Nvidia instructs AIB partners to send RTX 4090 cards affected by power connector issues directly to headquarters

Reports of dying RTX 4090 cards due to melting power adapters started popping up all over social media this week and Nvidia is now quickly escalating this issue as an absolute priority. According to industry sources close to Igor’s LAB, Nvidia has not yet made any public statement detailing the exact problem with the power connectors, but has contacted all affected AIB partners and instructed them to send the damaged cards “directly to HQ for failure analysis.” The situation appears to be very delicate, since Nvidia has never taken such measures before, not even with the defective Micron VRAM chips found with some RTX 2080 Ti cards from a few years back.

Igor suggests that the logical step for Nvidia now would be to recall and replace all the faulty power adapters. Apparently, Nvidia’s own adapters come from a supplier named Astron, but standard compliant power supply cables from trusted manufacturers are not affected. The issues are most likely caused by poor quality assurance involving an inadequate wire soldering process combined with what looks like “pressed wires without real strain relief in the plug.”

Before making a public statement, Nvidia may need some more time to fully investigate these issues, as reported by The Verge. Team Green representatives promised to replace the first reported malfunctioning RTX 4090, yet it is not clear if all the other reported cards will receive the same treatment. Those who managed to get their hands on the RTX 4090 cards should avoid using the power connector cables supplied by Nvidia and instead utilize the cables coming with the power supplies.

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