How can I remove these from my AIO's copper plate?

RTX 3071 · October 19, 2021

I have these weird marks on my AIO cooler. They seem to decrease my cooling a lot because I just mounted my stock cooler instead and I'm getting pretty much same temps. Also it does not suck the heat properly and CPU instantly gets hot on a high load like air coolers. Its warranty has ended but I will contact reseller for replacement parts tomorrow. If they don't have needed parts or if they just don't sell, what can I do to remove these?

mariushm · October 19, 2021

The marks are scratches, probably from polishing the surface.

They're just visual imperfections, any thermal paste would fill the scratches in the surface.

If you want perfection, you can start polishing the bottom of the cooler ... get a bunch of wet sandpaper, from a relatively course grit to a very fine grit, and use some double sided adhesive tape to tape the sandpaper to a sheet of glass for flatness.... then go and polish the surface.

It's also called lapping....

W-L · October 19, 2021

14 minutes ago, RTX 3071 said:

I have these weird marks on my AIO cooler. They seem to decrease my cooling a lot because I just mounted my stock cooler instead and I'm getting pretty much same temps. Also it does not suck the heat properly and CPU instantly gets hot on a high load like air coolers. Its warranty has ended but I will contact reseller for replacement parts tomorrow. If they don't have needed parts or if they just don't sell, what can I do to remove these?

Those look pretty superficial unless there are raised bits that catch your finger nail. Make sure your AIO unit is plugged into a header that provides it the full 12V depending on your unit some are not designed to run on analog voltage control but a PWM signal to change the pump speed.

RTX 3071 · October 19, 2021

38 minutes ago, W-L said:

Those look pretty superficial unless there are raised bits that catch your finger nail. Make sure your AIO unit is plugged into a header that provides it the full 12V depending on your unit some are not designed to run on analog voltage control but a PWM signal to change the pump speed.

They are definitely raised bits.

39 minutes ago, mariushm said:

The marks are scratches, probably from polishing the surface.

They're just visual imperfections, any thermal paste would fill the scratches in the surface.

If you want perfection, you can start polishing the bottom of the cooler ... get a bunch of wet sandpaper, from a relatively course grit to a very fine grit, and use some double sided adhesive tape to tape the sandpaper to a sheet of glass for flatness.... then go and polish the surface.

It's also called lapping....

Thanks I'll actually this this.

I need to tell the story first I guess...

When I first built this PC my parts were ready and I decided to buy some remaining ones from a store. I bought them and an employee in store told that he can assemble it for me. I said "ok sure" because that was my first custom PC. However, when I arrived home, I saw that my CPU temps are at 95 degrees, on idle! I've run a lot of benchmarks that day and after 2 days we went back to that store and asked about these. They first said it's normal! I asked them to reinstall the cooler, they took the pump out and told me that it's perfectly in. I asked for the plastic peel and yeah... they forgot that there. They took it away there. It's been a year, I changed my thermal paste some times actually but I've never seen these before. I wasn't careful enough probably. These bits are probably molten plastic which sticked to the copper plate because I tried to get some off today with some towels but they made the towel black, thermal paste isn't black as we know.

That can also explain the contact issue because when CPU is hot radiator doesn't blow that much hot air to inside.

W-L · October 20, 2021

18 hours ago, RTX 3071 said:

They are definitely raised bits.

Thanks I'll actually this this.

I need to tell the story first I guess...

When I first built this PC my parts were ready and I decided to buy some remaining ones from a store. I bought them and an employee in store told that he can assemble it for me. I said "ok sure" because that was my first custom PC. However, when I arrived home, I saw that my CPU temps are at 95 degrees, on idle! I've run a lot of benchmarks that day and after 2 days we went back to that store and asked about these. They first said it's normal! I asked them to reinstall the cooler, they took the pump out and told me that it's perfectly in. I asked for the plastic peel and yeah... they forgot that there. They took it away there. It's been a year, I changed my thermal paste some times actually but I've never seen these before. I wasn't careful enough probably. These bits are probably molten plastic which sticked to the copper plate because I tried to get some off today with some towels but they made the towel black, thermal paste isn't black as we know.

That can also explain the contact issue because when CPU is hot radiator doesn't blow that much hot air to inside.

If they are slightly raised you can take some fine grit sandpaper > 400grit and give it a light polish/sand to take off the high spots. It will help but not make a huge difference as the paste will take up slight irregularities like this.