Defective RTX 4090 Graphics Card Irreversibly Damaged - Attempted Fixes with VRAM swap and signal patches prove futile due to degraded PCB traces, leading to permanent inoperability.
A heavily modified RTX 4090 with a rare 48GB memory PCB found its way to Northwest Repair, but the repair journey was anything but straightforward. Thermal imaging and low-voltage injection revealed that one memory chip was fried, and the GPU core had hot spots, indicating internal shorts [1].
Tinkering with expensive components comes at more than just the base cost of the hardware itself, potentially. In this case, the failed driver MOSFET in the buck converter was the primary cause of the issues. It had shorted, sending 12 volts directly into the memory, damaging multiple chips and the core [1].
The poor cooling setup for the extra memory chips, secured only with a flimsy bracket, contributed to thermal damage. Testing with a multimeter revealed a dead short on the 12-volt power rail, the 1.8-volt, and 1.2-volt memory rails [1]. Desoldering a couple of memory chips did not help, as more were dead, and the core was probably damaged as well.
A healthy graphics card steps power down to safe levels for each part of the board, with lower voltages for memory and different rails for the GPU core. However, the modified card's power components appeared to be cheaper, which may have exacerbated the issues.
Further voltage injection confirmed that the card was beyond repair. Removing the faulty MOSFET cleared the 12-volt short, but the memory rail remained shorted [1]. Fixing the damaged graphics card would require replacing the MOSFET, multiple memory chips, and the GPU core, a project only feasible in specialized labs with a price tag close to a brand-new card.
The card's reheating cycles probably warped the PCB beyond repair, completely destroying any chance of repair (PEX). The damaged PCB traces made successful repair impossible, demonstrating that such heavily modified high-performance GPUs are particularly vulnerable to catastrophic failure and often unrecoverable after extreme overvoltage abuse [1].
Tony from Northwest Repair, who had seen his fair share of modified graphics cards, considered 48GB cards to be unreliable due to the events that unfolded. This incident serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of high-voltage injections and custom mods with subpar components.
It's important to remember to follow updates from Tom's Hardware for up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews. This article is a cautionary tale about a failed repair job, emphasizing the importance of not subjecting hardware to extreme modifications. At best, the damaged card can be used as a parts donor, serving as an expensive lesson on why pushing hardware beyond its limits rarely pays off.
[1] Source: [Link to the original source, if available]
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