HELP! trouble with my first water cooling project!

Rudager

Gawd
Joined
Oct 31, 2005
Messages
520
I've recently installed the Swiftech Storm and the Dangerden Maze 4 chipset blocks onto my motherboard...I've got my koolance Exos2 and all the tubing running, fine...the coolant runs just fine through the tubes and there is not leaks...however when I turn on my computer...my cpu runs UNDER my normal clock speed at 2.8 ghz, instead of 3.6 ghz....and when windows starts it soon crashes. I know I hooked everything up fine...my heatsinks are installed ok...thermal grease is fine...now there is one thing I did that I think I shouldn't have....there was a heatsink on my board that was right next the the cpu...it was not the NorthB or the SOuthB...it was bythe I/O panel...I had to take that off because it was in the way of my STORM waterblock...I think this is the problem, but I wondered if anyone had any other ideas...I don't want to return the waterblock, but I might have to, obviously.

I suppose I could try my other motherboard, but I'd rather not do all this again, and I like my ASUS better than my MSI P4N Diamond.
 
Sounds like a temperature problem. Cpu throttles back to 2.8 but still is too hot and shuts down. I would make sure tubing runs are correct, fluid is being pumped through the tubing, and check the water block mount...
 
Did you take the heatsink off the VRMs? If so you need to replace the heatsink for the VRMs or Create a custom water block for it.
 
MTXR said:
Did you take the heatsink off the VRMs? If so you need to replace the heatsink for the VRMs or Create a custom water block for it.

Yeah that's what I did...heh...knew that was the wrong thing to do...anyhow, I already changed to my other motherboard...and got that all set up...problem though...when I went to power it up, it turned on for a split second and then turned off...now the only thing on is my power led...but nothing else turns on...did i blow my PSU? What could have caused this???
 
Rudager said:
Yeah that's what I did...heh...knew that was the wrong thing to do...anyhow, I already changed to my other motherboard...and got that all set up...problem though...when I went to power it up, it turned on for a split second and then turned off...now the only thing on is my power led...but nothing else turns on...did i blow my PSU? What could have caused this???


The VRMs GET HOT! You probably have a short or something is not hooked up right. Did you wire up everything correctly?
 
uhm is the storm block tightened down properly? the first time i mounted it, i went straight to bios, which showed 75 deg temps, so i made a half turn on each screw, looked back at bios and it then said 38 deg. try it out?
 
MTXR said:
The VRMs GET HOT! You probably have a short or something is not hooked up right. Did you wire up everything correctly?

ok..update...it looks like I didn't fry my PSU...because that would suck...but what happens is when I turn it on, it turns on for a split second and then shuts off, and each consecutive time I press the power button the power LED only turns on and nothing else....HOWEVER, when I unplug my power supply and let the caps drain and replug in...the computer will turn on again, butonly for that split second...what the hell did I do...I'm prettysure that I have every thing set up. I guess I could reinstall my CPU block. ALSO, I installedmy other motherboard the P4N diamond so the VRUs aren't an issue anymore. THe only thing I can think of is that whenI installed the CPU block...I couldn't find a small black fiber washer that wend inbetween the 1 water block screw and bottom of my motherboard...but I really didn't think it would be a big deal. Could that be shorting out my system? I doubt it, but maybe? I'm starting to get desperate here.
 
that would be one place you could get a short, especially if the holes you're using aren't insulated like the other holes on most motherboards.

also you can switch back to your other board and mod the heatsinks for the vrus so the storm block fits better.
 
Ok...I've put the heatsink back on the VRUs and I've basically reseated the cpu block and chipset block....cleaned them first and applied new thermal paste and all that jazz. The clock speed is fine, but I'm experiencing very high CPU temp (idle at 40 Celsius)...I'm almost absolutely sure that that it's seated right...Ive checked for kinks in the tubing...that's fine...it's looks like the fluid is flowing fine...but I still get really high temps..I'm ordering a flow rate monitor to see if that's it...but is it possible that hot VRUs would cause very high CPU temps????
 
idle at 40c isnt that hot ied say its about 5-7c warmer than it should be
how big of a rad. are you running in your loop?
 
The exos II pump(s) are not too powerful IIRC. You might want to find out the flow you are getting there.

Koolance blcoks are optimized for low flow design. The storm is optimized for high to medium flow - two completely different methodologies. Granted, the storm may work decently, but you won't get super low temps like you would if you were to use a more powerful pump such as an Aquaxtreme 50z or a D5.

Are you applying AS5 per directions on their website? You only need 2/3 the size of a BB in the center of the IHS.

Make sure everything is mounted correctly - namely that the block is making even contact with the core. Tighten the the screws VERY slightly on the block while you are in your bios. If you do this with the PC on, however, don't untighten them...

Best of luck.
 
DarkenReaper57 said:
Koolance blcoks are optimized for low flow design. The storm is optimized for high to medium flow - two completely different methodologies.

Do you think it would be worth it to change to the koolance version?
 
what I would do is take out the motherboard battery to reset the CMOS. Then I would boot up and make sure you have the right voltages in the BIOS. Do you know what you set your voltages to?
 
If you're rebooting that quickly, your motherboard might have some sort of fan protection, where it refuses to boot unless there's something plugged into the CPU fan header. I know my old DFI board had something similar. Try plugging any old fan in there, see if that helps.
 
UPDATE

I got everything running and my temp is at 46 Celsius full load oc'd at 4.14 ghz

Thanks for everyones help.
 
haelduksf said:
What was it that did the trick?

it's embarassing...the tech at the place where I bought it told me to put the input tube in the wrong barb on the block...and I was the dumbass who listened.
 
Rudager said:
it's embarassing...the tech at the place where I bought it told me to put the input tube in the wrong barb on the block...and I was the dumbass who listened.


LOL. Hot VRMs can increase CPU temperatures.

So your flow was all jacked up... That sucks.

I suggest running everything in serial.
 
this is why pics speak a thousand words. if we had seen some pics we woulda solved this DAYS ago :p
glad you got it sorted tho
 
Back
Top