The RTX 4090 adapter has been the talk of the town for quite a few weeks.
The green giant finally gave an update regarding the burning fiasco to Kitguru:
“We continue to investigate the reports, however, we don’t have further details to share yet. NVIDIA and our partners are committed to supporting our customers and ensuring an expedited RMA process for them”
In terms of an actual update, there was none.
It’s been several weeks since the first GeForce RTX 4090 incidents were reported, and Nvidia has yet to provide a solution. The GeForce RTX 4090 power incidents have exploded all over the internet, with numerous reports of GeForce RTX 4090 owners reporting their 16-pin power adapter melting on the inside and, worse, stealing the graphics card’s power connector.
There are multiple theories as to why these adapters are catching on fire:
Shoddy Adapters
According to Igor’s Lab, the 16-pin power adapter is primarily to blame because the power adapter supplied by Nvidia was not well-engineered and is prone to failure if the wires are bent too liberally. Conversely, GamerNexus opines that some 16-pin power adapters use 150V cables rather than 300V cables. In Igor’s case, he was using a 150V power adapter. To prove this theory, Gamers Nexus tested a 300V version and was unable to replicate any of the failures Igor discovered in his testing, concluding that only the 150V power adapters are at fault.
Not Being Able To Put It In
On the flip side, Jonny Guru claims that victims of 16-pin failures are not fully inserting the connector. He mentioned that the 16-pin plug can be difficult to insert into the 16-pin power connector on GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs, causing some users to not fully plug them in. He emphasizes that the connector must be completely plugged in, with no gaps between the plug and the connector, in order to prevent the 16-pin from melting.
Conclusion
There is no definitive explanation for why the 16-pin power adapters are catching fire. If you have a GeForce RTX 4090 GPU, we recommend that you consider all of these theories and ensure that the 16-pin power plug is properly seated, with as little strain on the cables as possible. If the 16-pin connector on your GeForce RTX 4090 fails, you can still RMA it.
Your card might be prone to fire but for the time being, do not update to the latest version of Windows 11 if you’re a gamer.
