The company said it may know why the power cables weren't plugged in all the way.
In a post to its customer support forum on Friday, the company said that it was still investigating the reports, but that its findings suggested that a common problem was an insecure connection. The issue has been reported around 50 times.
Most of the power supplies that people already have in their PCs aren't compatible with the new 12VHPWR power connector used by the flagship card. Friday's post refers to the box as the "power dongle." Some users said that the melting cable had damaged their graphics card.
It would be easy to read the company's findings as blaming the users. It is implied in the post that it is a user error. Since people have been speculating for almost a month that the issue is caused by something more complex, it seems like a very convenient explanation.
The same conclusion was reached by the outlet that is respected in the PC-building community for its rigorous testing. A video posted on Wednesday by the outlet, which inspected damaged adapters sent in by viewers and did extensive testing and reporting on the issue, showed that the connectors had wear lines, suggesting that they hadn't been fully inserted into the slot. Some people may have missed a full connection. If the plug was plugged in poorly and tilted at an angle, it could cause it to heat up quickly.
It is easier to miss something that is out by a full 2mm and being held at an angle than it is to see something that is out by a full 2mm and being held at an angle. It wouldn't be difficult to miss with a third-party card instead of the one shown in the images below.
If you have one of these cards in your computer, you should double check it.
It is worth pointing out that Nvidia may not be blameless here. The picture it posted has a lock on it. It would be a feature that would prevent this kind of thing from happening if you gave good feedback when you plug it in. The adapters don't click into place when fully inserted.
The testing done by the two companies doesn't seem to point to manufacturing defects as the main culprit. According to an unnamed spokesman for the company, any issues with the burned cable will be processed for a new one.
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