After several weeks of investigating multiple incidents involving melting and overheating 12VHPWR power adapters with GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards, Nvidia has finally issued an official statement.

NVIDIA  is looking into reports of 50 16-pin 12VHPWR adapter cases melting worldwide. Melting and overheating occurred when the adapter's connector was not correctly inserted into the socket, the company has found. Before inserting the GeForce RTX 4090 into a PCIe slot, the manufacturer recommends that users firmly connect the adapter. The company and its partners have assured those who have been affected that any broken hardware will be replaced as soon as possible.

NVIDIA released an advisory here as well.

"We are aware of about 50 cases globally. Our findings to date suggest that a common issue is that connectors are not fully plugged into the graphics card. To help ensure the connector is secure we recommend plugging the power dongle into the graphics card first to ensure it is firmly and evenly plugged in, before plugging the graphics card into the motherboard. We are investigating additional ways to ensure that the connector is secure before powering on the graphics card. Nvidia and our partners are committed to supporting our customers and ensuring an expedited RMA process, regardless of the cable or card used."

 

With all of these issues on the horizon, PCI-SIG, which is in charge of specifying PCI-X and PCI Express component connections and interconnects, and designing this connector, is in discussions with the green team about changing the design of the 12VHPWR connector. This suggests that after this update is validated, a new version of the RTX 4090/80 cards will be published. The issue is that the current connections and cables will not have this revision 12VHPWR V1.1.