H115i pump seems to be failing

So I bought one of these back in Feb I believe when they were rather new on the market, seemed to be working ok for a while now but in the last week I noticed my idle temps were creeping up, also noticed my fans running a lot louder under a couple games so yesterday I just ran some stress tests that I had run when I installed the thing. I have my 5960X OC to 4.125 nothing super high. Under AIDA64 and prime95 mixed test it used to hit like mid 70's max temp and at idle in the mid 30's.

 

Now some cores are hitting a 100 which I quickly turned off the stress test when I saw this and idle is in the mid 40's. Water temp is 5deg higher than I remember it from before at least and also doesn't cool down very well at all at idle. Its like once it heats up it doesn't cool down much. Verified fans are running perfectly and there is no dust in the radiator fins.

 

Corsairlink says the pump is running at 3100 rpm on high which it used to run at 2900 at high. When I check the hoses only one of them his hot the other is completely cool and on the radiator where the hot hose connects its rather hot at the connection point but the other hose is completely cool at the connection point. So its almost like the water isn't circulating like it should even though it is showing the 3100 rpm. Possibly may not be circulating at all or at a very low rate.

 

Thoughts/opinions are appreciated. I think I need to RMA this.

I too expect you need to RMA it. Log a request via https://corsair.secure.force.com/home/home.jsp and see what they say.

I agree. It looks like some sort of blockage is developing. It is likely to worsen in time and unfortunately, there isn't anything you can do for the internal problems without cracking it open -- something I don't recommend.

I agree with both of you, seems to be some flow issue. If I put the pump down to Quiet mode at idle the temps spike up to 55deg range and at this time I have the CPU back at stock settings so that is pretty concerning.

 

I put in the RMA a bit ago, already came back approved so I guess I'll be shipping this one back. 5 year warranty comes in handy I guess even though its only like 4 months old. :sigh!:

 

I bought a second one off Amazon just now so I will have one on backup if this happens again. My H105 I had in this system which I put in my son's computer after buying this H115 has been humming along for 3+ years now no issue. Guess I got a lemon here.

BTW thanks you two for your fast responses. I swear Corsair should pay you as much time and effort you give on their forums to help out your fellow computer enthusiasts. Cheers!

I am not thrilled with the attrition rate on the new units either. It feels like this is a daily question and too many units are near brand new. On the prior generation of coolers, including the H105 and my H110, I don't remember this kind of frequent dialogue about flow problems or failing pumps on new units.

I am not thrilled with the attrition rate on the new units either. It feels like this is a daily question and too many units are near brand new. On the prior generation of coolers, including the H105 and my H110, I don't remember this kind of frequent dialogue about flow problems or failing pumps on new units.

 

Yes I was debating if I shouldn't just buy another H105 this time around. Hopefully I will have better luck with the one I ordered and have this one I'm going to RMA as a ready spare. They are a pain to change out though so I hope it just works!

I bought my H110i GT about 2 years ago and it has been in 3 different buils in that time and (he says firmly grasping his wooden desk) it has purred along nicely. Is it my imagination, or are the majority of problems with the H110i GTX/H115i coolers?

I bought my H110i GT about 2 years ago and it has been in 3 different buils in that time and (he says firmly grasping his wooden desk) it has purred along nicely. Is it my imagination, or are the majority of problems with the H110i GTX/H115i coolers?

 

Could be. The GT coolers are made by a different OEM (CoolIt) while the GTX are made by Asetek. However, without Corsair providing some statistics for failure rates (doubtful), it will remain speculation.

The GT coolers are made by a different OEM (CoolIt) while the GTX are made by Asetek.

 

That would be far too logical for Corsair! The H80iGT is Asetek

Yes would be good to know the stats on these I may have bought another one back over on the other OEM manufacturer. I was very happy with my H105 as I said, who made those? Asetek right?

 

Still I decided to give the H115i another go. New one arriving tomorrow and then I will RMA the one that is degraded performance right now and keep it as a spare or maybe use it in another system I build in the future.

 

I think that cattack may be right that is probably some sort of blockage. Its not a 100% broken but its surely only working at about 50% effectiveness or less maybe. Based on the fact the pump RPM used to report around 2950 RPM now its running 3150 almost like is working harder to push the water around. Then the fact that one hose is hot and hot at the connection point to the radiator and the second one is completely cool from the cooler head all the way to the connection to the radiator tells me that the water isn't circulating fully around the unit, though it could be trickling by which is why I can have my computer on still and not overheat.

 

Games like Diablo 3 that are lower CPU use would run in the 40's temp wise are not in the mid to upper 60's, games with high CPU use and multithreaded will hit 70-80 that used to run in the 50-60'. Running something like Asus Realbench will hit 90+ that used to top out at 70ish. Gets much worse if I put the pump in quiet mode. So needless to say I'm keeping my use very limited right now until the new unit goes in.

 

Also I remember posting this back when I got the H115i http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?p=840337 . Wizard had said no problem running pump in performance mode all the time which I have been, not sure if this has anything at all to do with that of course.

