Problem with D5 Pump, advice?

[Vicey]

I setup this loop in March this year. The D5 pump has worked perfectly since that date until about 4 days ago.

Now sometimes when I turn the computer on the D5 pump does not start and I receive a "CPU Fan Error!" at the bios screen (I have the pumps speed connector hooked up to the CPU pin).

Sometimes restarting the computer will get the pump to function again but today I tried in vain 4 or 5 times to get the pump to start by power cycling my system. Eventually I got it started by flicking the pump with my finger which brought it back in to life.

Now I'm thinking I should RMA it as it seems faulty to me but do you think there is something else I'm missing? Air trapped in it maybe?

I'm using an AX1200 PSU and I've dedicated an entire Molex line from the PSU to the pump so I know it's getting all the power it needs. My PSU is probably only loaded 50% if that. Just two SSD's one hard drive, some fans and an LED Strip are running off Molex/SATA power.

Here is a picture of where the pump is situated so you can get an idea of its orientation and reserviour:

I originally had the pump set to speed 3 but I've changed it to speed 4 and that didn't make any difference, if anything it made the starting issue worse and not better.

[Vicey]

I should note when it does start it runs fine. No weird noises, speed is correct, 4,300 RPM average on speed 4 which is exactly what the speed should be for speed 4.

[Circaflex]

i think its your mobo, my rampage does that same thing and when restarting it will resolve that error. i just ended up unhooking my rpm connector from my pump on the mobo and turned off cpu fan error alerts in bios

[stren]

With that pump/res setup I doubt it's air as the air would go straight up to the res when you shutdown. I would manually inspect the pump and make sure there's no gunk that might be holding it back. You make it sound like the RPM reading is accurate and that the pump is not moving when this happens, so I wouldn't unplug the rpm connector as it's telling you useful information. It could be that the pump has a sketchy electrical connection - try wiggling the cables to see if that causes it to start/stop. The connection could be weak in the molex connector of the pump, or at the solder joint to the pump body or in the psu cable itself. Try swapping the PSU cable to be sure it's not that.

[Vicey]

i think its your mobo, my rampage does that same thing and when restarting it will resolve that error. i just ended up unhooking my rpm connector from my pump on the mobo and turned off cpu fan error alerts in bios

The RPM reporter is 100% accurate in my case as when it reports a CPU Fan Error and I place my hand on the pump it is making no vibration and my CPU temperature hits 80c in seconds.

With that pump/res setup I doubt it's air as the air would go straight up to the res when you shutdown. I would manually inspect the pump and make sure there's no gunk that might be holding it back. You make it sound like the RPM reading is accurate and that the pump is not moving when this happens, so I wouldn't unplug the rpm connector as it's telling you useful information. It could be that the pump has a sketchy electrical connection - try wiggling the cables to see if that causes it to start/stop. The connection could be weak in the molex connector of the pump, or at the solder joint to the pump body or in the psu cable itself. Try swapping the PSU cable to be sure it's not that.

You're right the air should go in to the res. I did try replacing the PSU cable to the pump. Previously it shared a molex line with my LED strip in the case. I changed that so it has its own dedicated Molex from the PSU with nothing else on it. That didn't seem to fix anything. The molex connection seems solid to me it's not cutting out when wiggling the cable.

I did notice one thing though, I took the cap off my res today and quite a lot of pressure was inside the loop as a gush of air and some liquid jumped out the top of the res the second the cap was unscrewed. Do you think perhaps there was too much pressure in the loop? I guess the liquid evaporating caused some kind of air expansion inside.

I'm going to take the loop apart and inspect the pump for gunk at the earliest opportunity.

[Vicey]

Okay the system was off for about 12 hours. This is usually when I power it on and then the pump wont start. But today after relieving the pressure in the loop it now started instantly. I placed my finger on the pump before hitting the power button and it came to life straight away with no hesitation.

