High CPU temps after cleaning AIO rad

[Eezy]

Problem:

I've been running my 9900KF with a BeQuiet! Silent Loop 2 360mm for a bit over a year now. It worked perfectly. CPU would always idle between 25° and 35°. Never seen it over 75° under any load.

2 days ago I took off the AIO for deep cleaning of rad and fans and put some new thermal paste. After re-installing it, CPU now idles anywhere between 40° and 60° while every few minutes ramping up to 80° and down again. Never going less than 40°C. While doing any stress test goes immediately to 100° and throttles. PC is not crashing nor shutting down (for now anyways).

 

 Tried Solutions:

- Thought it might be a bad mount on the CPU block. Already reseated it 3 times. The spread on the paste looks good and even. Don't think this is it.

- Thought the pump went bad. AIDA64, HWiNFO and BIOS readings all report a steady 3000rpm on the pump. Used to be steady 2800 before all this but I think it ain't a significant difference to be of any concern. Also I feel the water moving when i slightly press on the tubes, although the flow feels much higher (and warmer) in the OUT tube than the IN. I guess this is normal since the pump is, well... pumping, but maybe not?

- Thought maybe some air bubbles got created and stucked somewhere on the loop from moving it, or maybe the liquid evaporated a bit in the year of use. Luckily the AIO has a refill port on the rad and came with a bottle to top it up. I filled the AIO a bit with it. Also, i ran the pump while holding the rad outside the case and above the pump while moving it a bit and slapping it, trying to get any air bubble to the top of the loop. I tilted the whole PC 45 degrees in every direction. I'm currently doing the last possible solution i found for this, which is running the pump on MAX and leaving it for a couple hours to see if any bubbles get thinned put and to the top by themselves. The pump was making a bubbling/rattling sound after all the moving and shaking, but its been running for an hour now and the sounds stopped.

 

I can't figure out what's going on. Every thing seems to be working fine and same as before but can't get the CPU temps to go down.

 

Specs:

CPU: i9 9900KF

Cooler: BeQuiet! Silent Loop 2 360mm (Rad always been on top of the case)

RAM: 16gb 2666Mhz T-Force Vulcan Z

MoBo: MSI MPG Z380 Gaming Edge AC

GPU: MSI 3080 Gaming x trio

PSU: Cooler Master 850w 80+ Gold

Case: Corsair 5000x

 

TIA for any help!

(First time poster, sorry if wrong place to do it)

[OddOod]

Welcome to the forums!

That is a pretty good set of troubleshooting steps. My guess on the the higher speed is that it ramped up a bit to compensate for the higher temps. 
It is definitely possible that there is still air in the system, and running pump at 90% for a few days should clear those out.  It's also possible that there is a bent pin on your socket but that would be surprising. 
I assume that you are tightening the cold block down to whatever BQ recommends. 
Honestly, if it's not performing poorly, I'd just assume it's haunted and let it be

[Eezy]

13 minutes ago, OddOod said:

Welcome to the forums!

That is a pretty good set of troubleshooting steps. My guess on the the higher speed is that it ramped up a bit to compensate for the higher temps. 
It is definitely possible that there is still air in the system, and running pump at 90% for a few days should clear those out.  It's also possible that there is a bent pin on your socket but that would be surprising. 
I assume that you are tightening the cold block down to whatever BQ recommends. 
Honestly, if it's not performing poorly, I'd just assume it's haunted and let it be

Haunted is my best guess too so far..

Thing is its not just a couple degrees, it goes full throttle whit any stress test or somewhat heavy game.

Block is installed with included brackets as indicated by BQ, that never changed. Also I never removed the CPU from the MoBo's socket since I bought it so a bent pin would be big surprise, but I'll definitely check in a couple days if the issue turns out to NOT be some air trapped in the loop and just running the pump doesn't solve it.

 

Thanks for taking the time and for the welcome!

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by Eezy
phrasing and grammar

[OddOod]

Happy to help!

[Zando_]

58 minutes ago, Eezy said:

Also I feel the water moving when i slightly press on the tubes, although the flow feels much higher (and warmer) in the OUT tube than the IN. I guess this is normal since the pump is, well... pumping, but maybe not?

That's usually a sign of the pump not working properly, watercooling loops typically have about the same coolant temp throughout the entire loop. It may be like... half a degree off right after the CPU block or after the rad, but not something you could feel with your hands. That cooler is supposed to have a 3-year warranty, see if you can RMA it. 

[Eezy]

11 minutes ago, Zando_ said:

It may be like... half a degree off right after the CPU block or after the rad, but not something you could feel with your hands. That cooler is supposed to have a 3-year warranty, see if you can RMA it. 

I can definitely feel the temp and flow difference between tubes. Since pump seems to be working I didn't think it could be the issue. I'll contact BeQuiet and see if I can RMA it, but I don't have high hopes they'll take it being where I'm from (LATAM).

 

Thank you for your time!