The 16-pin connector of an ASRock power supply melts despite having TempGuard protection

The protections that some manufacturers are adding to their products can help us prevent damage to the graphics cards with 16-pin connector. Cooler Master has available its GPU Shield which is sold separately or together with your latest power supplies. ASRock also has this technology integrated into its fonts for AI serversalthough we have seen a case where it has not been able to prevent the 16-pin cable from melting.

An RTX PRO 6000 worth more than $16,000 is saved from a blown connector

The user did not have this source connected to a gaming graphics card, but to a NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 valued at more than $16,000. Luckily the connector melted on the power supply side and your prized professional graphics card was not damaged.

The system had this NVIDIA graphics for professionals, which has 96 GB of GDDR7 memory and consumption of up to 600 Wsimilar to that of gaming graphics cards that usually include this protection system. The power supply was a ASRock Taichi TC-1650T with a power of 1,650 W.

The connector melts at the source despite ASRock’s TempGuard protection

The problem was that the connector melted on the supply sideand it has been verified that both connectors were correctly inserted before the failure occurred. The power supply has the TempGuard technology together with a temperature sensor which alerts of anomalies in the connector. The technology should shut down the system in case of higher temperatures to prevent damage.

Not even ASRock’s active protection could prevent the failure of the 16-pin connector

What this case wants to tell us is that Not even with active protection for the 16-pin connectors are we safe. There are unexplained situations where these cables fail and end up melting at the connector, ruining the hardware they are connected to. Luckily this time it was in the power supplya product that is not cheap but only costs a fraction of a NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000.