OCUK Pre Built Water Cooling Leak

Daston

Daston

Daston

Associate
Joined
15 Jun 2005
Posts
211
Hey guys,

Big oh ******** tonight.

Over the last few days my PC has shut down without any reason and failed to boot back up. I thought this to be a RAM issue and so adjusted the RAM voltage as per a suggestion on here. All was good.

Tonight it shut down again and I noticed a lot of air in the watercooling pipes (oh crap I thought).

Just taken the case apart and theres a big pool of water in the PCI-E socket, lots around the CPU and a small puddle at the bottom of my case.

I am as you can imagine pretty ****ed off about this as I got the OCUK kit as it was supose to be hassle free and tested for leaks! Now I may have a dead 780GTX, a possibly ****ed Motherboard and a very wet i5 none of which I can afford to replace.

Now had I installed my own loop I would probably take it on the chin and go oh sod it (as I have done in the past lol).

Any way enough of my ranting, I have all the parts stripped down and will be going back to air cooling, if anything is dead do I have any come back at all?
 
Ouch :(

Which kit was it??

Sounds like the leak was around the cpu block then??

Just dont turn anything on for a week and you may be lucky.

Edit. Most of all keep calm, dont go ranting at ocuk, failures do happen, they will help i'm sure
 
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do OCUK not replace what is damaged if it leaked as they assembled it?
did you test it for leaks yourself before building your rig?
 
yeah pretty calm now lol, these things happen :)

Last time I had a leak was due to a dead pump and me being very drunk (pulled the hose off with the pc running oops)

Got the Gfx card drying and that looks to be ok. I am trying to find the leak almost looks like it is coming out of the bottom of the CPU block but as I have a Z77 Sabertooth its hard to tell due to the TUF protection thingy.

The kit in question is:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-019-TL

I am going to leave the case next to the radiator all opened up to dry out and then see whats what.

I can test components in my Wifes PC so that shouldnt be an issue.
 
Oh and just to add, no I didnt test the loop before I installed it. I probably should have but assumed it was all OK.
 
Dont test any components yet!

Can you test the WC kit outside of your wifes case to pin point the leak??

Also inform ocuk in CS what your doing, keep them in the picture.
 
Yeah will give it a few days of drying off before I test any bits.

I can rig the pump up to her PSU with out any problems to test for leaks. Will drop CS an email to inform them of the plans.

From the looks of it water has hit right at the base of the GFX card filling the PCI-E slot which has then carried on to the floor of the case.
That would probably explain the massive frame rate drops I was getting in games before the PC shut down.

Also went though the hose connectors, the CPU ones were both quite loose and one wasn't anywhere near hand tight so that could be the issue.
 
I would not worry too much about component damage, a fresh kit would take a while before its conductive.

After a while, i am sure the components will boot just fine.
 
Ouch that's rotten luck. Could happen to anyone. As above if it's fresh coolant hopefully it's ok. This is why some people state you should swap it out every 3 months but that's just way too much hassle for big loops IMO.

I'm sure OCUK will be understanding and hopefully come to a reasonable arrangement.
 
Looks like I have found the leak. Explains why the top of the block is dry

IMAG1251_zps978c30d5.jpg


IMAG1252_zpsfe5a00d2.jpg


Tonights plan is to take the motherboard out and get the TUF off so I can clean it all out.
 
Cant see where it is leaking on the block but if it at the base, likely the rubber o ring is out of place. This i quick and simple to fix on all blocks i have ever used (just unscrew it, place it in position and screw it close)
 
OK quick update,

Loop is out of the case now and block is sat on some loo roll, already the coolant is leaking out onto it.

I have removed the screws from the block and there are no o-rings, just normal wood screws! I have some loctite 542 thread sealant that will be going on it (use it for oil systems on the car).

Managed to get the TUF thingy off the motherboard, looks like it has been leaking since day one, got a nice sticky mess around some of the connectors and resistors.











Quick question, the pump has a molex adapter and then 3 fan connectors each with a different voltage. Is it safe to connect/disconnect this from my Wifes PC whilst its booted up? I was just going to nab a spare molex cable from her PSU and run the loop away from the PC. If it leaks bad I am going to want to pull the cable so it it doesn't look like that dead guy scene from pulp fiction.
 
Just rigged it up to my wifes PC (god trying to find a molex in her rig was fun!)

I can confirm one if not two of the screws in the base plate are leaking like hell.
Weeps very very slowly when powered off, but when the pump is on its flying out.

From some of the reviews it looks like there is an o-ring/gasket that goes around the copper plate on the other side.

As its only a month old I am not too sure how much mucking about I should do or if I should just RMA it?

Going to slap the stock cooler back in over the weekend to ensure the rest of the PC is OK.


 
Have you spoke to CS?

If not then don't go any further until you have. If you start messing too much it may make things difficult.
 
So far I have just let them know whats been going on IE water leak and possible Hardware damage. I will follow it up with them and see what they say.
 
Looks like the ring might be outside of the screws rather than inside like most blocks.

I am sure your components are fine. Would remove the battery and give it a clean but leave the rest untouched, as CS might offer to help you out with the components. If they say its okay for you to clean them, rinse with DI water and leave it to dry. Any more difficult bits can be targeted with cleaning alcohol. Leave it for a further few days before switching it on.
 
Get some isopropyl alcohol to wash your parts, also you can use a soft brush to help.
let it dry for 2 days at least and test, I already saved some desktops and laptops using isopropyl alcohol.
 
Oh, title made me think it was a pre-built rig with the fathoms.

Well, id be surprised if the parts wouldn't work after a clean and you are guaranteed to get the cooler sorted out sooner or later by OCuk.

Have had mayhems puddle on the back of my GTX 580 before and the PC ahd been running for a few hours before i noticed. Wipe and a rinse with DI and it was good to go after a time spent drying off. If it was any other AIO cooler, you would be looking at very dead parts as they use a liquid with a much longer shelf life but is conductive.
 
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