes above 90°, hitting 100° in about 10 minutes, this time it does keep under 90° for half and hour.

after (100% duty cycle for both, pump and fan), 2 minutes rest AFTER stopping CPU-Z stress test:

note: The temperature ramp down pretty quick.

possible conclusion:
The pump is possibly not working property?
taking in count that it should be working around 2800 RPM, and it is barely hitting its 50%.

 

[Gmoney06ss]

That looks much better. While the pump may not be at full potential, it does seem to be working. With the ambient room temps you stated before, that idle temp and resting temp after the stress test, aren't terrible for such a small radiator. The stress test is a little high, but normal usage shouldn't see temps that high. Try running the monitor while you do your day to day tasks and see what the temp does.

 

[richardgarcia892]

That looks much better. While the pump may not be at full potential, it does seem to be working. With the ambient room temps you stated before, that idle temp and resting temp after the stress test, aren't terrible for such a small radiator. The stress test is a little high, but normal usage shouldn't see temps that high. Try running the monitor while you do your day to day tasks and see what the temp does.

Nice to hear that! I'll be checking up the temperature everytime and try to avoid playing videogames or running any CPU hungry task.

What's a confortable threshold to avoid reducing the CPU's lifetime?. Lets say, avoid going higher than 60 o 70?

Do you think that I should buy a new cooling system for my CPU as soon as possible?.

Could you recommend me any good choice?
It doesnt mather if it is a water cooling or just a air cooling system, I just want to confortably play, program (I need to run dockers and VM's) without always being worried about temperature.

And thanks a lot for all your help buddy, I really wish you the best luck!

 

[TheEeveeLovers]

Nice GPU, Oh I am getting off-topic, am I?
Maybe purchase a neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew one
Oops
I see the pipe that is HOT is going in
and the other one is going out
so I see that it the CPU should be neither hot nor cold but maybe it's not enough for the CPU

 

[richardgarcia892]

Nice GPU, Oh I am getting off-topic, am I?
Maybe purchase a neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew one
Oops
I see the pipe that is HOT is going in
and the other one is going out
so I see that it the CPU should be neither hot nor cold but maybe it's not enough for the CPU

hahaha thanks about the GPU! I bought it used (shh...)
about the pipes, that just called my attention because i was reading some other post about liquid cooling (and common issues) and most people said that both pipes used to be a bit hot, in my case just one of then is hot (and I mean, HOT, I cant even touch it), the another is like... you know, "normal". I can touch it and doesnt feel any heat.

this is my first liquid cooling system, so im a bit newbie about how they actually (or should) work, althoug this is the first time I have any problem with it, so this is the first time (since I bought it) that I'm actually reading about liquid cooling (back in these days I've just bought this because liquid cooling was being review everywhere as a miracle solution for cooling).

if anyone is going to buy a thermaltake liquid cooling, I can say that mined lasted pretty long, about 5 years, I guess. Oh, and I used to use cheap / generic power supply's in the past (I was completely ignorant about how much important a good PSU actually is)

but anyways, any tip about wich CPU cooler shoud I buy? my pocket is actually limited to about 50$ (maybe 70 if the difference really worth)

 

[Gmoney06ss]

The threshold is usually 80. I wouldn't be too worried about gaming, as a stress test usually puts much more load on the cpu than a gaming load will.

As far as coolers, with a $50 budget, you'll be limited to air. But that will buy you a pretty nice air cooler. Check out the noctua lineup, they're about the best in that realm.

 

[richardgarcia892]

The threshold is usually 80. I wouldn't be too worried about gaming, as a stress test usually puts much more load on the cpu than a gaming load will.

As far as coolers, with a $50 budget, you'll be limited to air. But that will buy you a pretty nice air cooler. Check out the noctua lineup, they're about the best in that realm.

Nice to hear about this threshold!
You are right, yesterday I spent some hours playing and the maximum temperature was 70°.
now that I'm sure my CPU won't be harmed by overheating for normal use, I'll try to save for some months and see if I can buy a descent water cooler (guss this is the best option, right?)

thanks for all for you help!.

ill also be checking out the noctua lineup thanks for the guidance!

 

[Gmoney06ss]

Hard to say which is best. You'll have people on both sides of that fence. I like water for aesthetics, and air for simplicity. I'm on a full custom loop because of both performance and looks. The higher end air coolers will rival/beat any available aio and cost less. Cheap aio will get outperformed by most good air coolers. If you have the space and budget, you can really beat the noctua d15, but all of there coolers are a good option.