NVIDIA AIC Partners Asked to Collect RTX 4090 Cards Affected by Melted 16-Pin Power Connectors

Niner51 said:
I still believe that some of this may be to user error, and I'm not referring to just the bending of the cable theory. When I got my card I thought the plug was in all the way on the card when it wasn't.
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I suppose you could debate - is that user error, or design flaw in the make of the adapter. If it's just these few people and they didn't click it in all the way, but nearly everyone else in the world does - then I guess you could say isolated user errors.

But at some point, you go from isolated user errors to ... all these people are having the same issue with the same part of the design, it's just a bad design.

I fell on the second part of that a while ago, but I can see a valid case to be made for the first -- this didn't appear to be an issue with the 3090s and it has the same connector and almost identical power draw, after all.
 
Just adding another. According to this person they contacted NVIDIA and was told that it wasn't NVIDIA's problem even though the pic clearly shows it's their adapter. They said they were told that NVIDIA only "supplies the chips" and that the adapters are made by a third party and they have to contact GIGABYTE (guessing this is a GIGABYTE card).

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/yo246v

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Another day, another user with a melted cable (worse yet maybe?), and still nothing from NV. Notice those corner pin(s) I've talked about by the sense pins are once again the ones the most melted and this time the outer covering is all but gone on one. I have to say that unlike space invaders, where reports definitely waned and then stopped, it seems we're seeing about 1 a day now of these and it's not letting up.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/yp0cd6

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Peter_Brosdahl said:
and another but this person caught it in the early stage before any major damage happened (also from yesterday).
https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/yp4gn5
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These last two really are peculiar - it's like the pin isn't getting hot, but somethin on the outside. Especially the second photo - the plastic looks fine in and around the pin, it's only melting on the outside - like something in the female side of the plug on the card is getting hot around it.

Curious. As I'm reasonably sure the female side of that plug (the part mounted on the card) is just plastic to hold everything in place and wouldn't have any ability to get hot on it's own.
 
Something closer to this is what you would expect if it were the pin or that solder bridge on the inside of the connector heating up. This is a SATA power cable, but you can plainly see how the heat is sourcing from the center and bubbling outward, including damage to the cable as the heat was conducting up the copper wire.


Whereas on all the nVidia adapters, the plastic immediately around the pin looks fine, I've not seen any wire damage yet, and it's like it's being melted from the outside in.

Just curious - I may just be seeing things that aren't there because of the photos.

1667961444387.png
 
I'm not going to post more new pics from new reports as I'm sure all can click on any of the Reddit ones I've already posted in this thread to see what's new or get notifications for them. Suffice it to say, yes there was another new one today but it was mildly melted, to say the least, and could just be because the user checked before it was worse. At this point, it is also somewhat accurate to say that at least one new report a day is happening as well. Whether that categorizes as a 0.01% scenario becomes more debatable as time goes by. Ultimately let's just hope nobody gets hurt or worse from this.

Stories from PSU specialists are popping up as well with recommendations about making sure the connectors are fully plugged in, with no gap, but some have already stated their adapters could not be plugged all the way in, which raises other questions. They are also suggesting a revision update for the plug shroud but note that may not be the cure either.
 
Brian_B said:
These last two really are peculiar - it's like the pin isn't getting hot, but somethin on the outside. Especially the second photo - the plastic looks fine in and around the pin, it's only melting on the outside - like something in the female side of the plug on the card is getting hot around it.
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Another explanation for this - I admit. Are people going out with a lighter or heat gun and intentionally damaging these connectors so they can be internet famous.

It's possible - don't know why anyone would do that, but they do sometimes.
 
Brian_B said:
Another explanation for this - I admit. Are people going out with a lighter or heat gun and intentionally damaging these connectors so they can be internet famous.

It's possible - don't know why anyone would do that, but they do sometimes.
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Yeah, there is always a wingnut, here and there, but I do believe that some of these are legit.
 
Peter_Brosdahl said:
Yeah, there is always a wingnut, here and there, but I do believe that some of these are legit.
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Yeah I don't doubt that there are legit ones. Just some of those photos of damage look .. sketchy. Like that last one that I quoted - not even sure that's melted plastic -- that could just be mechanical damage where he was trying to put the plug in not quite aligned or something and it just scuffed the edge of the plastic down. Not saying it is - just that by looking at the photo I don't see anything of what I would attribute to melting or overheating damage. Just looks like a plug that was attempted to be forced in backwards or something (I realize with the +4 you can't really do that with these, but that's what that particular damage looks like)
 
You think Zotac knew about this problem all along so they were like... People are going to loose their **** and start checking these after every gaming session. Won't they wear out?

Crap yea man they will but... it would take like over 30 times to really cause some noticeable wear.

Ok so we say if you use this adaptor more than 30 times sorry mate it's on you right?

Sounds good to me.

Done and done.

Now on warranty claims....

"We are sorry to inform you that this plug exceeded it's wear threshold. Based on your checking daily for potentially melted plugs some time after the 40'th day the plug wear was so excessive even normal use would be questionable. We would like to direct you to the Zotac store to buy another 4090...."
 
Niner51 said:
I mentioned this a while ago. I thought it was user error with some people not plugging them in all the way in, so I'll be curious if they find out if this was the sole reason all along. Also got rid of the Nvidia connector, and got a 3.0 ATX Power supply with the single connector. Less clutter for sure.

View attachment 2034View attachment 2034
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Congrats! Can't wait until I can upgrade and just a straight cable instead of an adapter.
 
@Niner51

Just occurred to me. It'd be kind of cool if someone made an Atlas or Hercules figure support stand for these cards.
 
Someone posted a pic of their MSI 3080 Ti with a melted 12-pin (not 16) connector today. MSI is already in contact with them requesting they send the card back.
 
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