Totally understand and Hopefully we can get your faith in is back. We will try and sort it out as quick as possible for you. Due to the age warranty will be the only problem but we will figure all that out with you and we will discuss the options.
fried system !!!!!!!!
- Thread starter gritts
- Start date
OcUK Staff
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- OcUK HQ
Unfortunately hardware can die at any point. It's just one of those things. Evoaddict will sort you out...
Soldato
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Glad you wrote this as I'm in the middle of setting up a system with water cooling and it had completely skipped my mind to consider what the fan connection was plugged into.
Thought I would just clarify a few things as an ex OcUK builder.
The reason we plug the Pump in to the molex to fan cable (that female 3 pin to male 4 pin) is actually to protect to board, the pump draws more amps than a standard fan, more than most boards can handle, having this draw going through your motherboard can cause it to burn out. Plugging the pump in to the board therefore actually has a higher risk of damaging board. (which I notice a few people have also said)
Being on the molex would mean the pump is always at optimum flow rate and would cool if anything, better.
The extra RAM in your system does not seem to be our ram, and also does not seem to match our RAM, we advise only using the exact same RAM if possible, while other RAM may work it can stop it.
If your system is overclocked plugging extra RAM in without check with us can also cause problems as the CPU memory controller will be set to handle only the sticks we put in.
Even if your pump or fan were to fail this should never cause long term damage to your CPU, motherboard or any other component as they have safety cut offs that turn the computer off immediately as soon as a certain temperature is reached, this temperature is way below the damage point.
Below is a guide to how I start diagnosis of a PC, I am not requesting you to do this nor does it represent the view of the company, only offering support, follow it if you wish
Hopefully just one part of your system is dead, first off I would suggest stripping to board out of the computer, leave the CPU in the board but remove the graphics card and all the ram, also remove the 8 pin ATX connector (doing a power on sustained test first the 8 pin powers the CPU and is needed for a post but not to check for sustained power), set the board up on a cardboard box or other insulating surface (follow anti static procedures, will let you read up on these else where).
Plug only the 24 pin in (remove ALL other cables, and all other components except the CPU (which I advise not to remove because of the board pins delicate nature))
Then turn on the power and CAREFULLY use a small screwdriver to short circuit the power header on the board (this is the 2 pins on the bottom row between the reset and the hdd led pin pairs of the front panel header)
Post what happens here and we will carry on.
The reason we plug the Pump in to the molex to fan cable (that female 3 pin to male 4 pin) is actually to protect to board, the pump draws more amps than a standard fan, more than most boards can handle, having this draw going through your motherboard can cause it to burn out. Plugging the pump in to the board therefore actually has a higher risk of damaging board. (which I notice a few people have also said)
Being on the molex would mean the pump is always at optimum flow rate and would cool if anything, better.
The extra RAM in your system does not seem to be our ram, and also does not seem to match our RAM, we advise only using the exact same RAM if possible, while other RAM may work it can stop it.
If your system is overclocked plugging extra RAM in without check with us can also cause problems as the CPU memory controller will be set to handle only the sticks we put in.
Even if your pump or fan were to fail this should never cause long term damage to your CPU, motherboard or any other component as they have safety cut offs that turn the computer off immediately as soon as a certain temperature is reached, this temperature is way below the damage point.
Below is a guide to how I start diagnosis of a PC, I am not requesting you to do this nor does it represent the view of the company, only offering support, follow it if you wish
Hopefully just one part of your system is dead, first off I would suggest stripping to board out of the computer, leave the CPU in the board but remove the graphics card and all the ram, also remove the 8 pin ATX connector (doing a power on sustained test first the 8 pin powers the CPU and is needed for a post but not to check for sustained power), set the board up on a cardboard box or other insulating surface (follow anti static procedures, will let you read up on these else where).
Plug only the 24 pin in (remove ALL other cables, and all other components except the CPU (which I advise not to remove because of the board pins delicate nature))
Then turn on the power and CAREFULLY use a small screwdriver to short circuit the power header on the board (this is the 2 pins on the bottom row between the reset and the hdd led pin pairs of the front panel header)
Post what happens here and we will carry on.
Last edited:
Hi Gritts,
Lets just clear up a few facts
1) if the cooler had not been connected properly the PC wouldn't have lasted 18 minutes before it started to have issues, let alone 18 months. This should be proof that Silicon Cowboys don't know what they are doing, so you should immediately ignore everything that they have told you & maybe even seek a refund from them.
2) all members of OcUK staff have the same Avatar on the left of the screen, as you can see, it says OcUK Staff on it so that there is no confusion.
3) in a similar vein to point 1, if we had connected something up wrong you would have known about it well in advance of your warranty expiring. PC's are quite simple machines when you understand them, plugs only fit into compatible holes and if something isn't connected properly they tend to let you know quite quickly.
