CPU Temp rising up to the 80/90°C, Intel i7 4790K w/liquid water cooling system, more details inside

AnxiousBlue

Commendable
Jan 2, 2017
8
0
1,510
Conveniently, there's sticky threads on the CPU forums to read. Inconveniently, I keep getting an "uh oh something went wrong" error trying to visit the CPU forums as of writing the beginning of the thread. But I'm computer inept to know I probably wouldn't figure out much from those. My sincerest apologies if I'm posting something redundant (which I probably am :( ).

I've noticed recently that, for reasons beyond me, the temperature of my CPU is increasing up to 80/90°C for little to no reason. I could merely open Firefox, or Winamp, or on some few occassions, do nothing at all, and it'll spike up there. In fact, as of this writing, the lowest the temperature has gone to while idling is 63°C.

Here are my computer specs that I think are pertinent:

CPU: Intel Core i7 4790K
CPU COOLER: Cooler Master Nepton 240M CPU Liquid Cooling System
CASE: Cooler Master HAF XB EVO ATX Desktop Case
MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 3 ATX LGA1150
MEMORY: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
VIDEO CARD: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB G1
POWER SUPPLY: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX

I dunno what else I'd have to list, nothing else seems important. Until the time I noticed the heat being so high, I would frequently check using Speccy to ensure nothing was getting too hot. There's also a big fan on top of the case to help out presumably everything (CPU, video card, etc.), on top of the aforementioned Nepton 240M CPU Liquid Cooling System. Everything was pretty regularized; nothing went above the 60s even when playing something rather resource-heavy.

The computer has been dusted off rather strongly less than a week ago. And when informed it could be my CPU cooler's heatsink (before realizing, as a liquid cooling system, it has no heatsink per se), I even put more effort in dusting those parts off. I'll admit the only thing neither I nor my supposedly computer-savvy brother didn't try was removing the CPU cooler and replacing the thermal paste, since the latter figured that couldn't be it since the computer is barely two years old. Searching around these very forums led me to a consensus that thermal paste needs no replacing ever unless the cooler's removed and needs to be put back.

I'm going to include two screenshots of CPUID HWMonitor. To be honest, I'm slightly confused by the listings. I see everything in that list except the Intel Core i7 4790K itself has a "Fans" tab. And one of the fans under the motherboard, listed here as FANIN0 (once it shows up; I should note sometimes when I boot up HWMonitor, that particular fan takes a while before showing up) spends half the time having 0 RPM. I've read on another thread on these forums, specifically this one, that it would be normal... if it was because the idle temperature was low enough to warrant the inactivity (if I understood correctly, anyway).

I'm mostly really confused as to what the issue is or how to even pinpoint it. I would deeply appreciate some guidance/assistance/help, pretty please.
 
Solution
It sounds like your pump may have died which is usually the problem with AIO water cooling solutions. Do you feel water going through the tubes?

clutchc

Titan
Ambassador
Fan 0 is usually the CPU cooler fan, but who knows which one it is in your rig for sure. Since you have water cooling, the radiator fan should be plugged into the CPU FAN header. If so, that should be fan 0. It should never be at zero rpm. Low rpm yes, but never zero. Watch it when hwmon shows it at zero, see if it is truly stopped.
Since this just started happening, I'll assume the rad fan and pump are connected properly to the proper headers and such. Can you follow the pump's cable out and see where it is connected to?
 

AnxiousBlue

Commendable
Jan 2, 2017
8
0
1,510


Thank you for your reply!

Would appear not a single fan ceases movement when FANIN0 shows 0 RPM; they are all spinning. I'm looking at the top fan, the fan in the rear and the two rad fans. I already checked those, but it warrants another look-see, especially since last I checked, it went as far as 100 celsius. I had cleaned the radiator more than I previously thought I did, and it seemed to be far more stable, staying in the 50s and 60s. Then it rocketed back to the 90s over time (except the time it sank to the 30s). Allow me to triple-check the connections and I will get back at you in a few minutes.

I somewhat wonder if there's a possibility that, somehow, Speccy and HWMonitor are being fed erroneous information?
 

AnxiousBlue

Commendable
Jan 2, 2017
8
0
1,510
Opened it up and checked. Seems the rad fans are both interconnected and leading into SYS FAN 1, while the cooling unit, the lil' black box thingie, has a cable that leads to CPU FAN...?

EDIT: Aha... seems like that was the problem I guess? I swapped them based on what you said previously. Now the rad fans are on CPU FAN and the other thing on SYS FAN 1. Now my rad fans are actually going Full Speed. So far, it made a small jump to the 70 degrees when I booted something up, but stays at a comfortable 62 average. Gonna cross my fingers and hope it doesn't somehow rebel against me and shoot up to the 100s. If that fixed it for real, then thank you so very, very much! (Will confirm your answer as a solution in that case)

EDIT 2: After some time and booting up a high-end game, and even a while after closing said game, it's shot back in the 80/90 degrees range...
 

AnxiousBlue

Commendable
Jan 2, 2017
8
0
1,510


Oh wow, I checked right after you sent that message. Sweet; thanks for the response and good morning!

I just checked; I guess it's a tiny bit hard to really tell since there's vibrations going on? But I think it feels like water is running through those tubes. Just turned computer on; will see when the temps shoot back up... which won't take too long.

Well... one of the tubes is pretty damn hot. Guess I found the problem? =/
 

AnxiousBlue

Commendable
Jan 2, 2017
8
0
1,510


First of all, I failed to notice this morning... I love your icon. SHO'NUFF! :D

Yeah, was just recently told it was normal for one of the tubes to be hot (though I wouldn't say it was warm rather than it was pretty dang hot). I'm going to assume it's the pump... I really, really dunno what else it could possibly be. My cooler is still under warranty, so I'm gonna request a RMA and send it away for repair/replacement. And once I get it back, well, hey, new thermal paste applying.

If after all this the problem somehow persists... well, I'll come back? :??:

Thank you very much for the responses, uguv, and you as well, clutchc!
 

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