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Corsair H110 acts strangely lately.

Akreontage
Level 10
Hello all!
I have been using H110 to cool my CPU for 3 years but now it doesn't perform like it did before.

All of a sudden my temps increased, and now I am idling at 35-40 C @1.2Ghz 0.8V (i7-3930k 0-1% load), and 40-45 C @4.4Ghz 1.256V (0-1% load). Before that idle temps were sitting at 20-30 C.

I haven't done any long time stress tests now but in few minutes under 100% load temps rise to 66 C. Before that they could rise up to 64 C under 100% load in many hours of stress testing.

Pump block on cpu is pretty hot (working @1500-1520rpm constantly). Tubes are warm and the part where they connect to radiator is also hot (please check screenshot to better understand what I am talking about), but the radiator itself is cool and coolers blow out cool air. At 60+ C radiator gets a little warmer.
The strange part is although coolers blow out pretty cool air, when I move closer to my pc, I can feel very hot air near it despite normal ambient temperature in my room.

Is my cooling pump dying or do you have any other suggestions?
Corsair Carbide 500R | Asus Rampage IV Formula | i7-3930k 4.4Ghz | Corsair Vengeance 32Gb 1600Mhz 9cl | Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 Gaming 8G | Samsung 850 Evo | WD1002FAEX | Antec HCP-1200 | NZXT Kraken x62
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7 REPLIES 7

davemon50
Level 11
Based on your observations my guess is one of 2 things, pump is bad, or else the radiator is actually [partially/fully] blocked and causing the pump to ride the curve and get high head low flow. Could also be a slow leak in the tubing and you've lost too much fluid over time, you might check for stains in the case beneath it. Any of those conditions, though, for an AIO cooler means you have to buy a new one.

The other usual issues are that your fans are not doing their job correctly, or else the TIM and/or cold plate has gone bad or lost contact at the CPU, but since your fans are actually blowing and it's cold air that means (or sounds like) they're working but you're not getting heat transfer to them at the radiator, and for the CPU if your contact was lost you wouldn't be getting hot tubes in the H110 (little or no heat transfer off the CPU). So neither of those issues sound like the case based on your description.

Idle temps at 20°C ? Really? Is the computer located in a refrigerator?
Davemon50

davemon50 wrote:
Based on your observations my guess is one of 2 things, pump is bad, or else the radiator is actually [partially/fully] blocked and causing the pump to ride the curve and get high head low flow. Could also be a slow leak in the tubing and you've lost too much fluid over time, you might check for stains in the case beneath it. Any of those conditions, though, for an AIO cooler means you have to buy a new one.

The other usual issues are that your fans are not doing their job correctly, or else the TIM and/or cold plate has gone bad or lost contact at the CPU, but since your fans are actually blowing and it's cold air that means (or sounds like) they're working but you're not getting heat transfer to them at the radiator, and for the CPU if your contact was lost you wouldn't be getting hot tubes in the H110 (little or no heat transfer off the CPU). So neither of those issues sound like the case based on your description.

Idle temps at 20°C ? Really? Is the computer located in a refrigerator?


Normally @1.2Ghz (0.8V) idles stayed @20-22 C on coolest core and 25~ C on hottest, @4.4Ghz 25-29C.

Anyway, I ran Realbench for a while and here is the thing I can add. 1 spot on radiator get's extremely hot, other parts stay cool as I said before. Watch another picture.
So to sum it up:
Water pump is running @1500~ rpm all the time, or at least software detects it as if it's running. Both tubes are a little bit warm. One of the tubes get's warmer at the end which connects to radiator. Radiator itself is cool but it is extremely hot in one spot which is shown on the screenshot. Also the part which connects to one of the tubes is also hot.
Does it mean something?

P.S. It seems like it's partially working. I left RealBench running and it stays at 68-71 C on hottest core after 15 minutes. But usually I got 57-60 C after a few hours of stress testing, and up to 64-66 C in long stress test runs. -.- Hmm...

My assumption is... Only part of radiator spreads heat and not the entire surface. Can this be the case? What might be the reason?
Corsair Carbide 500R | Asus Rampage IV Formula | i7-3930k 4.4Ghz | Corsair Vengeance 32Gb 1600Mhz 9cl | Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 Gaming 8G | Samsung 850 Evo | WD1002FAEX | Antec HCP-1200 | NZXT Kraken x62

davemon50
Level 11
You might've gotten a crack in the radiator header, or else there's a blockage there. If it's a leak you're done, buy a new one. If it's a blockage, you might be able to jar it loose by taking it out of your case and tapping it with something lightly or rapping it on the desk. It's a good cooler but if it gets clogged it's an all or nothing deal and you can't take it apart to fix it.
Davemon50

Akreontage
Level 10
Thanks for your reply! I'll disassemble it after work and see what might be causing this.
Corsair Carbide 500R | Asus Rampage IV Formula | i7-3930k 4.4Ghz | Corsair Vengeance 32Gb 1600Mhz 9cl | Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 Gaming 8G | Samsung 850 Evo | WD1002FAEX | Antec HCP-1200 | NZXT Kraken x62

Akreontage
Level 10
Ok... The problem was my table. For some reason, when I put it under the table (huge amount of open space, coolers are not blocked from any angle), hot air stays under it and cool air doesn't push it away.
It's sad though, since I built this table with my PC in mind, and it failed tremendously. I expected that it will run hotter but not 15-20 degrees hotter, that's why I thought my h110 is failing me. There is 0 air flow under my table. 😕
Corsair Carbide 500R | Asus Rampage IV Formula | i7-3930k 4.4Ghz | Corsair Vengeance 32Gb 1600Mhz 9cl | Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 Gaming 8G | Samsung 850 Evo | WD1002FAEX | Antec HCP-1200 | NZXT Kraken x62

davemon50
Level 11
You could try an alternate solution if you want to leave the case under the table. Just a thought, I did this twice and it did work well both times, once for an entertainment center and once for a computer beneath a desk just like you. Cut one or more holes in the table where it makes sense and install one or more 120V case fans wired inline with a slider for volume control. Plug them into your wall outlet. Worked nicely for me but certainly not as efficient as getting the computer case in an appropriate ambient condition. However it does move hot air out from under the table if installed appropriately. I suppose you could instead install 12V PWM case fans in the desk and control them from your computer but they won't move as much air as line voltage, and you're displacing a lot of air when you have to cool the underside of a desk.

But yeah, you do need airflow. 🙂 I am still using that same desk but have disabled the 120V fan because I now have the computer sitting on top next to the desk.
Davemon50

Korth
Level 14
davemon covers it all pretty well.

But another possibility:

The AIO cooler could be performing very much the same as it always has. But the CPU could now be putting out a lot more heat than it did before at same performance load. An overclocked CPU burns bright and fast ... and also burns out over time.

Failure in motherboard VRM hardware isn't uncommon and often passes heat to the processor. If the VRMs are running hot then you may need to replace a bad cap or repaste the heatsinks.

And of course the CPU may need repasting. TIMs generally cook off after a few years (at most). I'd recommend Arctic Silver 5, it's not the "absolute very best of the best" TIM but it's still an amazingly consistent top performer, it has perfect properties for your particular CPU-AIO surface interface, it's cheap and readily available, and (with proper application) it tends to keep working efficiently for years at a time.

You of course know that freshly-applied TIMs won't perform at their maximal efficiencies until a period of "cure time" has passed. For AS5 the full cure time is about a week, although it's still not too bad immediately after application and rapidly gets better over the first few hours.

Your Corsair Hydro H110 cooler comes with a 5-year warranty.
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[/Korth]