4) Whist you have no warranty with OcUK we, unlike silicon cowboys, care about our reputation and so we will be happy to help you diagnose and even, if component warranty allows, help you to get the faulty component replaced.
so, here are my recommendations...
- Feel free to continue to converse with our many forum members, there are some very helpful, knowledgeable ppl here who could help you to rule out some possibilities. There are also a few trolls but we can forgive them for that because it's obvious that you put your trust in the wrong guys and were advised badly
- drop us a note on the customer service forum and one of our technicians will sort you out when they get into work tomorrow.
- Relax, enjoy your evening & maybe once your PC is back up and running you would like to hang around on our forums a little more often, it's quite fun here at times, we have some good deals and you can ask people with no vested interest in taking your money for advice.
Lets just clear up a few facts
1) if the cooler had not been connected properly the PC wouldn't have lasted 18 minutes before it started to have issues, let alone 18 months. This should be proof that Silicon Cowboys don't know what they are doing, so you should immediately ignore everything that they have told you & maybe even seek a refund from them.
2) all members of OcUK staff have the same Avatar on the left of the screen, as you can see, it says OcUK Staff on it so that there is no confusion.
3) in a similar vein to point 1, if we had connected something up wrong you would have known about it well in advance of your warranty expiring. PC's are quite simple machines when you understand them, plugs only fit into compatible holes and if something isn't connected properly they tend to let you know quite quickly.
4) Whist you have no warranty with OcUK we, unlike silicon cowboys, care about our reputation and so we will be happy to help you diagnose and even, if component warranty allows, help you to get the faulty component replaced.
so, here are my recommendations...
- Feel free to continue to converse with our many forum members, there are some very helpful, knowledgeable ppl here who could help you to rule out some possibilities. There are also a few trolls but we can forgive them for that because it's obvious that you put your trust in the wrong guys and were advised badly
- drop us a note on the customer service forum and one of our technicians will sort you out when they get into work tomorrow.
- Relax, enjoy your evening & maybe once your PC is back up and running you would like to hang around on our forums a little more often, it's quite fun here at times, we have some good deals and you can ask people with no vested interest in taking your money for advice.
Some systems might have separate cables for monitoring and power, or maybe for the radiator fan. You pretty much always power the pump itself from the PSU rather than the motherboard headers. Self-contained systems often just plug straight into the PSU and run everything else off that connection.
Associate
- Joined
- 30 Jul 2010
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- 103
- Location
- Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
I have actually used Silicon in the past if I've needed to quickly get a part, they have always seemed pretty good but after seeing that I don't think I'll be buying anything from them again! So that's me down to one PC shop in the whole of Edinburgh I can trust... 
Their diagnosis is completely wrong! You WANT the pump connected to a constant power source such as the PSU and the fan on the radiator to be connected to the CPU_FAN header, otherwise the speed of the pump may be varied based on the CPU temperature which you do not want, you want the pump to always run at a constant speed!
Their diagnosis is completely wrong! You WANT the pump connected to a constant power source such as the PSU and the fan on the radiator to be connected to the CPU_FAN header, otherwise the speed of the pump may be varied based on the CPU temperature which you do not want, you want the pump to always run at a constant speed!
Soldato
- Joined
- 15 May 2012
- Posts
- 5,828
- Location
- Louth, lincs
Although mostly true, what you dont want is for the motherboard to turn the power down on the pump so that it turns off!
Had mine on a aquaero 5 which i set to ramp the pump speed up as temps went north, but always had a minimum of around 40%
Associate
- Joined
- 1 Apr 2013
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- 2,149
- Location
- Dundee, Scotland
I know it can be frustrating to have such things happen but i would like to know how this ends up for you 
this is one of the reasons its best to build your own pc... the silicon lottery works both ways...
not only can you find golden chipsets, cpu's, gpu's, ic's on your memory. you can also find a rotten egg...
as a system builder I can tell you I consider myself to of been lucky... but things do go wrong...
my TT1200w psu blew up, but the replacement is exellent... its all part of the game... I wish OP better luck in the future...
not only can you find golden chipsets, cpu's, gpu's, ic's on your memory. you can also find a rotten egg...
as a system builder I can tell you I consider myself to of been lucky... but things do go wrong...
my TT1200w psu blew up, but the replacement is exellent... its all part of the game... I wish OP better luck in the future...
Can vouch for this
once blew a DFI Infinity 975X trying to run 3 fans off one header :|Yeah - it had just skipped my mind so your post was useful in jogging my memory before I potentially made a mistake heh.
A quick update:
We are getting this guys system back out of warranty, just as a gesture of good will, any components in warranty on the order we will replace where needed, any not in warranty we are giving him the option of ordering replacements from us and we will fit the parts he orders to replace the faulty parts.
