Realy annoying peltier problems, I could use some help/advice

[felinusz]

Here's the situation.

I've installed my 172W peltier/waterblock onto my X700 Pro video card. The install went well (the card still works ;)) and everything is dandy.

Except, that after the first install of the waterblock/peltier/insulation on the card, my peltier stopped working. So I took everything apart and checked out the peltier. Turns out that one of the peltier's cords had come unnattached and pulled loose - the peltier was't getting any power.

So, I resoldered the wire and got the peltier working again. I heatshrinked the solder joint.

This time I tested it all out without installing it on the video card, which takes loads of time. At first, the peltier still didn't work, and I observed small sparks at the other wire of the peltier (the ground wire) which is still attached the way Danger Den sent it, and still heatshrinked the way they sent it.

I move the peltier around, bent the wires up, and added some seal string around the wire joints. The sparks went away, and the peltier worked nicely (got all frosty on the coldside, dumped heat into the watercooling on the hotside).

The frustrating wall-kicker is that after I meticulously reinstalled the peltier/waterblock onto my video card, it worked fine for about twenty minutes and then started producing a loud buzzing noise. The buzzing is quite loud, louder than all of my case fans on full blast (loud!).

Clearly, something is shorting in there on the peltier. The waterblock is super-well insulated with seal string, neoprene, and dielectric grease, which means I have to tear it all apart get at the peltier again. I'm almost out of AS5 because of this (re-installing the peltier over and over).



Does anyone have any ideas for this? How can I insulate the wires so that they won't touch the copper waterblock/coldplate, and cause a short (or an annoying sound)? I think that the issue is the waterblock's coldplate clamping the peltier so tightly, that the wiring gets directly clamped between the two pieces of copper.

Why does Danger Den insulate the solder joints on their peltiers with heatshrink? It clearly isn't good condensation-proof insulation :(.

[felinusz]

O.K., I just discovered that my 24V PSU was what caused the loud buzzing noise.

When turned on, with the peltier hooked up to it, the PSU buzzes loudly, and the light that indicates it is working goes dim and lightly flickers. With the peltier unnattached, the PSU buzzes quite softly (it never did this before), and the LED lights up properly.

The thing is, I have two 24V PSUs (A Meanwell, and an old Sierracin unit). I tryed both out.... the Sierracin buzzes, the Meanwell doesn't, but aside from that they both behave exactly the same with the peltier hooked up - the operational LED goes dim and flickers lightly.

The voltage reading with the peltier hooked up is ~0.8V.

This is so weird, this same peltier, combined with the older PSU, operated flawlessly nearly 24/7 for months hooked up to my old 9800 Pro.

[crimedog]

i'd stop using that peliter immedietly i think you're lucky you didn't kill your psus ;) send it back to dangerden and they'll mail you a new one, can you observe any crushed corners or other physical damage?

[mikeguava]

I can't help you figuring out what the problem source nor the solution is - all I can tell you is that in a properly working 172Watts pelt - no buzzing sound ever occured to me nor did I ever have any sparks etc. I must be a bad unit.

[Aphex_Tom_9]

bad pelt, stop using it now, get a new one.

[felinusz]

I think it actually might have killed both my PSUs. They don't seem to work with a load any more (I tryed them both with my 24V Patriot fan).

I can't afford this.

All my cooling suddenly seems to be breaking.


My Mach II sprung a leak and stopped working as soon as I installed it.
My Peltier died as soon as I installed it.
Both my 24V PSUs have died as a result of the peltier.

[mikeguava]

ARGHH! Sorry to hear that! Looks like you really ran into a bad luck streak there! Hope it'll trun around soon for ya!

[felinusz]

Thanks :-/.

*sigh*

The Overclocking Gods are fickle.

After leaving it for an hour, what I just wrote seems awfully childish to me. As if I didn't expect any hurdles along the way.

I'll be damned if even the Overclocking Gods (random hardware death) are going to stop me. I just ordered another pelt with overnight shipping from Danger Den. I'll try and find a new PSU locally.

[speed bump]

Sucks to hear about the 24v PSUs. If I had more time i'd offer to take alook at them and still might consider doing that in a month or so.

If you really wan't to find out how dead it is I would check the amperage and voltage its putting out.

[felinusz]

After letting everything sit for a day, I pulled the Maze4-1 apart, and took the peltier out for more testing.

I have good news and bad news :).

The good news is that both my 24V PSUs still work, and that the peltier wasn't actually dead at all.

The bad news is that the peltier is now dead :-/.

The PSUs both seem to work fine. I retested them both with my 24V fan, and they went dandy with a load (*SIGH OF RELIEF*). I checked them with my multimeter and they give a good output, as before. I don't know why they didn't work previously, although I think that in haste I might have mixed up the fan leads and used the RPM sense wire instead of the power wire :o. The output adjustment potentiometer seems to work fine with both units, and both functioned perfectly with the actually-not-dead peltier (~7A load on the unit) when I got to trying it out.

Now, the actually-not-dead peltier is the confusing and weird bit.

With it out of the waterblock, it worked fine on a 9V battery (a great way to test out a peltier at low voltage, without having to cool the hotside). Intrigued, I pressed the hotside against my unnassembled Maze 4-1, leaving the coldside exposed and hooked it back up to my old 24V PSU.

It worked perfectly, got nice and frosty on the coldside when I breathed on it.

Confused, I tried to replicate the behaviour which it gave me before (a buzzing PSU, a very dim and strobing PSU LED, and a low voltage reading). I found that the V- (ground) wire was loose, and when jiggled the right way, caused all of the problems that happened previously to reoccur. The V+ wire was the wire that came undone (I resoldered it) the first time, it broke at the solder joint between the wire and the peltier's embedded 'prong'. The Ground wire was loose at the 'prong' itself.

As I wiggled it, the prong came right out of the peltier - it's sure dead now :(. Below I've uploaded a picture of what I'm talking about.

I'm a little bit surprised by this - Both of the wires on this peltier came undone. But I'm hesitant to complain to Danger Den because:

~ I've been using this peltier for quite a long time
~ The first wire that broke, I resoldered myself (voided warranty?)
~ Technically, I supose that I shouldn't have wiggled the loose ground wire


In any case, a brand new overpriced 172W/24V peltier is already on it's way (I ordered it over the weekend after this incident). I payed for express shipping, and it should be here by Wednesday.

[Bubba]

I had the same thing happen to me w/ my 156W pelt( both wires came off before I ever even had a chance to use it).I bought it ages ago and have just now got around to soldering the wires back on to it.Now I need to prepare my mobo and try it out.As a matter-of-fact I bought it so long ago that they don't carry it anymore and I don't remember what the specs of the pelt are besides it being 156W!

[felinusz]

If you need a new one and aren't in a rush, check Danger Den for the peltier which you need, and then look for it on eBay (Danger Den overcharges for their pelts).

Interestingly enough, I think the old pelt's death was in part due to too-high a voltage. When I set my Meanwell PSU to >24V, the same effects occur - strobing power LED, and buzzing peltier. The PSU seems to have some sort of shutoff, because when set to a too-high voltage for the peltier, the voltage output as read with my multimeter drops to almost nothing... making the PSU appear to be dead, as before. Very weird.