CPSC Demands a Recall of CableMod GPU Angled Adapters, Estimates $74.5K of Damaged Property

[T0@st]

CableMod issued a statement—just before the last Christmas holiday—detailing a safety recall of 16-pin 12VHPWR angled adapters, version 1.0 and 1.1. This announcement received widespread media coverage (at least in tech circles), but some unfortunate customers have not yet received the memo about faulty adapters—CableMod's 90° angled and 180° hard connectors can overheat and in worst case scenarios, actually melt. HotHardware, amusingly named given this context, was the first hardware news outlet to notice that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) had published a "GPU Angled Adapter" recall notice to its website earlier today, under "Recall number 24-112."

The US government body's listing outlines aforementioned hazardous conditions, along with an estimated 25,300 affected unit count. The CPSC's recommended "Remedy" advice is as follows: "Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled angled adapters and contact CableMod for instructions on how to safely remove their adapter from the GPU and for a full refund, including cost of shipping, or a $60 store credit for non-customized products, with free standard shipping. Consumers will be asked to destroy the adapter and upload a photo of the destroyed product to https://cablemod.com/adapterrecall/. The instructions on how to safely remove the adapter are also located on that site. Once destroyed, consumers should discard the adapter in accordance with local laws." The Safety Commission has gathered some customer feedback intelligence on this matter: "The firm (CableMod Ltd., of China) has received 272 reports of the adapters becoming loose, overheating and melting into the GPU, with at least $74,500 in property damage claims in the United States. No injuries have been reported."



HotHardware believes that the recall of faulty CableMod parts will not absolve every owner of flagship Ada Lovelace graphics cards from experiencing scary + melty incidents: "Interestingly enough, YouTuber Northridgefix also posted videos on various GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs that have had issues with damage. While this may or may not be related to any potential adapters, it surely adds to the perceived issues at hand. This makes owners of these GPUs want to double check their expensive piece of hardware more frequently out of caution, even if incidence rates are low."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Assimilator]

Here comes another thread of babies crying about how ATX12VHPWR is flawed... despite the fact that neither NVIDIA nor PSU manufacturers have been ordered to recall anything.

 

[maxfly]

Ouch. CableMods really stepped in it on this one. Rushing products to market to fill a void bit em in the wazoo.

 

[Event Horizon]

12VHPWR almost makes me nostalgic for Molex.

 

[Hardcore Games]

12VHPWR almost makes me nostalgic for Molex.

 

[Assimilator]

12VHPWR almost makes me nostalgic for Molex.

And there are the first tears.

 

[Denver]

"An estimated 25,300 affected unit count."

The blow went straight to the jaw.

 

[Dr. Dro]

"An estimated 25,300 affected unit count."

The blow went straight to the jaw.

Not really, 25k adapters is nothing. There's more than 2 million RTX 4090s alone in circulation, let alone any of the other models.

 

[Vayra86]

Not really, 25k adapters is nothing. There's more than 2 million RTX 4090s alone in circulation, let alone any of the other models.

These are cablemod adapters

Can we get a this is fine.meme pls

 

[evernessince]

Not really, 25k adapters is nothing. There's more than 2 million RTX 4090s alone in circulation, let alone any of the other models.

The issue occurs regardless of whether the end user is using this particular adapater of the stock adapter. Hence why this is still an ongoing saga.

 

[Vayra86]

And there are the first tears.

Yeah how dare people frown on designs with abysmal tolerances and launch issues!

Come on dude. This stuff needs to be flawless. Not shaky as fuck. The bar must be raised here. Simple as.

 

[Franzen4Real]

I am curious as to why the adaptors were recalled but not the cables. Both have the same plug on the GPU end.

 

[JohH]

I used one such adapter for 7 months. I replaced it with a right angle cable from Corsair themselves.

If only there were reasonably sized 4090s that fit in a 4U rack without right angle adapters.

 

[Denver]

Not really, 25k adapters is nothing. There's more than 2 million RTX 4090s alone in circulation, let alone any of the other models.

I disagree. This is not a common problem. If 10% of these 25,000 problematic adapters ended up causing residential fires with victims or material losses, it would be a massive problem, worse than millions of GPUs dying, as it involves lives and not just toys.

Anyway, I didn't say it was a punch in the jaw from Nvidia, I'm referring to CableMod;

 

[Chrispy_]

Oh look, a third-party workaround designed to plug into a poorly-designed connector design is also faulty, because it's designed to be compatible with something fundamentally faulty to begin with.

It's easy to point blame at CableMod here and I'm sure they're not blameless - but they were working with a broken design and none of this fail-fest with the original faulty 12VHPWR should ever have seen the light of day in the first place. The whole thing is a mismanaged shit show from beginning to present day and the answer, as always, is to use the PCIe cables that were always, and still are, much better.

If a replacement cable for PCIe comes along to fill the needs of higher power draw, then it should be better, not worse, at handling higher power draw.

 

[R-T-B]

Yeah how dare people frown on designs with abysmal tolerances and launch issues!

Come on dude. This stuff needs to be flawless. Not shaky as fuck. The bar must be raised here. Simple as.

There's a difference between whining about this blatantly recalled product and claiming 12VHPWR in general is the issue though. One is true, the other not.

Oh look, a third-party workaround designed to plug into a poorly-designed connector design is also faulty, because it's designed to be compatible with something fundamentally faulty to begin with.

It's easy to point blame at CableMod here and I'm sure they're not blameless - but they were working with a broken design and none of this fail-fest with the original faulty 12VHPWR should ever have seen the light of day in the first place. The whole thing is a mismanaged shit show from beginning to present day and the answer, as always, is to use the PCIe cables that were always, and still are, much better.

