HELP! I cant get my pump working!

[Him]

I have the Aqua Xtreme 50Z mag drive pump. I got one, but it did not work (my stupidity, I guess) and I sent it back. I finally got my new one today, I hooked it up, and it dosent work. I RMA'd the first one, and upn talking to the owner of the place I got it, he said he hooked it up when he got it back and it worked. Now when I hooked up my new one, it dosent work! It says do not run it dry, and I never did, my loop is filled to the max. It is wired correctly, into the 12v rail. This is just going to be a run to flush out the system, so I'm not going to use any zerex. Why is it not working? Anyone have any suggestions? Also, I am just jumping the two pins on my ATX connector so I can use my PSU without hooking it into the motherboard. I doubt it, but could that be the reason? If you need any more info, just ask. Please, I NEED to get this working!

[koei]

You sure your PSU is turned on when you are trying out the pump? Check if the PSU fan is spinning.

[MaxxxRacer]

no offense, but this is deffinetly a case of user error.

the two pins you need to jump on the 20 pin psu connector is the green one to the black one. that will turn it on.

make sure that the molex on the pump is connected corectly. thee red wire on the pump will go to the yellow wire on the psu and the black to black.

[Him]

Non offense taken. The PSU is on, I know that, the light goes up blue and the fan spins (Damn that thing is quiet too!) I also checked the wiring, and it is correct. This has to be user error, since this is my second pump and it is not working, and I know they tested this new pump before they sent it to me. Any other ideas?

[harpyboy]

when i got my first pump and first attempt in wc.. my pump doesn't run at all as well... the reason is the interior of the pump is too dry.. try jumpiing the psu repeatly.... 1 sec on 1 sec off... this will push the water into the pump..

this was my case....

[Him]

Is there another way to prime the pump? I thought that it might be a thing, the pump being too dry. I'll give that a try. Please, I need all the suggestions I can get. Waiting to get this pump working has been 5+ months in the making.

EDIT: Tried that, even spent the l;ast ten minutes sucking and blowing water in and out of the pump, but to no avail. I'm gonna start to cry!

Time to start drinking.

[IYP]

look for any crossed leads in your molex line...or the bins being busshed out of the head....anything touching something that shouldent be touching.....sounds like yor molex connection....pins may be being pushed out

[IYP]

you have a modstream eh? tsk tsk....lol make sure everything is wired up right

[Him]

Knocking my modstream, eh? Do tell, do tell. :p

When I plugged it in first, the fit was so tight it pushed out one of the pins from the plastic molex connector, so I just pulled them both out and plugged them in seperately to the line.

[Fairydust]

So what is the problem exactly, the pump doesn't work at all or it doesn't pump the water?

If it doesn't work at all, try connecting some other components to the PSU, some PSUs will not function properly without any load.

If it is not pumping water, as mentioned before it is most likely air inside the pump. Are you using t-line or res? What does your loop look like? Just try to get all the air out of the inlet side and and pump, repeated on-off intervals help quite a bit to remove the excess air once you have enough water inside the pump.

[Him]

Not pumping water would mean it is not working, right?

I'll put a load on the PSU, see if that helps. Since I am just trying to get my pump working right now, I have nothing but a T line and two peices of tubing, with the fillport on the T line. There is not too much water in it right now, just enough to put water in the pump.

[Him]

GOT IT! It DID need a load to run, that is somethign I never knew. Learn something new ever day! Thank you so much to everyone, this was something that I really needed to get working, thank you.

[Fairydust]

Wohoo, 1 more and i get my watercooling merit badge

Glad I could help.

[MaxxxRacer]

so the pump was spinning, just not pumping water? should have said so...

[Psyche911]

No, it wasn't working. Nor was the PSU, correctly. I've never seen that happen, interesting. I have a PowerStream, hope it's not prone to that issue.

[Fairydust]

It is not really an issue, more a "feature" and only shows up in low load scenarios. Most PC PSU require a minimun load at startup and can be damaged otherwise or suffer from "collapsing" rails. A single small pump is sometimes not enough.

[MaxxxRacer]

oooo thats what u meant.. the psu wasnt giving out the voltage.. thought u meant load on the pump..

[babalouj]

Powerstreams cannot be started with shorting the green wire unless you load it, now you know, lol. Its some kind of safety feature. Glad that pump is working for you, its a great pump!

[MaxxxRacer]

babalouj.. thats not true at all. my powerstream works great with just the psu hooked up.

[Him]

I got the modstream, perhaps that is what he meant. It's weird, because when I shorted the two pins the fan would spin up and it would glow blue (quite blue, but not an obnoxious blue, is rather pleasant) But yeah, the pump wasnt working at all. I was never aware of a PSU needing a load on it to start up, why would that be a safety feature? Would it be detrimental to the PSU to run with no load?

[MaxxxRacer]

no idea.. I will ask OCZ about it.

[Fairydust]

It's pretty normal for a switchmode PSU, maybe this helps explain it. Most PSUs now bring their own minimum load in form of fans or resistors.