I guess I'll give it a week and see if the problem comes back, if not I suppose it was the pressure in the reservoir stopping the pump from starting up easily.

[zeroibis]

If that is true I guess there is a reason for this product: http://www.frozencpu.com/products/12...kel_71126.html

Or possibly even this: http://www.frozencpu.com/products/16...l=g30c101s1382

If that really was what caused your issue it would in some ways perhaps be safe to say that pressure equalization can help protect your pump.

[Vicey]

I thought the problem went away and for a week straight I had no more start up problems. But today the problem came back. So I figured okay maybe it's the pressure thing again? So I released the cap on my res, nothing came out. Definitely not a pressure problem.

I tried everything to get the pump to work again, flicking it with my finger lightly, connecting the pump to its own PSU and leaving it on for several minutes. Nothing would start it.

So I've ordered a new pump, some new tubing and new coolant. I'm going to drain and dismantle this rig probably on Tuesday and figure out what caused this problem. Right now I'm guessing that there is some kind of gunk built up around the pump stopping it from turning. I can definitely feel it attempting to shudder in to life but each time it does not start spinning. I'm hoping the problem is just plasticizer, I used XSPC tubing against my better judgement because it was in stock at the time and the Primochill Advanced LRT I wanted to use was not but I've ordered three meters of the Advanced LRT and I'm going to replace all my tubing when I replace the pump and coolant.

If I figure out what the issue was I'll report back. I may even take some pictures if I find anything interesting.

[BrokenArrow]

Having similar problems in the past with pumps, I now always have two pumps in series for all watercooled computers. Chances are one of the two will at least start and avoid cooking something.

[Vicey]

Starting to wish I'd gone with two pumps in series as well.

[Vicey]

Took the rig apart today and I found a few issues. But I did not find any visible signs of issue with the pump. It was however very hard to turn by hand when compared to my brand new pump. The pumps are essentially identical D5's and it felt to me like the old pump had a lot more resistance to turning.

I found no gunk build up, no plasticiser powder, no bacteria.

What I did find however is the acrylic in my build specifically the little EK piece that goes inside the reservoir to stop a vortex like action was sticky. Very sticky like a licked lollypop. It was also cloudy instead of completely transparent like when I first got it.

I washed it in the sink and it looks brand new now but that stickiness is I think serious indicator of something wrong and perhaps part of the reason why the pump was finding it hard to move? - I didn't find any other parts sticky, the acrylic part of the reservoir for example was smooth and not sticky at all.

When I drained the loop and closely inspected my CPU Block I noticed a whole host of problems. Firstly the front acrylic had a hairline crack in it next to where the barb screws in. I believe I overtightened the barb causing the crack to occur. It was not far enough to cause any leaks however.

One thing that was alarming the nickel plating on my CPU block has come off in three places. One near the outter rubber o-ring, this is a piece of nickel missing over an inch long and about 2mm wide. The copper underneath shines through like a dull penny.

The other area is in the bottom left of the CPU block and then the fins about 3 of them have lost their nickel coating.

I thought that EK fixed this problem a number of years ago but it appears not. I only built this rig in March by the way.

In my build I use Monsoon fittings on everything except in two places that can't be seen in the bottom where I use EK black fittings instead. I'm wishing I didn't do that now because just like the CPU block the black coating has come off where the water touches the barb and another metal is shining through. I don't know what process EK uses to make these but it is not great, again only 4 months old and showing terrible wear.

The tubing I was using was XSPC stuff because the Primoflex Advanced LRT I wanted wasn't available when I originally built the system.

This appears to have been a mistake as the tubing is visibly changing colour, stained beyond belief and just doesn't look good at all. I used Tygon tubing in my old build with the same blood red coolant for over a year and it didn't look anywhere as bad as this XSPC does after just four months.

So I've cleaned everything, changed the tubing I'm now using Primoflex Advanced LRT. I've changed the pump and I have a new CPU block coming tomorrow morning, I'm going with a copper one this time, I think I'm 100% done with nickel plating and I'm glad I never went with the Nickel 780 blocks.

