H115i Pro Overheating CPU

Just a disclaimer, I'm very new to building my own PC and this is my first build that I've been using for around 2 months now, and I'm getting overheating errors while gaming. I can see that even on very low loads the CPU is at around 35C-60C sometimes even getting to 70C+. I didn't have these errors before, only got them around maybe 2-3 days ago.

 

I've been reading around the internet and I suspect that maybe it's my cooler that's causing the problem. As you can see in the picture, the pump speeds are very erratic, I put it on performance mode and I think I shouldn't be getting those massive fluctuations, right?

The pump does look erratic, however if that were the sole factor the coolant would also need to heat up to get these high idle temps and critical load temps. What I see in the picture looks more like a contact problem. Did you recently move or reseat the pump?

 

I think the pump is enough to contact Corsair tech support. Is there any sign the unit is losing power when this happens? Fans and pump lighting would dim too. Also keep an eye on the H115i Temp. This should be about 4-7C above your room temp at idle and then a further +6C when under load (really long GPU loads may be more as the entire case heats up).

I didn't touch the pump itself, but I recently took off the radiator because I didn't put on the fans properly, so I had to take the rad off to fix that. I was very careful not to pull on the tubes, but could that have messed up the contact? Right now I don't have any thermal paste or rubbing alcohol to clean the residue though so I might have to wait a day or two if I have to fix that. Also, would a contact problem potentially cause the pump to behave erratically?

 

The lighting is fine, and the fans are properly running at 100% now while the H115i temp is heating up to around 40C-45C while the CPU is around 60C-70C and as the CPU temp kept climbing so did the H115i temp. When I left the PC alone for a while, it went back to around 25C-35C idle and the H115i temp was around 30C which is, as you say, about 7C above my room temp.

Hmm... that's a little bit high on the coolant, although possible with 1080 Ti in a medium case. Can you run a CPU only stress test for 10-15 min? Use something mild like Intel XTU or AIDA64. This should be about +4-6C in coolant temp from your basis. If the CPU temps instantly hit the 85C+ mark, abort the test. Coolant should go up about +1C per min at the start, then level off. When you quit the test, it should drop 2-3C in the first 60 seconds then the last 3C in about 5 minutes.

As soon as I started the stress test on AIDA64 the temps jumped to 90-100C instantly so I aborted the test. In the screenshot it says H115i Pro temp is at 50C but after that it kept going to around 55-60C and now after about 3-4 minutes idle the CPU temps are at 40-50C with the H115i Pro temp at 35-40C and fans are still running at 100%.

OK, something has gone wrong with the cooler. It’s probably a blockage and the back pressure is causing that erratic pump behavior. Regardless if it is that or the pump, there is no user fix. You need to replace the cooler and be extremely cautious using it at all until another cooling method is in place. Contact Corsair through the Ticket Support System to get the RMA process started.

 

The only other thing you can do is gently rock the case back and forth or turn it on it’s side to see if the blockage will dislodge. I often float the idea of taking off the cooler and shaking it to do the same, but that won’t work until you get new TIM. Either way, this is a desperate ploy with no guarantee of success. Besides, whatever is causing the blockage will still be in the loop. It will come around again. Move toward replacement.

Alright, I'll have to deal with the RMA then. Meanwhile I'll go back to my air cooler.

 

Thanks for the help!