Aurora R4 overheating problem SOLVED!!!

Hi again! -

So I've done the lil procedure, and all seems good so far - Temp has so far peaked at 70 instead of 104..

I was wondering, since you opened up the seal around the pump, air will have entered your system, too.

I'm sensitive about the bubbles screwing things up - have you switched out your fluid yet?

and did you have running water sounds when you first started it up?

Thanks!

Hai vortie -

If you removed the base-plate from the pump, and found the accumulation on the filter fins, you will have lost some of the coolant in removing it from the pump-assembly.

if you kept it upright, you won't have lost much of the fluid: maybe a few drops, plus what was already in the filter.

if you've lost a lot (as in, if you can't see any fluid in the hoses), you'll need to replace it with Distilled water, and some biocide ( a few drops of iodine or anti-algae will keep the water clean for a while).

I didn't lose very much water at all when I did my filter - but when replacing, I filled the filter with boiled water (not ideal, I know) - and then added a few drops of water back into the pump-assembly, before reinserting the filter and screwing it together.

For the first few hours, there is a watery/trickly noise coming from the pump - I put this down to there being air in the water as it goes through the pump. But It quietens down after a while, as the air gets to the top of the reservoir (near the fan). My temps came down instantly, and have stayed down (never breaking 80C, now).

I fully intend to replace all the fluid with proper coolant in the near future, but for now, the system seems stable!

Good luck!

Great job done there Goldfire!

Thanks for your post.  I had the same symptoms with overheating and shutting down (Aurora R4).  My temps were over 100 degrees C ( no load) and system fan was running over 4000 rpm.  I opened up the pump and your pictures looked exactly like my pump with the greenish buildup.  After I cleaned the pump up and put the cooling system back in service, my temperatures are now at 40 degrees and the fan is at 1250 rpm.  I didn't have any thermal paste, so I just put it back with the existing paste and it worked .  I'll re-paste it next week.  My question is will the green stuff come back?   I think it will.

Anyway, thanks again for your post.  My computer was 2 months past my warranty, so you saved me a lot of cash.

Hi, i am not sure if " the green stuff " will come back but probably due of the contamined cooling fluid. For now i have no problem, it still running well after almost 2 month

Goldfire

I have a Aurora R4 so das that means sense is still under warranty would Dell replaced my cooling system even though it's not causing any problems yet

If you mean something like a auto recall when they find a bad part on many autos, that won't happen with these coolers. Dell-ChrisM  said on another thread, that the problems you see on this forum are not translating into parts dispatches for Dell. That would make sense as it looks like the coolers are going bad after about 14 months and out of warranty so the customer would be doing the replacement on their own $$ and Dell wouldn't know anything about those failures. I was told the coolers are made by Asetek. When I Google trouble on that, I don't see many problems with it except a few cases of leakage so don't know why the Alienware R4s are having these problems. I am sure Dell has certain specs on these which may be the problem. Some articles I read on these units say "a low cost solution" whatever that means? My computer will be a year old next month so I will be watching for this problem very closely after that.

My 5 yr. old Area 51 system has the original liquid cooler on it and still works fine to this day.

My 3 year old Aurora's Asetek cooler is also fine (even when heavily stressed for testing ... like all cores to 100% max).

I think the possibilities are:

- Coolant formula was changed recently
- Coolant was contaminated at factory in this batch
- Coolant can't handle the additional heat from newer processors and starts to break down
- Hardware design changed. Maybe fins are slightly further apart on old units (keeping even thicker fluid flowing)

Great looks like I am having the same issue with my R4. It is still under warranty. I guess I will have the same part replaced every couple of months until my warranty expires then follow this article. Thanks for all the great detail. On a side note, am I doing something wrong or is Alienware support only available between 8am and 12am cst?

My R4 is almost a year old and I am watching and waiting for this problem to start. It is strange to me that this is happening to a lot of R4s, but Alienware support doesn't seem to know anything about it? I know it has been reported to them. As for the time they answer the phone. When I call it's about 11:00am PST which would make that 1:00pm CST and they always answer. I have a 3 years extended warranty so if they keep replacing the liquid cooling system with the same defective ones, I will be good for 2 or 3 of them.

Man I'm glad you posted this, like a few others I'm just out of warranty.

Your picture of the gunk looks just like mine, I'm going tomorrow after work to MicroCenter and pick up a closed loop system to replace the Alienware, I'll figure out the temp probe that runs to the Alienware cooler or eliminate it all together and setup a different type of temp sensor.

Goldfire - Thanks very much for the info.  I have had my Aurora R4 for just over 15 months - now out of warranty and suddenly got the extremely loud fan noise.  Initially it started everytime I played any game but then it came on randomly.  I checked the temperatures and sure enough the fan was over 4000 rpm and the TMPINo temperature |(M/B) was getting to 103-104C.  I followed your advice to dismantle and clean the cooling system and found the same as you the vents partially blocked with a wax like substance.  Having cleaned it and put it back together ( a feat in itself for a novice like me) it now works find and the temperature is stable at 50 or 58. 

Thanks without this I would have been at a total loss and also my appreciation to the others who contributed.

Dave

I installed the Corsair H55 on my Aurora R4, everything is working fine, I did setup a push pull on the Rad so I had a hard time locating where to plug in the extra fan, I wound up disconnecting the memory fan lead and plugged the fan in there, couldn't for the life of me find an extra fan plug on the motherboard.

Also with the extra fan pushing air through the rad it will not clear the side panel, so some cutting is going to be required on the inside of the panel to clear the fan.

I also lapped the H55 water block to be sure it was exactly flat with no dips and used Arctic Silver, also I couldn't help but notice that the Alienware water block is Aluminum with scratches across it, so you can never get a good flat surface, the block on the H55 is copper as the Alienware should have been.

I realize that the Aluminum water block is a cost cutting factor, but also the cost of my Aurora R4 ran to 2k, that's not peanuts, a copper water block should be expected on a water cooled Alienware.

The screenshot below was pulled as I was typing this.

Did you have any problems installing the Corsair H80i, such as the power hookups? My R4 is a year old today so figure it won't be long before the cooling unit has to be replaced for the same problem many, many people are having. I will still be under warranty, but don't think I will chance having the unit replaced with the same old defective Asetek cooler and then having that fail again in 14 months or so. When the time comes I will replace the cooler myself with the unit you used. Thanks for that information.   Wayne

Just a couple issues with the H80i but nothing major.  I have aftermarket Corsair RAM with the heat spreaders, and I had to take off two of the heat fins on the RAM sticks closest to the radiator to get the second H80i "pull" fan installed, but the big fans will pull so much air around I'm not worried.  I also had to borrow the tiny Alienware "RAM fan's" power hookup to supply the pump.  Other than that, no fitment issues.  The Corsair gets its power from a SATA power plug rather than the MIO board the Dell stock cooler plugs into.  Overall the installation took about 20 minutes.  It's astounding how much quieter and cooler the system is running now.