OpenFirmware Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 I purchased an H80i cooler for my recent January 2014 build (see profile), and have been relatively satisfied for the first few months of ownership. There are some minor gripes I had with the mounting and with the noise but that is not what my current problem is. A few days ago I was annoyed at the fan noise caused by seemingly random spin ups. At various intervals the SP120L fans included with the H80i would jump to max RPM and stay there while I was using my PC. Only restarting seemed to "reset" the fan RPMs to a normal level. This happened with the Corsair Link software installed. This happened with the latest Corsair Link beta software installed. This happened with the Corsair Link software completely uninstalled. This happened when I moved the fans to the motherboard headers instead of the H80i Y-cable, although the motherboard would correct the fan over-RPM and they would resume normal operation after a few seconds. I figured I could swap out different fans on the H80i to keep my PC a bit more quiet. Before I explain what changes I made, let me describe what my PC performance and cooling had been for the past few months. No overclocks on the 4670K. Idle temps on the 4670K were in the low 30s Celsius. At load with Prime95 it would top out in the mid 60s Celsius. The temperature of the H80i would idle at 27-30 Celsius, at at load it was in the mid 30s Celsius. I found this completely acceptable and decent. To "solve" my fan noise problem I took some quieter case fans (that are less performant than the SP120L fans) and used them to replace the H80i default fans. I noticed a "sloshing" sound as I moved the radiator to install the quiet fans. Upon booting my PC to the BIOS, the CPU temperature would idle at mid-90s Celsius. The H80i pump, connected to CPU_FAN was running at 2200 RPM or so. I wasn't sure what happened so I shut down and made sure the thumb-screws on the pump mount were secure. Booting back to BIOS showed the same excessive idle temperatures. I went to a local computer store and bought some Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound. I disconnected the H80i pump and removed all the existing thermal compound using Isopropyl Alochol and a lint-free cloth. Then I applied a small (pea-size divided by 4) blob of thermal compound to the centre of the processor heat sink. I then re-attached the H80i pump and booted my PC. It still would idle in the mid 80s Celsius. I completely removed the H80i cooler and installed the stock fan that came with the 4670K, after removing the thermal compound from the processor again and using the compound on the stock fan. Now, the CPU would idle in the low 40s Celsius. Sure, it would jump to the 90s Celsius while running Prime95, but it is only a stock fan. I made sure to reset the BIOS to make sure the BIOS wasn't applying any overclocks or auto overclocks. I also updated to the beta BIOS for my board (F10b). The stock fan still had poor performance. I then reinstalled the H80i cooler using the default SP120L fans, installing the backplate and all from base instructions. New thermal compound again. Upon booting, the CPU would idle at 60 Celsius or so, and the H80i would slowly drop it to about 43 Celsius (while under no load). Here is a screenshot of Corsair Link beta 2.6.5214 with 1.0.7 firmware, shortly after boot with RealTemp also shown: http://i.imgur.com/XlsHSoR.jpg Here is a screenshot with CPU-Z also shown: http://i.imgur.com/YaFqyJx.jpg Here is a screenshot less than a minute after starting Prime95 with small FFTs: http://i.imgur.com/qeGQk1H.jpg As you can see in that last screenshot, the CPU is at max temperature and the H80i temperature is also very high. I shut down prime95 after taking that screenshot, then shutdown my PC. One of the H80i pump tubes was very warm to the touch. I then disconnected the H80i and took photos of the thermal compound on the CPU (http://i.imgur.com/6e3mMJW.jpg) and the pump (http://i.imgur.com/2MCLTh1.jpg). Any idea what is wrong? Should I RMA? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaegerBane Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 Is there a chance that you bent the pins or damaged the connectors when swapping fans? Your initial temps sounded fine but the temps you're talking about now make it sound like your fans aren't running to the speed that have been set. Do the stock fans sound the same as before? Another thing will be to check (particularly if your settings were on a profile rather than a static speed) is if your corsair link is experiencing a device conflict on USB. You can normally tell if this is happening if the link initially works (you can mod the speed of the fans) but later on stops acting on changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LangZone Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 Something is wrong for sure. It's possible the pump isn't actually moving the liquid much. Due to an air bubble. Try running the pump with the cooler in your hand and give it a good shake (obviously not hard enough to cause damage to anything) or take it out completely and do the same. This may loosen any air pocket in the lines or rad. Try another cooler or the stock cooler perhaps and see if the temps stay within reason (obviously stock wouldnt be as good as h80i) that would rule out for sure if its the h80i or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OpenFirmware Posted July 1, 2014 Author Share Posted July 1, 2014 Is there a chance that you bent the pins or damaged the connectors when swapping fans? Your initial temps sounded fine but the temps you're talking about now make it sound like your fans aren't running to the speed that have been set. Do the stock fans sound the same as before? Another thing will be to check (particularly if your settings were on a profile rather than a static speed) is if your corsair link is experiencing a device conflict on USB. You can normally tell if this is happening if the link initially works (you can mod the speed of the fans) but later on stops acting on changes. After the latest re-install, the stock H80i fans do seem to be working from Corsair link as they will spin up properly. I haven't had Corsair Link "disconnect" from the fans yet, although Corsair Link unexpectedly quits after resuming from sleep. Quitting and relaunching the application works fine, so it may be unrelated. Thanks for the suggestion though. Something is wrong for sure. It's possible the pump isn't actually moving the liquid much. Due to an air bubble. Try running the pump with the cooler in your hand and give it a good shake (obviously not hard enough to cause damage to anything) or take it out completely and do the same. This may loosen any air pocket in the lines or rad. Try another cooler or the stock cooler perhaps and see if the temps stay within reason (obviously stock wouldnt be as good as h80i) that would rule out for sure if its the h80i or not. I will try unmounting the radiator and shaking it while the pump is running to see if there is any change. Regarding the stock fan, I was able to use it a few days ago and the idle temperatures seemed reasonable (mid 40s Celsius). It did do a poor job under load though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LangZone Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 That sounds about right for the stock cooler. So it's an issue with the h80i for sure. If shaking doesn't help maybe try it without the link plugged in (worth a shot) and if that fails it's likely time to RMA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OpenFirmware Posted July 1, 2014 Author Share Posted July 1, 2014 Okay, I tried shaking the radiator while running the prime95 test, and it still ran the CPU up to 100 C before finishing the heat up phase. It sounds like a fair amount of air in the radiator, given all the sloshing sound. I then tried unplugging the link cable and re-running the test, with the same results. Seeing as neither helped, I guess I will file an RMA. Thanks for the troubleshooting suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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