If a replacement cable for PCIe comes along to fill the needs of higher power draw, then it should be better, not worse, at handling higher power draw.

Case in point.

 

[Dr. Dro]

I disagree. This is not a common problem. If 10% of these 25,000 problematic adapters ended up causing residential fires with victims or material losses, it would be a massive problem, worse than millions of GPUs dying, as it involves lives and not just toys.

Anyway, I didn't say it was a punch in the jaw from Nvidia, I'm referring to CableMod;

No, don't get me wrong, I'm in agreement here, 2,500 potential house fires is nothing to scoff at. It's just that the entire volume of recalled adapters is quite small compared to the amount of deployed GPUs, and CableMod isn't the only vendor. Other vendors have issues all the same, as we've come to know.

 

[Vayra86]

There's a difference between whining about this blatantly recalled product and claiming 12VHPWR in general is the issue though. One is true, the other not.


Case in point.

12VHPWR is a reduction in quality and tolerances. The numbers do not lie and neither does the design. There is more power travelling over thin wires and a design with worse tolerances. Its as simple as that. Even if the bend issue wasnt one and nothing melted, its still a lower reliability connector than what it replaced.

And we have the results.

 

[Chrispy_]

12VHPWR is a reduction in quality and tolerances. The numbers do not lie and neither does the design. There is more power travelling over thin wires and a design with worse tolerances. Its as simple as that. Even if the bend issue wasnt one and nothing melted, its still a lower reliability connector than what it replaced.

And we have the results.

Exactly. PCIe MiniFit Jr connectors can carry more current than 12VHPWR because there are just as many 12V pairs but the wire gauge and physical pins are larger.

The 12VHPRW connector is simply an elimination of all the safety margin built into PCIe MiniFit Jr. Running 600W through 6 12V-GND pairs of a 12VHPWR is as risky as running 900W through a pair of PCIe 8-pin connectors. Completely ignoring the bend radius, the smaller, more fragile, and less-tolerant fit of the 12VHPWR plugs/connectors - the fundamental issue is that too much current is being put through conductors that are too small, so stuff is far more likely to get very very hot if it's not 100% perfectly connected and aligned.

The PCIe MinFit Jr can absolutely handle far more power than it's rated for. I believe Der8auer did the math and the worst-case scenario, assuming lowest-tolerance of wire gauge and cheapest, nastiest pins available - I think it was 288W minimum per 6+2 pin PCIe connector. That's almost double what it's actually rated to and why it's such a safe, problem-free connector.

By contrast, a lot of the 1st revision 12VHPWR connector meltings weren't even 600W cables - they were 450W cables that were just out of tolerance with no safety margin for poor fit and manufacturing variance that inevitably comes with the territory for mass-produced parts made in China.

 

[Dave65]

Here comes another thread of babies crying about how ATX12VHPWR is flawed... despite the fact that neither NVIDIA nor PSU manufacturers have been ordered to recall anything.

Spoken like a true Nvidia fan boy.
The PROOF is out there of property damage but you probably already know this but pretend not to notice.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Not really, 25k adapters is nothing. There's more than 2 million RTX 4090s alone in circulation, let alone any of the other models.

At $60 a pop, that's US$1.5 million for what is a fairly small company started by a German and a Taiwanese guy in Taipei. (Yes, I know the founders)

 

[Panther_Seraphin]

Here comes another thread of babies crying about how ATX12VHPWR is flawed... despite the fact that neither NVIDIA nor PSU manufacturers have been ordered to recall anything.

And so did Ford in regards to the Pinto.

How many companies have WILLINGLY said "Hey you dun fucked up and caused the issues.........But dont worry we will cover you anyway......"

NVIDIA Support

nvidia.custhelp.com

 

[R-T-B]

12VHPWR is a reduction in quality and tolerances.

It's actually the opposite: it has much higher quality requirements, hence many manufacturers just fudging them and failing to meet them. Still not enough to cause a statistical concern though.

The numbers do not lie

Have you even looked at the numbers? I have. They are not noteworthy.

The PROOF is out there

Spoken like a true UFO afficiando.

And so did Ford in regards to the Pinto.

How many companies have WILLINGLY said "Hey you dun fucked up and caused the issues.........But dont worry we will cover you anyway......"

NVIDIA Support

nvidia.custhelp.com

Comparing this to the pinto. Sheesh. I'm out.

 

[Chrispy_]

At $60 a pop, that's US$1.5 million for what is a fairly small company started by a German and a Taiwanese guy in Taipei. (Yes, I know the founders)

I hope they have liability insurance that covers this, otherwise they're done.

 

[Chrispy_]

It's actually the opposite: it has much higher quality requirements, hence many manufacturers just fudging them and failing to meet them.

This is exactly the problem. It has much higher tolerances that the existing manufacturers aren't meeting.

It's completely tone-deaf, naive and (IMO) irresponsibly careless to expect manufacturers making simple injection-moulded plastic blocks and steel pins to suddenly bear the burden of re-tooling and changing their production methods to account for this near-total elimination of the safety margins that were, primarily, in place to accomodate the worst-case tolerances and manufacturing variance.

You can point to Corsair, CableMod, or BeQuiet and say "AHA! it melted because the cable wasn't up to spec" but realistically, these guys are importing cables and connectors made in China from the same factories and same production lines they've been using for every other connector and cable to date. Having a connector that requires tolerances and precision that these manufacturers aren't capable of (and have never been capable of) is the error here.