News PCI-SIG Tells GPU Makers to Improve Testing in Response to Nvidia 12VHPWR Lawsuit

[cyrusfox]

Products defects that can cost lives need to be recalled.

If this fails, even catastrophically you are looking at melted plastic, inoperable computer and a stinky room. This will never cause the H1 fire that that riser cable exhibited (Short to Ground). This issue has been sensationalized to death.

There was a design defect in the Ford pinto that if you hit the rear of it. The suspension ran the risk of piercing the fuel tank setting it on fire. These days if there's a risk of even the car stalling out on a highway there's a recall.

You are conflating vehicular safety to recreational computing. One involves high speed where any fault could be life threatening, the other has very little health or safety interaction. Enough thermal energy(heat) to melt plastic does not mean enough heat to combust. Plastic will start to melt at 120°C to 200°C and release noxious air, Your most combustible kindle/newspaper won't combust until 230°C. Worst you are looking at is a damaged power connector and cable and a stinky room...

Good luck to those existing law suits, they are going to need it.

 

[helper800]

Someone made the assertion that Nvidia should slap a label that says "professional assembly only". I said even the "professionals" screwed it up. I didn't claim it was a faultless installation. I was citing the fact the connector was poorly designed without a safety feature which allowed it to be incorrectly installed.

Can Nvidia be held liable? Possible.

I see, I was tunnel-visioning on that you said they caught fire. I never bought in to the whole "professional install" thing with the cards because at the end of the day "professionals" are people just like those that partially plugged in the cards that burnt up in the first place.

Nvidia did not design or produce the 12+4 cable so I do not know how they would be liable. All they did was adopt it as one of many options to solve their perceived problems with PCB real estate.

 

[digitalgriffin]

If this fails, even catastrophically you are looking at melted plastic, inoperable computer and a stinky room. This will never cause the H1 fire that that riser cable exhibited (Short to Ground). This issue has been sensationalized to death.

You are conflating vehicular safety to recreational computing. One involves high speed where any fault could be life threatening, the other has very little health or safety interaction. Enough thermal energy(heat) to melt plastic does not mean enough heat to combust. Plastic will start to melt at 120°C to 200°C and release noxious air, Your most combustible kindle/newspaper won't combust until 230°C. Worst you are looking at is a damaged power connector and cable and a stinky room...

Good luck to those existing law suits, they are going to need it.

Tell me how hot an electrical arc gets when you are running a hundred amps??

 

[helper800]

Tell me how hot an electrical arc gets when you are running a hundred amps??

Apparently just hot enough to melt plastic.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Tell me how hot an electrical arc gets when you are running a hundred amps??

Are you talking about the 12VHPWR connector here? Because:

1. There is no arcing
2. It's 50A max, not hundreds

 

[TJ Hooker]

You know they used to put tents over baby cribs. They were designed to prevent kids from crawling out in the middle of the night and getting hurt.

Problem is there was an outside risk of a child choking on them. Almost overnight they all disappeared.

Products defects that can cost lives need to be recalled.

You're still conflating issues that can occur even during proper use, and issues that can only occur during misuse.

There is also zero indication that a melting 12VHPWR puts anyone's life at risk, making your comparison inappropriate regardless.

 

[RandomWan]

Someone made the assertion that Nvidia should slap a label that says "professional assembly only". I said even the "professionals" screwed it up. I didn't claim it was a faultless installation. I was citing the fact the connector was poorly designed without a safety feature which allowed it to be incorrectly installed.

Can Nvidia be held liable? Possible.

What I said is they should recommend installation by a trained professional. That's not a guarantee that the professional can't screw it up too, but the likelihood of it being screwed up by the more experienced and trained person is much lower than someone building their first PC or who only builds one every 3-5 years.

It is designed with a safety feature to keep it from being incorrectly installed in the sense that you can install it upside down (a far more concerning failure). Ensuring that the connector is fully seated and secured should be something that doesn't need to be explained to a technical-minded person and should be a matter of standard procedure. Likely any included documentation makes a statement to the effect of 'plug it all the way in and secure it.'

Again, it doesn't need to be over-engineered for people not doing their due diligence.