News Vendor Had Twenty 16-Pin Adapter Meltdowns Among Tens of Thousands Sold

[Admin]

Cablemod, which produces custom cables and adapters, has shared the company's failure rates for its 16-pin power adapters. To date, it reports twenty failures out of tens of thousands of sold adapters.

Vendor Had Twenty 16-Pin Adapter Meltdowns Among Tens of Thousands Sold : Read more

 

[tennis2]

Is this insinuating that the internet is overreactive!?

 

[King_V]

Maybe. Maybe not. Whatever the percentage of melted cables (and damaged video cards) with the 16-pin connector . . how does that number compare to the number of melted cables/damaged video cards with the traditional 6 and 8 pin connectors.

Of course, where the connector is the issue, and not, say, using a dumpster-fire PSU with molex-to-PCIe connectors, or other such nonsense.

Is the 16-pin failure rate drastically different than the 6-pin/8-pin failure rate, or not?

I don't know the answer to that. I suspect that it's notably higher, but my gut feeling doesn't really account for anything.

 

[hotaru251]

product development 101: Make it fool proof.

yes, it might be due to not plugged in all the way..but thats user error and you must design with that in mind.

 

[mr_stench]

Even single one melted connector on a 1 000+ $ product is unacceptable. The thing is operating on the edge above 400W whatever the spec says...

There will always be tolerances in the manufacturing quality of connectors. A design where there is no margins for quality imperfections is a bad design. They can just put two connectors on these high end GPU's and everything will be fine.

I have never heard or read about a melted 6-pin/8-pin connector in my life.

 

[InvalidError]

There will always be tolerances in the manufacturing quality of connectors. A design where there is no margins for quality imperfections is a bad design.

The connectors themselves have a 100+% safety margin and will pass 100+A continuous fine when properly inserted. I'm not aware of anybody who has managed to melt a properly inserted connector. There are people who claim they had fully inserted their connector but most of their pictures tell a different story with witness marks saying they were 1.5-2.5mm short from fully inserted at some point.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

The connectors themselves have a 100+% safety margin and will pass 100+A continuous fine when properly inserted. I'm not aware of anybody who has managed to melt a properly inserted connector. There are people who claim they had fully inserted their connector but most of their pictures tell a different story with witness marks saying they were 1.5-2.5mm short from fully inserted at some point.

Spoiler: I've been asking for the 12VHPWR to come with different colored teeth

Spoiler: MSI's first to having colored Cable Teeth for 12VHPWR connector

Now we need them to fix the latch to make a very satisfying "CLICK!" sound when it properly latches, like the old 4/8-pin EPS Cables or 6/8-pin PCI Cables

 

[atomicWAR]

Is this insinuating that the internet is overreactive!?

Is water wet? The internet tends to overreact but it does get results on occasion! Unlaunched 4080 12GB. Then the prices on lower tier 60 series Nvidia GPUs while still a bit insane for the lack of VRAM are still less insane then we expected going off previously released cards in the 70/80 series cards. The 4090 is another beast though which was only marked up 100 USD (6% increase) while giving you a 60% performance boost leaving you with 10 times the performance increase compared to the cost increase vs last gen
RTX 3090 msrp and performance. The RTX 4090 is still THE oddball this gen...

 

[InvalidError]

Now we need them to fix the latch to make a very satisfying "CLICK!" sound when it properly latches, like the old 4/8-pin EPS Cables or 6/8-pin PCI Cables

For a connector to "click", the barb has to have enough slack to free-fall into place at the end of travel, which means it has that much space to back off too. Extra slack just for a "satisfying click" to make you feel better doesn't make the connector intrinsically more secure. Also, if you insert the connector slowly due to awkward orientation or concern for the amount of insertion force, the barb may just follow the lip shape and silently fall into place.

I don't push my connectors in fast enough for them to make any particular noise.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

The connectors themselves have a 100+% safety margin and will pass 100+A continuous fine when properly inserted. I'm not aware of anybody who has managed to melt a properly inserted connector. There are people who claim they had fully inserted their connector but most of their pictures tell a different story with witness marks saying they were 1.5-2.5mm short from fully inserted at some point.

Yep... and no matter how well a product is designed user error will always find a way to mess it up.

The 4090 is another beast though which was only marked up 100 USD (6% increase) while giving you a 60% performance boost leaving you with 10 times the performance increase compared to the cost increase vs last gen
RTX 3090 msrp and performance. The RTX 4090 is still THE oddball this gen...

Well said. Exactly why I bought it. Some call it overpriced... I call it a pretty good value compared to last gen and IMHO the only 4000 series card worth a purchase... as Nvidia planned I'm sure. 🤣

 

[konkave]

I've been soldering the cables to the GPU board.

 

[Ogotai]

The 4090 is another beast though which was only marked up 100 USD (6% increase) while giving you a 60% performance boost leaving you with 10 times the performance increase compared to the cost increase vs last gen

too bad that isnt the case everywhere. calling something not over priced in the US doesnt mean it isnt every where else.

Well said. Exactly why I bought it. Some call it overpriced... I call it a pretty good value compared to last gen

cause it IS over priced, maybe just not in the US. the price that it here, is 4090 TI or titan pricing.....

 

[mr_stench]

Here you can read something interesting beyond the standard marketing information..

Let's talk about the 12VHPWR connector....

