PSA: Don't Just Arm-wrestle with 16-pin 12VHPWR for Cable-Management, It Will Burn Up

[Crackong]

The horror has a face - NVIDIA’s hot 12VHPWR adapter for the GeForce RTX 4090 with a built-in breaking point | igor´sLAB

Those who are now beating up on the new 12VHPWR (although I don’t really like the part either) may generate nice traffic with it, but they simply haven’t recognized the actual problem with the…

www.igorslab.de

Igor just confirmed the Built by Nvidia adaptor has such a high quality, that the wires are held (only) by soldering onto a very very thin piece of metal , and can be broken with very little force.
The card doesn't even know one of the soldering is broken, cause all the pins are joint inside the adaptor so the pin didn't "disconnected" , the load just spread to other wires and pump up the Amps (and wire temps) , it just keeps going until it melts.

What a wonderful design !

 

[jonnyGURU]

Yeah. This is bad. Really bad.

Welp! Connectors from Corsair, beQuiet, CableMod, etc... don't use this method and use a standard crimp so.. buy them up guys!

 

[TheDeeGee]

Glad this is sorted out then.

Now i'd like to know how CableMod does their cables.

 

[OneMoar]

this is so incredibly stupid
a 1500 dollar card and they are using bonded tin on the connector
.
that being said if I where AIBS I would be installing a thermal probe on the connector to ensure the thing throttles or shuts down if it starts getting hot set it at 50-60c if the connector ever gets that hot there is a problem

 

[TheDeeGee]

So there are probably going to be recalls then.

Adapter gate? NVIDIA briefs all board partners this morning and makes damage an absolute boss issue | igor'sLAB (igorslab.de)

 

[Mussels]

This is quite the fail

 

[LabRat 891]

... there's 6 12v pins sharing 50A, then 6 ground pins returning.

Gotta wonder why Intel, nVidia, etc. didn't move to an insertable PCB type connector?
Reading the layout of the new 12-pin in text reminded me of the 1.2kw 12VDC PSUs I have that interface all that amperage over exposed traces on a single long PCB 'finger'.
I'd be concerned about insertion/removal life, but this 12-pin jobby is already limited to 30 cycles, by spec.

 

[OneMoar]

so I was right bonded connector was the problem
I love knowing everything
who wants to celebrate my impending godhood with me

I promise a place by my side who ever supports my ascension

 

[jonnyGURU]

Gotta wonder why Intel, nVidia, etc. didn't move to an insertable PCB type connector?
Reading the layout of the new 12-pin in text reminded me of the 1.2kw 12VDC PSUs I have that interface all that amperage over exposed traces on a single long PCB 'finger'.
I'd be concerned about insertion/removal life, but this 12-pin jobby is already limited to 30 cycles, by spec.

nVidia and Dell. Not Intel. Intel's a member of the PSI-SIG, of course, but the 12VHPWR spec was sponsored by Nvidia and Dell.

 

[Totally]

”8pInZ bUrN uP t00” folks where y'all at?

So are you all implying 8-pins too have this exemplary build quality?

Seriously, that is insane. How did something like that even make it off paper?

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

The limit of disconnections and reconnections, reminds me of what Intel said (or what Intel reportedly said) for LGA sockets, making some users panic just over swapping CPUs!

Making me wonder if changing back to the Q9450 (on my Asus Maximus II Gene) will make the socket go bad. Sigh.

 

[jonnyGURU]

”8pInZ bUrN uP t00” folks where y'all at?



So are you all implying 8-pins too have this exemplary build quality?

Seriously, that is insane. How did something like that even make it off paper?

The 8-pin side is just as bad.

They take one or two +12V wire and one ground wire for each 8-pin and solder the wire across the four terminals, left to right. Some of the +12V leads go to the PCB to power the IC. So while you have four 8-pin connectors, at the end of the day you still only have 6 +12V and 6 ground when all four are plugged in.

 

[efikkan]

Igor just confirmed the Built by Nvidia adaptor has such a high quality, that the wires are held (only) by soldering onto a very very thin piece of metal , and can be broken with very little force.
The card doesn't even know one of the soldering is broken, cause all the pins are joint inside the adaptor so the pin didn't "disconnected" , the load just spread to other wires and pump up the Amps (and wire temps) , it just keeps going until it melts.

What a wonderful design !

This explanation makes far more sense. The original theory of pins making full contact sounded strange to me (in #97).

I hope this discovery leads to extensive tests of all such plugs and cables on the market, in case there are even more design flaws.

But I would still prefer if this standard was abandoned. I think the margins of error are a bit too low, but that's my opinion.

60ºC still sounds a little hot to me. What is a comparable result for a 8-pin under full continous load?

 

[jonnyGURU]

This explanation makes far more sense. The original theory of pins making full contact sounded strange to me (in #97).

I hope this discovery leads to extensive tests of all such plugs and cables on the market, in case there are even more design flaws.

