Nvidia pointed out the reason why its products encountered mass melting errors

The American company believes that the connection cable “not plugged in properly” is the cause of the melting and burning of the power supply pin on its new product line.

Weeks after graphics processor manufacturer Nvidia announced that it was investigating reports of power cables for its RTX 4090 graphics cards melting and burning, the latest announcement from the company said they may have found the reason. And the problem seemed to be because they were “not fully plugged in”.

In a post on its customer support forum on November 18, Nvidia said that it is still investigating the reports, but the new findings “suggest” an insecure connector is a common problem. variable. The company also said that it has received about 50 reports about the issue.

Nvidia’s flagship graphics card uses what’s known as the 12VHPWR power connector, a new standard that’s not supported by most power supplies in your PC. Therefore, the company provides an adapter — or “power lock” — included in the product box. Initial user reports blamed the problem on the graphics processor itself, but some said the melted cable also damaged their $1,599 graphics cards.

It can be easily seen that the company’s findings imply blame on users. Sure, Nvidia won’t outright say it’s user error, but it’s heavily implied in its post. This also seems like a very plausible explanation, as most users have been speculating for almost a month that the problem is caused by something more complicated, such as poor soldering or wiring. too small to handle the huge amount of power transmitted through wires.

However, according to GamersNexus, a website that supports building computer rigs popular in the community came to essentially the same conclusions earlier this week. A video posted earlier by the outlet that tested damaged graphics processors sent in by viewers also showed that the connectors had exposed lines, implying that they were not fully inserted into the slot. GamersNexus even says that some people appear to have left gaps of up to several millimeters open. The recorded video also shows that a loose connection can cause the plug to heat up significantly, if it is poorly inserted and tilted.

Nvidia’s post includes an image of what the connector looks like when it’s not fully inserted, and it appears this is easy for users to miss during installation. Users are also advised to check their graphics card connection to prevent possible accidents.

However, it’s worth noting that Nvidia is not completely blameless here. As the pictures show the plug connector has a locking key. In theory, it’s a feature that should prevent loose plugging from occurring, as long as it provides good feedback when the user plugs it in. However, according to GamersNexus, even though it is carefully stolen, this key still does not really fit into place clearly, and this is the manufacturer’s problem.