Water cooling electrical making monitor flicker

[alukard]

Hey i need some electrical geniuses. i just installed a water cooling rig. for some reason now i cant raise my refreh rate above 60hz. if i do my screen flickers. i usually keep it at 1280x1024@75hz. i think it has something to do with my wiring, but im not sure. if i unplug the pump (only for a second) its fine, the screen stops flickering, plug it back in and it goes back to flickering. i dont know if its a ground loop or if its just causing interference. i got some pics of my wiring.

http://www.theforumisdown.com/uploadfiles/0802/DSC01848.jpg
This is the plug, its just like the one in a power supply, the relay and block, its 110vac with a 12vdc trigger.

http://www.theforumisdown.com/uploadfiles/0802/DSC01849.jpg
this is my Eheim pump and Inovatek reservoir, they are under the hard drives

http://www.theforumisdown.com/uploadfiles/0802/DSC01850.jpg
this is a close-up of the wiring.

Do i need to move my electrical, or do i have a ground loop, if so i do i stop that PLEEAASSSEE HELLLLPPPPP. kurt

[TLKfatman]

sorry i cant help ya but nice job



and welcome to the forums

[TLKfatman]

might wanna post that in the watter cooling section er somthing

[ssjwizard]

what pump are you using. some dont have any emi shielding while others have only a bit and a few have lots. and also how close to your video card is it???

[ssjwizard]

disreguard my previous post.

enhiems have alot of emi shielding and that shouldnt be it id suspect the wireing then. prehaps your relay?

[alukard]

the pump is near the front of the case, the relay and plug is on the back wall next to pci and agp cards. pic 1 and 3 show the relay and plug placement. how far from the cards should the relay be? will the plug give off EMI? what about the wires? should i shield them in a metal pipe? thanks kurt

[WyrmMaster]

It sounds like a magnet interferience problem. Because the pump is a mag drive it puts off a pulsating magnetic field. I have the same issue. I have found that it does not cause the monitor to shake at 60hz, 75 is REALLY bad, 85 is almost ok, and 100hz is stable again. Luckily my monitor will do 1280x1024@100hz. :) The only thing i have found that helps is moving the computer farther from the monitor. There really isnt anything else you can do. If it IS a wireing/grounding problem though, and you get it solved, would you mind sending me a PM, i would love to not have to worry about it. Although my pump is just pluged straight into the power strip, no relay or anything.

[Since87]

It's almost definitely the magnetic field from the pump. It sounds like your monitor may be poorly shielded to be so susceptible to the field from an eheim. Have you got an aluminum case? Aluminum doesn't provide any magnetic shielding to speak of at 60Hz.

The reason that you don't see much if any effect when your monitors refresh is at 60Hz is because the pump's magnetic field is also varying at a 60Hz rate. This keeps the video signal and the effect of the magnetic in sync and therefore you don't notice it.

In any case the problem can be fixed by placing magnetic shielding around your pump. You need a material that is ferromagnetic. (If a magnet sticks to it, it is ferromagnetic.) You need to surround your pump with this magnetic shielding material.

The simple ghetto way to do it is to slide a "tin" can over the motor end of the pump. Test to make sure a magnet sticks to the can first. That should have a significant impact, but if it is not enough, slide a slightly bigger can over the first. If you are good with sheetmetal, you can build yourself a box out of 22 Gauge sheet steel with holes for water inlet and outlet and power cord. I know one person who just cut sheetmetal panels and duct taped them together.