H115i Pump seems to be failing

[MaverickSY19]

My second 115i pump is dying now. I have to RMA again. Its intermittent, and if I tap my fingers on the pump block it will all of a sudden make a whooshing noise like the water is flowing again and then suddenly drop the temp down but not completely were it was when it was new. The odd thing is the RPM never shows its going down so whatever is measuring the RPM isn't do a good job, because its pretty obvious the pump isn't spinning when my CPU its climbing into the 60s just sitting in BIOS settings. Same thing happened last time too, the RPM showed still high and but you could tell water wasn't flowing and one side of the radiator was extremely hot and the water temp would stay high all the time.

 

I have a spare H115i from when I RMA my last one as bought a 2nd one while the RMA was going in so I am going to put that in new and then open a new RMA now. Glad these things have a 5 year warranty but it sure is a pain in the butt to have to keep changing them out.

[Doom2pro]

Question: Do you have the pump power plugged into a Motherboard fan header that is supplying full 12V not PWM? Some motherboards default to AUTO, you should set to DC or FULL Speed instead of PWM or AUTO.

 

If your motherboard has a Pump Header, disable fan speed warnings on CPU header and plug AIO into PUMP header (Which defaults to full 12V).

[red-ray]

Question: Do you have the pump power plugged into a Motherboard fan header ?

 

No, the H115i get's it's power from a SATA power connector

[Doom2pro]

No, the H115i get's it's power from a SATA power connector

 

Ahh nvm then.

[c-attack]

My guess is there is some sort of partial blockage restricting the flow, as opposed to a mechanical pump failure. That doesn't really matter from a functional perspective, but most of the time the pump speed remains at its normal levels when this happens. End effects is still the same with high coolant temp and continually rising CPU temps. Still no user fix for that and you have to change it out, as you've become accustomed to do.

[MaverickSY19]

Yes the new spare H115i I have from my last RMA is working fine. But to c-attack's point I think that's what happened to my last one and this one, just seemed like water flow was some how getting restricted, makes me wonder what's in these that could be clogging them up they are sealed units. My H105 that's on my kids computer now is humming away for 5+ years now never had an issue works like a champ.

 

@Doom2pro yes thanks that's a common mistake I know people make, I had to do that with my H105 but like red-ray said the H115i pump uses a SATA power cable off the power supply.

[c-attack]

I suspect the sealant/adhesive used at the various pieces comes loose and literally gums up the outflow or intake filter grate at the pump head. Again, this is just theory and you would need to take it apart to find out. I have stripped down a non-Corsair Asetek unit before where this was a systemic issue. You're right, you don't see a lot of h105 owners popping up here with issues and I like my H110 from that era as well. This problem appears to be more prevalent on the current H100i GTX/v2 and H110 GTX/H115i models compared to their predecessors.

[SpeedyV]

I suspect the sealant/adhesive used at the various pieces comes loose and literally gums up the outflow or intake filter grate at the pump head. Again, this is just theory and you would need to take it apart to find out. I have stripped down a non-Corsair Asetek unit before where this was a systemic issue. You're right, you don't see a lot of h105 owners popping up here with issues and I like my H110 from that era as well. This problem appears to be more prevalent on the current H100i GTX/v2 and H110 GTX/H115i models compared to their predecessors.

 

Wow - I have had an H50 running in my X58 rig for a bit over 7 years, pretty much 24/7. It still works like the day I installed it. I probably should replace the TIM...