AIO started heating up more than before

[MasterM1nd]

Hello! I didn't know where to put my problem. So I have Ryzen 5 3600 and AIO (Cougar Aqua 240). When I bought it (6 months ago) the temperatures were cool, under 70 degrees (Celsius) under load. The problem is that now it sits around 80+ degrees celsius (170+ F) on 70% load. The pump is powered by SATA power and is always on 100% because of it. And it is indeed working- it can be heard on startup and after that. One pipe is cooler, the other is burning. The radiator is like room temperature. Yet the temperatures are rising. It's super strange. I changed thermal paste two days ago (even though back then I put one of the best thermal pastes I thought that I should check) with the one included in the AIO. And of course it didn't change anything, the old one wasn't even close to dry. Any ideas what should I check? I have Ryzen Master and I have a profile that makes it 4.2 on 1.175V (with it the processor draws around 28W) and its usual temps for it is around 55°C (130°F), but with it right now the CPU is running around the 70 degree mark.

Any ideas what to do? 

[LIGISTX]

3 minutes ago, MasterM1nd said:

Hello! I didn't know where to put my problem. So I have Ryzen 5 3600 and AIO (Cougar Aqua 240). When I bought it (6 months ago) the temperatures were cool, under 70 degrees (Celsius) under load. The problem is that now it sits around 80+ degrees celsius (170+ F) on 70% load. The pump is powered by SATA power and is always on 100% because of it. And it is indeed working- it can be heard on startup and after that. One pipe is cooler, the other is burning. The radiator is like room temperature. Yet the temperatures are rising. It's super strange. I changed thermal paste two days ago (even though back then I put one of the best thermal pastes I thought that I should check) with the one included in the AIO. And of course it didn't change anything, the old one wasn't even close to dry. Any ideas what should I check? I have Ryzen Master and I have a profile that makes it 4.2 on 1.175V (with it the processor draws around 28W) and its usual temps for it is around 55°C (130°F), but with it right now the CPU is running around the 70 degree mark.

Any ideas what to do? 

How is the AIO mounted in your case? Where is the radiator mounted, and where are the tubes going into the radiator?

[MasterM1nd]

1 minute ago, LIGISTX said:

How is the AIO mounted in your case? Where is the radiator mounted, and where are the tubes going into the radiator?

It's in the front. The case has mesh in front of it, it's not clear plastic or any other thing (that's why I bought it). The front grille has place for three fans and they are all occupied. Changing the curves, stopping the third one and other stuff didn't do much. The Graphics card holds the same old temps, that's the first thing I checked when I saw my CPU going up. The tubes were going up, I changed them to go down (it was hard, the tubes didn't want to do it) an hour ago and it of course didn't do anything... 

[LIGISTX]

1 hour ago, MasterM1nd said:

It's in the front. The case has mesh in front of it, it's not clear plastic or any other thing (that's why I bought it). The front grille has place for three fans and they are all occupied. Changing the curves, stopping the third one and other stuff didn't do much. The Graphics card holds the same old temps, that's the first thing I checked when I saw my CPU going up. The tubes were going up, I changed them to go down (it was hard, the tubes didn't want to do it) an hour ago and it of course didn't do anything... 

What do you mean tubes going down? You want the tubes to be at the bottom of the radiator, so at the bottom of the case. But I doubt they will be long enough to do that. Theoretically with the tubes at the top is ok since the block is lower then the top of the radiator, but that doesn't really explain your issue. 

 

Your at 55c when at idle? That indicates your mount is bad... typically a bad mount will cause high idle temps (and really high load temps). Your using the correct Ryzen mounting hardware and the screws are all tight?

[LIGISTX]

13 minutes ago, Caroline said:

Sounds clogged, if the tubing is hot and radiator is cold then the coolant isn't moving

I agree with this, but how does an AIO get clogged.... nothing to "clog".

[Universes]

Or the pump is not actually pumping. if it is true that the radiator is room temperature, one tube is cool, and one tube is hot, then clearly the coolant is not moving at all. Just because you hear noises from the pump doesn't mean it's actually working (properly). 

[MasterM1nd]

53 minutes ago, Universes said:

Or the pump is not actually pumping. if it is true that the radiator is room temperature, one tube is cool, and one tube is hot, then clearly the coolant is not moving at all. Just because you hear noises from the pump doesn't mean it's actually working (properly). 

