Is my cooler dead?

Chris C · 9 Nov 2017 at 21:34

So I have an old OcUK War Commander PC (i5 2500k) which I dug out to give to a friend and when I booted it up it immediately started warning me the CPU was getting hot. It has an OcUK H2Flo Single Fan cooler, could that be broken ?

It's been sat in the loft for a couple of years, is there anything likely to go wrong?

if so what's a good budget cooler to replace it with? They don't care about clocking, it's for their kid to do some homework on.

EDIT : going to try replacing the paste and see if that fixes it!

danny77 · 10 Nov 2017 at 23:54

If its been sat in the loft for a couple of years i'd give it a good clean inside and then concentrating on theheatsink as i'd imagine if would be full of dust and cob webs etc and then re-apply new paste.

alternate_UK · 11 Nov 2017 at 00:10

If in was in a sealed case with no airflow it is likely only as dusty as when it went up there and spiders rarely live in loft space - too dry for them.

Run it with the case panel off and check all fans are going.

Zefan · 11 Nov 2017 at 00:59

Aside from the fans being faulty it could be that the thermal interface material (most likely paste) has deteriorated over the years. As has been said, the environment is very dry and it's most likely been subject to very low temperatures in winter which could cause issues. You'll be needing some thermal paste anyway if you do indeed need a new cooler, so it's worth getting it first and trying a re-paste.

Chris C · 11 Nov 2017 at 08:10

By 'in the loft' I mean it was inside the original box it came in and sealed and I cleaned it before it went up so not even the fans are dusty at all. All of the fans are going round and if I touch the pipes of the AIO I can feel it vibrating slightly so I think the pump is working, the pipes aren't getting hot though which makes me think it is a contact issue. The paste should be arriving today so I'll check that out and if that doesn't fix it I'll get a new air cooler for it

Quartz · 11 Nov 2017 at 10:37

Replacing the paste is a good start. But fluid will evaporate from the AIO over the years. You should check the level by giving the radiator a shake and listening for a sloshing sound and feel the movement. Too much indicates excessive evaporation. You should also be able to check by weighing the assembly.