At this point, we’re no strangers to NVIDIA’s GPUs either catching fire or frying out their 12VHPWR, for reasons ranging from bad connections to bad and poorly made PCB designs that cannot handle the wattage being pumped into the GPUs. For one unfortunate RTX 5090 owner, that malfunction came in the form of a loud firecracker-like explosion.
Redditor RoboDogRush shared their story with their exploding RTX 5090 on the platform. It starts off innocently enough: they were working late into the night, and at around 2AM, his GPU – a PNY ARGB OC RTX 5090, for context – decided to commit seppuku there and then, and boy, did it decide to let its owner know. However, what transpired wasn’t a melted 12VHPWR cable, but rather a rogue capacitor that blew itself out.
“I was working on a video edit at 2AM when a firecracker went off next to me. I jumped out of my chair it was so loud. The screen went black, sparks and smoke poured out of the case, and the smell of electrical fire filled the room.”
The blowout from the exploding capacitor was apparently so great, it literally bent and rearranged the fins of the heatsink surrounding it. And again, the situation escalated instantly, with no warning or indication that anything was wrong with the card. RoboDogRush also said that he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary: his card wasn’t overheating, the RTX 5090 was running at a barmy 70°C, the 12VHPWR cable was seated properly, and with a 1300W PSU, there certainly wasn’t a lack of power.
“When the chaos died down, I pulled my PNY ARGB OC 5090 out to find a blown capacitor. It blew with such force that it bent the heatsink it was positioned over.”
RoboDogRush says that after a call with PNY, the GPU brand said that it would honour the warranty period since it had only been a week since he purchased his RTX 5090, but supposedly didn’t provide him with a return label or any other details. In this case, the issue appears likely to be an issue with PNY’s assembly procedure, and less likely NVIDIA’s problem.
(Source: Reddit)