How does that work? It's just that the fans are cooling the rad. I forgot to mention that I can hear water moving in the pipes. Also, when I stop the fans the radiator starts to heap up and the whole system starts to feel pretty hot. I don't think it's a pump problem. I also shaked it yesterday to try and unclog it (I thought of clogging too) and heard coolant splashing. As I said- super strange case for me

Edit: I'm searching for air replacement. I might buy it, but I don't want to spend that much money on air rn...

[LIGISTX]

32 minutes ago, MasterM1nd said:

How does that work? It's just that the fans are cooling the rad. I forgot to mention that I can hear water moving in the pipes. Also, when I stop the fans the radiator starts to heap up and the whole system starts to feel pretty hot. I don't think it's a pump problem. I also shaked it yesterday to try and unclog it (I thought of clogging too) and heard coolant splashing. As I said- super strange case for me

Edit: I'm searching for air replacement. I might buy it, but I don't want to spend that much money on air rn...

A 3600 is not terribly hard to cool.... a Hyper 212 evo would likely do just fine. But.. so should your AIO. What is the thermal paste your using? Is it properly mounted? The plastic protector film isn't on the cold plate right?

[MasterM1nd]

1 minute ago, LIGISTX said:

A 3600 is not terribly hard to cool.... a Hyper 212 evo would likely do just fine. But.. so should your AIO. What is the thermal paste your using? Is it properly mounted? The plastic protector film isn't on the cold plate right?

The plastic film isn't on it. I used thermal grizzly kryonaut (I wanted to be the cool one... Literally). Now I use... I don't even know, the stock one with the AIO. Also, I love to be safe and put a little bit extra (and spread the paste with a paddle ... I both love and hate that process). 3600 is not hard to cool at all, mine draws 30w right now at 4.2Ghz on 1.175V, but is 83°C

[LIGISTX]

7 hours ago, MasterM1nd said:

The plastic film isn't on it. I used thermal grizzly kryonaut (I wanted to be the cool one... Literally). Now I use... I don't even know, the stock one with the AIO. Also, I love to be safe and put a little bit extra (and spread the paste with a paddle ... I both love and hate that process). 3600 is not hard to cool at all, mine draws 30w right now at 4.2Ghz on 1.175V, but is 83°C

Something is very wrong. Are you sure that is the voltage it’s actually running at? There isn’t some weird program loading the CPU? If you go in the BIOS and let it sit there for ~5 minutes, what temps does the BIOS report the CPU being at (this would help rule out any program or windows issue).

 

It sounds like a bad mount to me. Or a  broken AIO.

 

Have you tried removing the OC, setting the speed back to default? I’d try this as a trouble shooting step as well. Just to rule that possible issue out as well. 

[LIGISTX]

32 minutes ago, Caroline said:

if coolant isn't clean enough gunk (algae, salts and other debris) can settle down over time and obstruct the block fins or the radiator. there's also a chance the impeller gets stuck or out of place so the pump motor spins without moving liquid. 

Something simple like a misaligned block can also cause high temps. Same if you use too much paste. Using expensive paste doesn't makes too much of a difference unless you're overclocking or have an i9 using 300W.

 

Going air should be better imo

There really shouldn’t be salts in a loop… and yes, algae and other contaminants can form, especially if the cooler used improper fluids, but this is pretty rare. Most AIO’s are correctly filled with a glycol blend and nothing will grow in that. It can definitely happen, and it’ll be really hard to tell for sure. It still just sounds like a bad mount or something other issue tho. If OP really is only drawing 30 watts and it’s at 83c, even an AIO working at partial capacity would be able to cool that… 

[MasterM1nd]

I think I fixed it. The problem was probably air in the CPU block. I completely removed the AIO and shaked it a lot (Just nefore I created the topic I shook the rad, but didn't shake the CPU block) . It's 75C under Aida64 load, which is HUGE improvement (With the default curve, I have custom one)

[samirsaliba]

Sorry for replying to an old thread, but I just feel like it can be helpful for other Cougar Aqua 240 victims to feel more confident with their complaints. I had the exact same problem as OP described: same cooler, same cpu, same temps, same failure and even the fact that one pipe is hot and the other is cool.

10 months ago, I got in contact with Cougar and they replaced my first unit with a brand new one. After a couple of months, same thing starts happening again with the second unit they shipped me. Terrible experience…

I’ve tried disassembling and shaking it to move the air from the cpu block but couldn’t get any improvements whatsoever.

I’m just contacting them again and letting them fix it, since it’s still in warranty.

It’s just funny how well designed it is to fail. Same modus operandi for everyone I guess lmao.

Unfortunately most reviewers only had them tested for a couple of weeks (or days?) so I think no one had time to run into this issue.