I will allow myself to put a quote from the post:

"The specification for the connector and its terminals to support 450 to 600W is very precise. You are only within spec if you use glass fiber filled thermoplastic rated for 70°C temperatures and meets UL94V-0 flammability requirements. The terminals used can only be brass, never phosphor bronze, and the wire gauge must be 16g (except for the side band wires, of course). Unlike previous connectors on the market, there is no “pass” allowed to make cheaper connectors"

We live in conditions of high inflation where every manufacturer tries to cut cost where possible. This is a boutique design not a cost and customer friendly design.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

For a connector to "click", the barb has to have enough slack to free-fall into place at the end of travel, which means it has that much space to back off too. Extra slack just for a "satisfying click" to make you feel better doesn't make the connector intrinsically more secure. Also, if you insert the connector slowly due to awkward orientation or concern for the amount of insertion force, the barb may just follow the lip shape and silently fall into place.

I don't push my connectors in fast enough for them to make any particular noise.

What about replacing the plastic barb with springy metal latch for the "Click" sound?

 

[edzieba]

Is this insinuating that the internet is overreactive!?

Am I out of touch? No, it's the children cables that are wrong.

product development 101: Make it fool proof.

"Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool".

 

[mo_osk]

product development 101: Make it fool proof.

yes, it might be due to not plugged in all the way..but thats user error and you must design with that in mind.

The old 8 pins pcie cable is anything but fool proof. I've seen it misused and causing melt down plenty of time. Let's not even speak of the molex adapters that they can use. If anything the 12 pins fault is to not be "janky" enough in a way that cause users to be too confident that the connection is secure.

 

[atomicWAR]

too bad that isnt the case everywhere. calling something not over priced in the US doesnt mean it isnt every where else.


cause it IS over priced, maybe just not in the US. the price that it here, is 4090 TI or titan pricing.....

To be fair you have to judge a product by your locale, I am in the US. IDK the prices on other 4000 series cards where you are but my guess is it was marked up less than other lower tier skus but I could be wrong. Regardless your not wrong in that just because something is 'cheap' (using the term VERY loosely) in one place doesn't mean it is in another.

 

[TerryLaze]

"Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool".

Nobody is talking about that, it should be fool proof for a normal person.

 

[InvalidError]

What about replacing the plastic barb with springy metal latch for the "Click" sound?

Still would have all of the same issues, except now it costs more due to more expensive metals, extra manufacturing steps and you have metal parts that could potentially come loose and cause a short.

 

[edzieba]

Nobody is talking about that, it should be fool proof for a normal person.

20 in >20,000 - or a 0.1% issue rate - sure seems like only the most talented of fools are managing to have any issues.

 

[helper800]

Nobody is talking about that, it should be fool proof for a normal person.

Define "normal" please, because your 'normal' may be my 'fool' and someone else's 'genius.'

 

[hotaru.hino]

As much as people want to say they should make this fool proof as possible, the other side of the coin is that the number of people outside of factory workers assembling computers together is a tiny percentage. And hopefully said factory workers at least have checklists or some processes in play to make sure everything is connected properly.

If anyone is going to be servicing their own computer, they need to understand what they might be dealing with. If it's a cable that can carry a large amount of current, then they better treat it with respect and make sure that everything is seated properly. If they're going to be slapping the cable inside and not give it a second thought, then that's how you get this "problem".

This wasn't a connector that was designed for your grandma to play with.

 

[helper800]

This wasn't a connector that was designed for your grandma to play with.

This connector was designed for anyone, including grandma and grandpa, with 2000 dollars required for purchase of the card. There are certainly fools, and there are certainly old fools. This 'problem' is caused by the never ending stream of fools bumbling through life, and the reward for the most talented of the fools, in this particular case, is a melted 12+4 pin connector on a 4090 graphics card.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

This connector was designed for anyone, including grandma and grandpa, with 2000 dollars required for purchase of the card. There are certainly fools, and there are certainly old fools. This 'problem' is caused by the never ending stream of fools bumbling through life, and the reward for the most talented of the fools, in this particular case, is a melted 12+4 pin connector on a 4090 graphics card.

Haha... my personal opinion is the melted connectors are user error... nothing more. Don't plug it in correctly... bad things can happen.

Same for the PCB issue with Gigabyte GPUs... don't plug it into the slot correctly... bad things can happen.

 

[hotaru.hino]

This connector was designed for anyone, including grandma and grandpa, with 2000 dollars required for purchase of the card. There are certainly fools, and there are certainly old fools. This 'problem' is caused by the never ending stream of fools bumbling through life, and the reward for the most talented of the fools, in this particular case, is a melted 12+4 pin connector on a 4090 graphics card.

Just because the connector has some convenience factors in it (like it can only fit in one direction) doesn't mean anything about it's fool proofness. I mean, we may as well say anyone who gets electrocuted from a NEMA connector is an idiot because they didn't insert it in all the way. The fact that the connector can be live before it's inserted in all the way, which can be as little as about half way in, is a problem when this connector is expected to be used by anyone.

"Anyone" isn't expected to be tinkering with the hardware inside their PC.

EDIT: I should add that "designed for grandma" means that

• Its operation is intuitive
• They don't have to think about potential problems
• If there is a potential problem:
  • It fails safely
  • It's more or less obvious what the problem is

Here's an example of what I mean by all of this. I had an incident where I spilled water near my USB cable that I used to charge my phone. So of course, I clean up the spill and at least make sure the cable wasn't affected and as much as I could see, there wasn't anything immediately wrong

When I went to plug in my phone to charge it, my phone told me it wouldn't charge because it detected moisture. It also made a scary sound, so I was clearly alerted to the fact. When I disconnected the phone, I discovered the cable basically blew up. However, the phone was fine, it charged with another cable that I knew wasn't wet

The 12VHPwr fails to meet the last two points: I have to make sure the thing is seated all the way in, I have to make sure there isn't a lot of bend near the connector, and if it fails, well, we all know how that turns out.