Quick update, Bios J3 installed, so far so good, always same settings but... have been quite busy with other things
So here's the story, maybe you can find it interesting if you have an AIO and/or
LED problems on this motherboard.
After 2 years I started noticing my EK AIO Elite wasn't cooling the CPU as expected.
My idle temps usually were about 47/50 {with a tamb of 26/28 degrees in this hot season)
In the last weeks the idle temperature rised to 55, even with the pump maxed out, clearly something wasn't right.
Cleaned all dust filters but didn't improve anything.
Until few days ago, all of a sudden I was idling at 65 degrees, unacceptable.
Turned off the pc and started searching for leaks.
Luckly it wasn't the case but I couldn't trust the AIO anymore, so I ordered a Galahad 2 trinity performance and in the meanwhile, I started inspecting the old AIO.
The EK AIO apparently is fine: RPM of the pump 3200rpm detected in bios/howinfo, I can feel/hear the pump running and few bubbles guggling when changing rpm.
Everything nominal except for a couple things:
- the pump block gests hot, and I mean VERY hot to the touch (speaking of sensors HWinfo reports the usual 40ish degrees on the cpu cores, but CPU IOD hotspot is way too high)
- and the radiator is even more weird, I can feel warm air being expelled only from the portion fo the radiator where the tubes are attached, as if the water isn't reaching the entire radiator and flows only in the first third, if that makes sense.
Repasted, mounted the new AIO and immediately the idle temperatures went down to 42/44. A clear improvement and at first a was very happy because CPU was running cold again (if not better than before)
The more interesting change is on the CPU IOD hotspot sensor: now hwinfo reads 38/39, even lower than the cores temperatures, WTF???? (maybe there's a correlation between this sensor placement and the old AIO overheating)
But happiness didn't last long, because after all this work the shocking discovery:
THE LEDs ON THE MB STOPPED WORKING
and also the ARGB controlled devices attached to the MB connectors of course.
Maybe I accidentally touched the switch on the bottom of the mb? no, it was on
Maybe the ARGB lights are turned off inside the new bios? tried on/off/on again no changes
I lost an entire day trying to figure out what was wrong.
Windows detected an unidentified USB device, likely the mb RGB controller (not the new galahad controller because it was disconnected while diagnosing the problem)
Mystic light was detecting something abnormal on the firmware
MSI center could not find any firmware update
The manual FW updater could not find the device at all
I was panicking.
Then I did this:
Detach every ARGB connected to mb pins.
CLRMOS
Unplug power
wait 5-10 min
Attach power
Press CLRMOS again (after a couple failed boots I managed to enter bios and set everything as usual)
The LEDs on the MB started working again!
The problematic usb device disappeared from the windows device list, cause it's being correctly detected now.
So I proceeded to update the LED Firmware, what a better occasion
This time MSI Center detected the newest firmware and updated
Then again: clrmos, unplug power, wait 5-10min
Everything was nominal after the firmware update.
At this point I decided to connect again all my 3 ARGB connectors to the MB (while pc was turned off), and I confirm everything is working again as expected.
the 3 argb connectors are used to sync the lian li hub, the galahad aio, and the case led strip
Two "intense" days for sure.
I don't know what is the problem on the old EK AIO, could be anything from clogging to liquid permeation. I exclude a pump failure: I can see the sensor reading nominal rpms and the water is definitely flowing. I don't know how much water is left or if there's an obstruction somewhere.
The AIO is refillable, but first I want to ear EK support
Hope you liked the story
A "thrilling" experience worth sharing, but I don't wish on anyone
EDIT: adding pictures, all leds working again
I usually keep the leds on the fans off, that's why I decided to don't swap the stock performance fans on the radiator, those are special fans with better static pressure than the SLV2
And pls don't pay attention to the ugly seasonic PCIe power cable: I tried twice with the white ones from cable mod but both started glitching after few months of use (black screen fans at 100% bug because of the poor quality sensor cables).
This is the ONLY cable working good for me, and I don't want to touch it anymore, not even by mistake. Also, the connector wears off if you change too many cables (if you didnt know), better not taking other risks.