I don't think we are going to get any data from Corsair. Despite my intense curiosity, it would be unwise to release it. Data can always be used as a double edge sword and it puts them in an awkward situation with the OEM partners. Since this kind of thing is not good for Corsair, you have to trust in them to make the necessary changes. If there is an abnormal failure rate, questions are going to be asked as they take losses on the replacements. As Ray fleshed out a few weeks ago, there may be a OEM new partner for radiators.

 

As for this specific issue, I don't think the pump speed is involved. Mechanical issues usually present themselves in the form of noise and/or irregular speed. There certainly are units like that, but they usually come out the box that way and it is easy to attribute it to the manufacturing process and QC. However, the number of mystery partial blockages seem high to me. Usually you might see this stuff after a few years in service, but any H115i, H110i/GT or GTX showing these symptoms is pretty new. It reminds me of colossal mishap between Asetek and another distributor a few years back. It is irresponsible of me to suggest this is the same or the numbers are anywhere close, but it is a concern and I hold on to my older H110 for a reason.

Well c-attack I guess I will have to see how this new unit performs and if it works well out of the box I will have to make sure I get some good metrics on its early performance so I can track if it starts to degrade like my current one. I've been using Corsair RAM for a couple decades now and only had failures of that 2x and it was actually the same model memory modules that went bad 2x. So pretty good track record. I have only one 2 of their cooling units though so they are 50/50 :) I have a Intel branded Asetek cooler also I got with my i7 3930K that's still going strong after probably 5 years in service now.

Got the new H115i today and installed it. Everything looking good, my overclock back up to my normal everyday 4.125Ghz and idle temps now in the low 30's with fully loaded stress tests hitting low 70s only for 8 cores OC is not so bad, this seems to be performing better than the first one I had the past 4 months.

 

One thing I did do this time was clean off the stock paste and use Arctic Silver 5. I had been using the stock stuff previously which is ok as well.

 

Question on RMA I need to send back this other unit, do I only include the fans and the radiator unit or do all the screws, mounting plates and all that need to also be sent as well?

I don't think they are too worried about the screws, but definitely send the fans and the backplate with the main unit. This has been asked before and answered officially. I'll see if I can find it.

Printed the RMA sheet and it says

"Coolers: Please note to include all fans, pump and radiator when packing your defective unit."

 

So I guess that's the answer. Not like I can return the radiator without the pump unless I cut the hoses ;) lol

Oh, you don't want to know what people have done, if they have to put a separate not for it.

My original comment was based on my perception of the number of posts on here with problems, it just seems that the Asetek coolers ae in the majority in those posts. Of course I could be wrong.

Well forums are hard to track that kind of stuff. I mean look at me. I have been a member on here since 2004 but why I joined then was because I had questions about RAM timings and then later had some failed RAM, then later questions about cases and cooling and now a failure of a cooling system so I have not even over 60 posts in 12 years. :) I don't spend really post about how awesome my stuff is working. Though the H115i when it works is great, the H105 I have is also great an still humming along 3 years later in my kids PC now. The 2 Corsair cases I have I really like, and like I mentioned earlier I have been buying only Corsair RAM for 20 years now it seems. In that time I only had some DDR3 Dominator RAM fail 2x (same models) which of course Corsair replaced without issue.

 

So a lot of posts on this forum are about issues but that doesn't take into account all of those that are humming along with no issues. My point is forums are deceptive :). We will never truly know how good a product is functioning without some metrics from the company that sells it. For instance you might see a 100 posts on these forums about issues with Asetek coolers but maybe there were 500,000 units sold so a 100 failures is not that big of a failure rate.

 

Same goes with review sites, people that like their products and they work great may never jump on Amazon for instance and write a review, but man if you new $500 graphics card dies after 30 days you better believe they will go give that thing 1 star even though many other people never had any issue. The internet is good and bad at the same time hehe.

I bought my H115i in December 2016 and the pump failed 2 days ago. I normally don't have issues with Corsair products but this is ridiculous. My CPU temp was at 96 degrees Celsius before I shut my machine off. Unfortunately the pump failed during the night and I only noticed it in the morning because my computer fans were maxed out and my computer was really loud with all the fans :eek:

 

Trying to RMA mine now. I'll see how it goes. So far, I can't even get passed entering the address as the Corsair support website keeps giving me an error about my address (even though it's correct). The support person I talked to verified that something is not correct in their system. Fun stuff....

They have recently changed the system and they are having problems, I wonder if Link is running it? :brick:

My h110i have been going strong for over a year, my friend got the 115i and has had it RMA'ed twice in 3 months.. Seems the QC is lacking.

I'm having the same issue (again).. I got a 110iGTX and it died on me in three months, RMA'd it and got a 115i in return. have had it almost exactly a year and it up and died on me the other day. Not making the same noise as the last pump did, but there seems to be a of air in the Rad now. For now I am using my first gen H60 and it's working like a charm. Not going to RMA this 115i, just buy a new one for my up coming build.... Trying not to lose faith in these coolers

Picked up another H115i today to finish off my build, I just get the fans attached and rad mounted, goto move the pump into place to check wiring and stuff, and SNAP.. hose snaps off the pump and case is now getting wet.

I am now going back to the store to RMA it... I'm losing faith in ever getting a 115i that's actually work