Corsair ICUE Capellix elite XT Pump Failure error

Hicks121

New member
Hello folks,

I have my custom build PC 8 months now, no issues up until last night. I was playing online and the game became laggy, thought it was a server issue and logged out to desktop. Once there the lights on my cooler started blinking red and an error in ICUE popped up saying pump failure. Tried all the usual, full power off and restart, updates up to latest, but now every time I boot up it takes me to bias screen and once logged in same pump failure error message and red light blinking. Has anyone experienced this with a fix or will it be a replacement? I've emailed PCspecialist with the issue, waiting on a response as I'm still in the year warranty.
Thanks all
 

BlessedSquirrel

We love you Ukraine
Hello folks,

I have my custom build PC 8 months now, no issues up until last night. I was playing online and the game became laggy, thought it was a server issue and logged out to desktop. Once there the lights on my cooler started blinking red and an error in ICUE popped up saying pump failure. Tried all the usual, full power off and restart, updates up to latest, but now every time I boot up it takes me to bias screen and once logged in same pump failure error message and red light blinking. Has anyone experienced this with a fix or will it be a replacement? I've emailed PCspecialist with the issue, waiting on a response as I'm still in the year warranty.
Thanks all
Is this a PCSpecialist system? Can you copy and paste your full specs from the order page on your main PCS account?
 

Hicks121

New member
It was a custom system I built on PCspecialist,
Specs are:
Case
PCS SPECTRUM II ARGB MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 12-Core Processor i7-12700 (Up to 4.9GHz) 25MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z790-A GAMING WIFI D4 (LGA1700, DDR4, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
12GB ZOTAC GEFORCE RTX 3060 TWIN EDGE - HDMI, 3 x DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR, 1625MB/sW)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
External DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x Slim USB 2.0 External DVD-RW
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CX SERIES™ CX-650 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX XT RGB High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
 

BlessedSquirrel

We love you Ukraine
Unfortunately it’s really poorly designed, the cooler will have failed as it’s not sufficient for the processor given the weak case. There are many issues with that build, it’s never going to work terribly well
 

Hicks121

New member
The thing is the pump seems to be still running from what I can hear & in the bios the CPU temp isn't increasing at all as I've left it running for a while and it's maintained temp with no increases. I've been looking online and it seems to be a common issue of a false error, sometimes fixed by a restart, or a forced update in ICUE. A lot of different builds on Reddit seem to have had the problem but no real solution bar opening a returns and exchange with Corsair themselves.
 

BlessedSquirrel

We love you Ukraine
in the bios the CPU temp isn't increasing at all as I've left it running for a while and it's maintained temp with no increases.
You can’t apply any load in the BIOS as it’s outside windows, so impossible to tell temps, it would take quite some time for totally unloaded cpu to saturate the coolant simply in the BIOS before temps started rising

Given the configuration of the build it would make sense it’s failed, it would have been working flat out under even moderate loads. The laginess before it shut down also would point to overheating

I also think the firmware issues you’re seeing are pretty old and not relevant anymore, those issues haven’t been a thing for some time now.

What pump profile did you have set?
 
Last edited:

Hicks121

New member
Thanks for the help and feedback sorry for the late reply. I had the pump profile on balanced but would change to extreme for heavy gaming sessions. I ran the PC in windows and ran Squad 44 for an hour, checked ICUE straight after and CPU temp was only at 51c and showing the pump doing 1600rpm despite the pump failure error. I'm fairly novice at the the tech end of gaming PCs so is the underlying issue the case choice really? Thanks again
 

BlessedSquirrel

We love you Ukraine
Thanks for the help and feedback sorry for the late reply. I had the pump profile on balanced but would change to extreme for heavy gaming sessions. I ran the PC in windows and ran Squad 44 for an hour, checked ICUE straight after and CPU temp was only at 51c and showing the pump doing 1600rpm despite the pump failure error. I'm fairly novice at the the tech end of gaming PCs so is the underlying issue the case choice really? Thanks again
As already said, you can’t check Temps with a game as they’re a dynamic load depending on the game and what’s in the scene at that time.

You have to run a stress load of 100% with something like Prime95 or Cinebench

1600rpm is incredibly low for a pump
 

Ekans2011

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
1600rpm is incredibly low for a pump
Fully agree. The pump speed should be somewhere between 2100-3000 rpm.

 
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