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I ended up with a H60 V1 out of a old computer. It quickly became clear that it was broken when the computer was idling near 80c in the bios.
Symptoms were clear:
High idle temp
Pump was reporting 4000rpm
One of the hoses would get hot with the other still cold.
Cold radiator
But totally dry to the touch
It was obvious the cooler wasn't flowing properly. Some shaking of the radiator would create audible bubbles and drop the temp a few degrees but nothing permanent.
So time to get the cooler out and have a look:
So into the finest work bench / baking tray she goes.
The discoloration and staining of the copper started to get me thinking it had leaked, this could explain why the system stopped working. There also was a small amount of residue on the graphics card pcie pins.
With no warranty and nothing to lose i decided to open it up.
So pop the top of the pump cover off and carefully unscrew and remove the pump. First thing is wow that's allot of gunk in there, but also there's lots of fluid so maybe it didn't leak?
Lets see what the block underneath looks like
As a note for anyone looking to do this too, the small hex screws that are somewhere in-between a 1.5mm and 2mm are a real pain to get off. I had to use a 2mm torx that caused some damage to the screw, they wont survive another opening.
Ok that's a pretty dirty block and again lots of gunk outside of the seal pointing to a leak.
Ok so a quick pop to Halfords for some deionized water (seriously 4 shelf's of this stuff all around the store £3.50 for 5L) Lets flush out the loop and see what else we get out of it.
This is what was left in the pan after flushing the loop 3 times. That's allot of gunk !
After a scrub with the tooth brush and a hour of carefully syringing water into the loop through the pump housing and shaking out bubbles i finally popped the pump back in and sealed the unit up again. It's currently going through leak testing on the test bench.
If it passes leak testing I'll need to refill it with a premix coolant as copper block and aluminum radiator is going to cause some issues.
So those of you using some of the original AIO coolers may want to keep an eye on them, they can fail even if the pump is still spinning. And those looking to repair them, it is totally possible, just not easy.
Symptoms were clear:
High idle temp
Pump was reporting 4000rpm
One of the hoses would get hot with the other still cold.
Cold radiator
But totally dry to the touch
It was obvious the cooler wasn't flowing properly. Some shaking of the radiator would create audible bubbles and drop the temp a few degrees but nothing permanent.
So time to get the cooler out and have a look:
So into the finest work bench / baking tray she goes.
The discoloration and staining of the copper started to get me thinking it had leaked, this could explain why the system stopped working. There also was a small amount of residue on the graphics card pcie pins.
With no warranty and nothing to lose i decided to open it up.
So pop the top of the pump cover off and carefully unscrew and remove the pump. First thing is wow that's allot of gunk in there, but also there's lots of fluid so maybe it didn't leak?
Lets see what the block underneath looks like
As a note for anyone looking to do this too, the small hex screws that are somewhere in-between a 1.5mm and 2mm are a real pain to get off. I had to use a 2mm torx that caused some damage to the screw, they wont survive another opening.
Ok that's a pretty dirty block and again lots of gunk outside of the seal pointing to a leak.
Ok so a quick pop to Halfords for some deionized water (seriously 4 shelf's of this stuff all around the store £3.50 for 5L) Lets flush out the loop and see what else we get out of it.
This is what was left in the pan after flushing the loop 3 times. That's allot of gunk !
After a scrub with the tooth brush and a hour of carefully syringing water into the loop through the pump housing and shaking out bubbles i finally popped the pump back in and sealed the unit up again. It's currently going through leak testing on the test bench.
If it passes leak testing I'll need to refill it with a premix coolant as copper block and aluminum radiator is going to cause some issues.
So those of you using some of the original AIO coolers may want to keep an eye on them, they can fail even if the pump is still spinning. And those looking to repair them, it is totally possible, just not easy.
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