The story originally surfaced on a Taiwanese forum similar to Reddit, before being picked up by tech outlets.
“When I was squatting in the toilet, I suddenly heard the cat keep screaming, and when I opened the door, I saw the smoke and smell of plastic,” the user explained.
While the cat’s alert likely prevented a worse outcome, the incident highlights an issue that has followed NVIDIA’s flagship GPU since launch.
The RTX 4090 has been plagued by reports of its 16-pin 12VHPWR power connectors overheating or melting under certain conditions. Investigations previously suggested that improper cable seating or uneven power distribution across pins could lead to dangerous heat buildup.
I once again return to my soap box. The psu is the most important part of your computer build. So many people build computers and say “power is power” but so many crashes and it seems even fires (this one ia new to me) can be related to bad power management. Spend the money on the good psu.
this was not the case, but it is important to know this
i always use an external voltage regulator box too, it’s been a must for me since the 90s
i agree but isn’t the 4090 thing caused by a badly designed connector by nvidia?
yeah i recall that the connector would melt, let alone that i think there wouldn’t be any sort of feedback to ensure that the cable was connected all the way.
Not only that, but a cheap PSU can also fry your other PC parts due to power surges when it breaks.