The safety systems that some manufacturers are adding to their products can help prevent damage to graphics cards that use 16-pin connectors. Cooler Master offers its GPU Shield, which is sold separately or with its latest power supplies. ASRock also includes this type of technology in its power supplies for AI servers. However, one case has now been reported where the system failed to stop a 16-pin cable from melting.
The user was not using the power supply with a gaming graphics card. It was connected to an NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 worth more than $16,000.
Luckily, the connector melted on the power supply side, and the expensive professional graphics card was not damaged.
ASRock 16-Pin Power Connector Melts Despite TempGuard Protection
The system used this professional NVIDIA graphics card, which has 96 GB of GDDR7 memory and can use up to 600 W of power. This is similar to the power use of gaming graphics cards that often come with this type of protection. The power supply was an ASRock Taichi TC-1650T with a capacity of 1,650 W.
The connector melted on the power supply side. It was also confirmed that both connectors had been properly inserted before the failure happened.
The power supply includes ASRock’s TempGuard technology and a temperature sensor that warns about unusual temperatures at the connector. The system is supposed to shut down when temperatures become too high to prevent damage.
However, even ASRock’s active protection could not prevent the 16-pin connector from failing.
This case shows that even active protection for 16-pin connectors cannot always prevent these problems. In some cases, the cables can still fail and melt at the connector, which can damage the hardware connected to them.
Luckily, this time the damage happened on the power supply side. The power supply is not cheap, but it costs only a small part of the price of an NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000.
