NVIDIA has now faced 50 cases globally where users have had their RTX 4090 power adapters melt while being used on their PC. The new 40-series GPU makes use of a powerful new 12VHPWR adapter that converts four 8-pin power cables into one 12-pin connector.
As a result, the cable builds up quite a lot of heat and has a high chance of setting on fire. However, NVIDIA doesn’t seem to think it is the cable’s fault. Instead, the company has now released a statement saying that users aren’t plugging the cable in correctly which is resulting in the fires.
NVIDIA says they are aware of the ongoing controversy surrounding the cable issues. On a customer support page, the company suggests that the most common issue with the melting stems from the cable not being fully plugged in. They blame a so-called “insecure” connector.
While NVIDIA hasn’t directly blamed the end user for this issue, the customer support page definitely implies that the melting cable is your fault and not the cable itself.
Of course, there’s no real explanation for the issue yet either. YouTubers and even research companies are still trying to figure out exactly what causes the heat build-up.
Some say it might be bad soldering of wires while others claim the wires are too small to handle the large amounts of power it transfers.
But there might actually be some truth to the matter. According to GamersNexus, their recent tests showed that even a slightly disconnected cable can cause major heat build-up on the GPU. The YouTube channel got everyone to send in their melted cable to test and it showed that the adapter had wear lines implying that it wasn’t correctly connected to the GPU.
GamersNexus says that even if the cable was a few millimetres off the connector, it could build up heat. The same is said for loose connections and tilted cables. The cable itself could also tilt up and down and even unplug itself slightly when closing the PC door. It is something you could easily miss.
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NVIDIA isn’t out of the spotlight yet though. Even if the cable is melting due to the connector not being plugged in properly, the company should have done more to prevent the issue. Even the connector lock has been poorly designed and doesn’t provide a secure lock connection on the GPU. This is clearly a manufacturing issue.
The company is taking responsibility for the issues though. An NVIDIA spokesperson says that any issues with burned cables or a GPU, regardless of it being plugged in correctly, will be processed for a replacement.
We recently reviewed the Gigabyte NVIDIA RTX 4080 and 4090 Gaming OC and didn’t have any cable issues. Watch the review below and read it here.
Source: NVIDIA Customer Support