But I would still prefer if this standard was abandoned. I think the margins of error are a bit too low, but that's my opinion.

60ºC still sounds a little hot to me. What is a comparable result for a 8-pin under full continous load?

The "theory" of pins losing connectivity isn't strange at all. While they don't come dislodged in an up or down (referred to in the technical documentation as North and South) direction from the connector, East or West bends do cause the terminals to go cock-eyed inside the housing, which increases resistance on that terminal forcing the current to take the path of least resistance instead. This causes those terminals to eventually burn up. This is why Corsair decided NOT to put 12VHPWR connectors on their ATX 3.0 PSUs and instead continue using the 2x 8-pin to 1x 12VHPWR cable instead. Because the typical use case for a PSU is in the bottom, with a shroud and the necessity to do a "Eastern" bend out of the shroud to go up the back of the motherboard tray. And then given the "hidden" fashion of today's PSUs within shrouds, such damage will likely go unnoticed.

Yes. 60°C is high. But the spec for the connector is actually 70°C.

Typical mini-fit jr. connectors are rated at 65°C. But they also don't tend to get as hot because they're not as "dense" as the 12VHPWR connector's.

 

[Tropick]

But they also don't tend to get as hot because they're not as "dense" as the 12VHPWR connector's.

Sounds like this 12VHPWR connector is proving to be pretty dense in a whole bunch of different ways.

 

[mechtech]

Can we get a sign like this?? Except Do not bend the 16-pin cable?

 

[Totally]

The 8-pin side is just as bad.

They take one or two +12V wire and one ground wire for each 8-pin and solder the wire across the four terminals, left to right. Some of the +12V leads go to the PCB to power the IC. So while you have four 8-pin connectors, at the end of the day you still only have 6 +12V and 6 ground when all four are plugged in.

Yeah, but that's happening on the PSU side not on a tiny little bit of real estate at the load side connector.

 

[Mussels]

This all greatly reminds me of why i tell everyone not to use any adaptors or extensions on modern GPUs

These melted on an undervolted 3090, locked to under 250W

Native direct cables or risk a fire. Nvidia was dumb to force this new connector so early, they just didnt want the stigma of 4x 8 pin connectors on these GPUs

 

[OneMoar]

the kicker is you don't need 4 X 8 pin
you only need two the 8 pin connector and 80% of most PSUs are perfectly capable of delivering 260W per connector (and thats being conservative)
its just nobody wanted to test there units for that
+ you still have idiots that put two 8 pin connectors on a single lead if they just did away with that we could have plenty of power for even a overclocked card

what we need is a proper solid pcb adapter with heavy duty power and ground planes with a big fat chunk of copper to dissipate heat

I would also again suggest that AIBs put temp sensors in the connector area so if it starts getting toasty there is no fire this is a good idea regardless of the quality of cable or adapter and negatigable cost as most IC controllers already have the capability

also suggest changing the connector on the gpu side to ABS so that in the event of a failure it doesn't smoke a 1500 card

 

[Mussels]

I mean, WTF isn't there a solid right-angled connector from the very beginning?

 

[medi01]

xcept Do not bend the 16-pin cable?

YYeah. Next to those 93% of PC cases in which it is impossible to fit the card, without bending the said adpter.

Brilliant idea, that will completely unf*ckup the f*ckup.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1586196490422296577

 

[TheDeeGee]

I check the official Nvidia reddit daily now, and there are atleast 2 reports every 24 hours with pictures of new melted adapters of various stages. How there hasn't been a recall yet is beyond me.

 

[ARF]

I check the official Nvidia reddit daily now, and there are atleast 2 reports every 24 hours with pictures of new melted adapters of various stages. How there hasn't been a recall yet is beyond me.

Bizarre.

Nvidia is calling for all partner-manufactured GeForce RTX 4090 boards affected by the melting power plug problem we’re definitely not calling ‘connectorgate’ to be gathered up and returned to HQ. According to a post on Igor’s Lab, a briefing was sent to all AIB partners this morning (27th) that the cards should be shipped back home for analysis, though it’s not clear if they’re being sent to Nvidia or the AIB manufacturer’s nerve center.

Nvidia Calls for Melted 4090 Cards to Be Returned for Analysis | Tom's Hardware (tomshardware.com)

 

[TheDeeGee]

Bizarre.

Nvidia Calls for Melted 4090 Cards to Be Returned for Analysis | Tom's Hardware (tomshardware.com)

I think i've yet to see a report from a FE card though, so there is that.

That would mean AIBs are at fault as well, if they stray too much from the guidelines.

 

[Mussels]

I think i've yet to see a report from a FE card though, so there is that.

That would mean AIBs are at fault as well, if they stray too much from the guidelines.

look how ampere launched - we had all sorts of madness come out

Partly because nvidia gave specs that were "okay to use" that turned out false, and partly because the board makers did whatever they could to cut costs on custom PCB designs, despite charging more for them