[stren]

Took the rig apart today and I found a few issues. But I did not find any visible signs of issue with the pump. It was however very hard to turn by hand when compared to my brand new pump. The pumps are essentially identical D5's and it felt to me like the old pump had a lot more resistance to turning.

I found no gunk build up, no plasticiser powder, no bacteria.

What I did find however is the acrylic in my build specifically the little EK piece that goes inside the reservoir to stop a vortex like action was sticky. Very sticky like a licked lollypop. It was also cloudy instead of completely transparent like when I first got it.

I washed it in the sink and it looks brand new now but that stickiness is I think serious indicator of something wrong and perhaps part of the reason why the pump was finding it hard to move? - I didn't find any other parts sticky, the acrylic part of the reservoir for example was smooth and not sticky at all.

When I drained the loop and closely inspected my CPU Block I noticed a whole host of problems. Firstly the front acrylic had a hairline crack in it next to where the barb screws in. I believe I overtightened the barb causing the crack to occur. It was not far enough to cause any leaks however.

One thing that was alarming the nickel plating on my CPU block has come off in three places. One near the outter rubber o-ring, this is a piece of nickel missing over an inch long and about 2mm wide. The copper underneath shines through like a dull penny.

The other area is in the bottom left of the CPU block and then the fins about 3 of them have lost their nickel coating.

I thought that EK fixed this problem a number of years ago but it appears not. I only built this rig in March by the way.

In my build I use Monsoon fittings on everything except in two places that can't be seen in the bottom where I use EK black fittings instead. I'm wishing I didn't do that now because just like the CPU block the black coating has come off where the water touches the barb and another metal is shining through. I don't know what process EK uses to make these but it is not great, again only 4 months old and showing terrible wear.

The tubing I was using was XSPC stuff because the Primoflex Advanced LRT I wanted wasn't available when I originally built the system.

This appears to have been a mistake as the tubing is visibly changing colour, stained beyond belief and just doesn't look good at all. I used Tygon tubing in my old build with the same blood red coolant for over a year and it didn't look anywhere as bad as this XSPC does after just four months.

So I've cleaned everything, changed the tubing I'm now using Primoflex Advanced LRT. I've changed the pump and I have a new CPU block coming tomorrow morning, I'm going with a copper one this time, I think I'm 100% done with nickel plating and I'm glad I never went with the Nickel 780 blocks.

Yeah that XSPC tube is horrible if it's anything like the stuff I had two years ago. The stickyness sounds like classic plasticizer leach. I don't like tygon either. I used primochill advanced LRT with the EKoolant and had some major staining on the tubing and some of the dye deposited in cracks. Wasn't too happy with the dye fallout but no noticable plasticizer leach.

For the nickel flake - yes the problem was supposed to be fixed two years ago ish. That cpu block looks like an old design though even if it's new to you? Maybe I'm wrong though. You should be covered by warranty though even if it was manufactured a long time ago because warranty would be by purchase date I believe.

I haven't seen any nickel flake since the csq came out. Before that I had 480 blocks, 580 blocks, ram blocks and motherboard blocks all flake. Since then I've had two supremacies, ram blocks, motherboard blocks, 4 different gpu blocks and no nickel flake. So in my experience it has been fixed on the new products.

[Vicey]

It definitely is an old design block, I specifically got it because I didn't like the CSQ circles. But they've grown on me and I don't mind the look any more. The new block I've got is the CSQ design but it's copper I think I'll just stay away from the Nickel it doesn't really matter to me anyway.

My loop is up and running right now and works great. I think I even got the tubing a lot nicer. I think you're right about the plasticiser being the cause of that stickiness on the acrylic. Maybe that is what was causing the pump to be so hard to turn as well if it was sticking to the ceramic ball or other parts inside the pump etc

Hopefully all smooth sailing from here!