Owners of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs are still prone to "12VHPWR" connector issues which include melting and burns, reports NorthridgeFix.
The history of the GeForce RTX 4090 and its troublesome 12VHPWR connector began as soon as the card was launched. We saw our first report which followed up with more cases which ultimately led to PCI-SIG issuing a design-change notification and NVIDIA stating that the problem is nothing more than a "User-Error". Electric Wire Joint Connector
Despite a year of being in global markets, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs are still susceptible to "troublesome" 12VHPWR connector melting/burning issues, and NorthridgeFix has disclosed that they still get "20 to 25 graphics cards per week" which is a shocking amount. Moreover, the repairman also revealed that he had bought a "dedicated respirator mask" when he does the repairing, to avoid potential health risks due to the burning smell and exposure since he has to deal with many similar cases and soldering them all day can lead to toxic hazard in his shop.
We get them in so much that I bought myself this Hiroshima mask, so I do not have to smell the burn on those conductors. It smells like fireworks times ten. It cannot be healthy to keep smelling burnt connectors.
The rest of the video involves him describing bits of the repairing process, but nothing worthwhile to mention except the huge "volumes" of GPUs being a victim of the 12VHPWR power connector. Furthermore, the problem isn't limited to a certain vendor/model, since he revealed that models from ASUS, MSI, ZOTAC, and Gigabyte were all affected by the problem. Hence, you shouldn't be worried about a particular model, rather we advise you to adhere to certain precautions. We have a handy guide on how to make sure that you have connected the 12VHPWR cable connector over here.
A common reason why consumers are facing the problem in the first place is that the power connectors are not fully plugged into the graphics card, which results in a poor contact force resulting in disruptions within the power delivery process. While the adoption of the 12VHPWR standard was huge with the release of Ada GPUs, it looks like firms have developed more "reliable" alternatives, with the prominent one being the 12V-2x6 power connector.
This connector is already being used with the latest production batch and on the newer cards such as the RTX 4070. Even a few RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 GPUs have been seen with these plugs. However, the vast majority of GeForce RTX 4090 cards still use the older design so it requires extra precaution and handling. We have seen adapters and angled connectors also being prone to burn and melting issues though companies such as Cablemod have issued a fix which seems to be doing well for now. As for the reports, we already had insight from the Asian market where you would see burnt or melted connectors on the RTX 4090 on a daily basis.
It looks like users with a burned NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card have no other way than to get their cards fixed from a reputed hardware repair shop otherwise they'll end up with a very expensive paperweight.
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