Fix AIO Liquid Cooler Rattling or Bubbling Noise

Introduction

If a PC with AIO liquid cooler got moved via long distance, there is a chance that the air bubbles, which is already there in the AIO liquid cooler before move, will get trapped in the liquid cooler head. When we got the delivered PC and turn it on, there would be extremely noisy rattling or bubbling noise. Sometimes, we could see the CPU temperature goes up extremely fast and eventually overheats the entire system, because air bubble prevented the CPU heat to be transferred and ventilated.

I have encountered this problem many times on many of my PCs and every time I panic. In this blog post, I would like to document a little bit on how I went through the process.

Rattling or Bubbling Noise

The fundamental reason for the rattling or bubbling noise I think was the ill design of the AIO liquid cooler. The manufacturer does not degas the liquid before putting them into the cooler. The liquid fill process might also be problematic so that there will always be some air left in the liquid cooler. The manufacturer wanted to save cost and left the problem to the user.

Fixes

If the CPU does not get overheated and the noise is tolerable, we could just let the PC run normally and the air bubble in the cooler head will just be gone in a few hours or a few days. Previously, I myself had run my PC for two days until the bubbling noise is gone.

If the CPU gets overheated and probably the system would be shutdown due to overheating, we would have to wait until the CPU becomes less hot, boot the system, and go into BIOS. In BIOS, we turn on the liquid cooler radiator to maximum. Hopefully, this can get rid of the air bubble in the cooler head as soon as possible.

In the worst scenario, we would have to remove the liquid cooler and reinstall the liquid cooler. This is often tedious and in some cases we might need to remove the motherboard which is definitely not something that we want to do.

References

• How To: Fix Rattling or Bubbling Sounds in AIO Cooler