A cheap graphics card caught fire and melted its power connector in a shocking accident. The ASUS GeForce RTX 3060 Ti ATS/Megalodon graphics card suffered terrible damage from overheating. This budget gaming card only needs about 200 watts of power to run properly. ASUS decided to put a fancy 16-pin power connector on the card anyway. The company made this special version for buyers in China back in 2023.
The real problem came from a bad adapter cable that ASUS put inside the box. This cable was supposed to connect the graphics card to older power supplies that lack the new connector type. ASUS made a huge mistake when they built this adapter cable. The cable was missing four important pins that help ensure a safe connection. These missing pins are supposed to check if the power cable plugs in correctly.
Without these safety pins, the graphics card could not tell if the power connection was secure. A loose connection caused the plastic connector to overheat and melt into a horrible mess. Pictures from the damaged card show black melted plastic around the power connector area. This appears to be the first time anyone has seen an RTX 3060 Ti suffer from connector melting problems. Both the user and ASUS share blame for this dangerous situation.
The real problem came from a bad adapter cable that ASUS put inside the box. This cable was supposed to connect the graphics card to older power supplies that lack the new connector type. ASUS made a huge mistake when they built this adapter cable. The cable was missing four important pins that help ensure a safe connection. These missing pins are supposed to check if the power cable plugs in correctly.
Without these safety pins, the graphics card could not tell if the power connection was secure. A loose connection caused the plastic connector to overheat and melt into a horrible mess. Pictures from the damaged card show black melted plastic around the power connector area. This appears to be the first time anyone has seen an RTX 3060 Ti suffer from connector melting problems. Both the user and ASUS share blame for this dangerous situation.