Basically because of his hassle with "Silicon" we are doing a free diagnosis for him, but I will stress this is not something commonly done, we are also curious as to the extent of what has occurred and to ensure that nothing has been done wrong at our end initially, though we are fairly confident of this, we would like to double check.
If your system is out of warranty (We now offer 2 years as standard since November 2012, please ask us if you are unsure as it may not apply to all systems) while we will offer support via our forums unfortunately diagnosis we ask that you either do yourselves or get done by a professional.
Proper diagnosis involves replacing parts until the system works again, if a computer company just looks at a computer and goes "That's your problem there" I personally would advise to never deal with that company again, because unless you personally have changed something, the system wouldn't have failed over something visual after a years use (excluding occurrences such as leaking fluid, but even then diagnosis should be done by checking all the components as it may have affected other parts)
Any faulty parts within individual warranty we will also send off to be repaired or replaced where possible (partial refunds relative to current value may be given if no repair or replacement is available)
Just contact the RMA team for faulty parts here:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/webnote.php#rma
Hope this helps
We are getting this guys system back out of warranty, just as a gesture of good will, any components in warranty on the order we will replace where needed, any not in warranty we are giving him the option of ordering replacements from us and we will fit the parts he orders to replace the faulty parts.
Basically because of his hassle with "Silicon" we are doing a free diagnosis for him, but I will stress this is not something commonly done, we are also curious as to the extent of what has occurred and to ensure that nothing has been done wrong at our end initially, though we are fairly confident of this, we would like to double check.
If your system is out of warranty (We now offer 2 years as standard since November 2012, please ask us if you are unsure as it may not apply to all systems) while we will offer support via our forums unfortunately diagnosis we ask that you either do yourselves or get done by a professional.
Proper diagnosis involves replacing parts until the system works again, if a computer company just looks at a computer and goes "That's your problem there" I personally would advise to never deal with that company again, because unless you personally have changed something, the system wouldn't have failed over something visual after a years use (excluding occurrences such as leaking fluid, but even then diagnosis should be done by checking all the components as it may have affected other parts)
Any faulty parts within individual warranty we will also send off to be repaired or replaced where possible (partial refunds relative to current value may be given if no repair or replacement is available)
Just contact the RMA team for faulty parts here:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/webnote.php#rma
Hope this helps
Soldato
- Joined
- 20 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 11,748
- Location
- Derby
Gj OCUK
Dont forget we all wanna know what you find at fault aswell
This
I build systems daily and I do not know of a single connector that could be plugged into a motherboard that could be plugged into the PSU by mistake??? The 24 Pin ATX connector and the 4/8pin ATX 12v cant go anywhere else, some PSUs you can plug a fan connector into it to control the fan but wouldn't cause anything to blow and same with molex connector that some boards have for extra voltage for the PCIe connectors. NONE of which would cause the system to blow/fail.
It reminds me of once a cowboy competitor of ours locally tried to discredit us by telling a customer that we had built the system incorrectly as the cables for the power switch were not connected correctly. Our customer was "Trading standards this etc" It was funny when I wrote my report. The competitor tried wind the customer up to get business but the funny thing was that it was when the changeover from AT form factor to ATX and the competitor hadn't even seen an ATX Motherboard/Chassis and didn't know they were wired completely different. They went out of business shortly afterwards.
A quick update:
We are getting this guys system back out of warranty, just as a gesture of good will, any components in warranty on the order we will replace where needed, any not in warranty we are giving him the option of ordering replacements from us and we will fit the parts he orders to replace the faulty parts.
Basically because of his hassle with "Silicon" we are doing a free diagnosis for him, but I will stress this is not something commonly done, we are also curious as to the extent of what has occurred and to ensure that nothing has been done wrong at our end initially, though we are fairly confident of this, we would like to double check.
If your system is out of warranty (We now offer 2 years as standard since November 2012, please ask us if you are unsure as it may not apply to all systems) while we will offer support via our forums unfortunately diagnosis we ask that you either do yourselves or get done by a professional.
Proper diagnosis involves replacing parts until the system works again, if a computer company just looks at a computer and goes "That's your problem there" I personally would advise to never deal with that company again, because unless you personally have changed something, the system wouldn't have failed over something visual after a years use (excluding occurrences such as leaking fluid, but even then diagnosis should be done by checking all the components as it may have affected other parts)
Any faulty parts within individual warranty we will also send off to be repaired or replaced where possible (partial refunds relative to current value may be given if no repair or replacement is available)
Just contact the RMA team for faulty parts here:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/webnote.php#rma
Hope this helps
Great response. I doubt any other retailer could do more. Gritts, I hope you appreciate how good OCUK have been to you.
