NorthridgeFix repairs RTX 5090 resistor mod going wrong
© NorthridgeFix MSI’s GeForce RTX 5090 Lightning Z was built for extreme overclocking, but the most interesting part of the card may now be the part some owners cannot get. MSI has limited its 2500W XOC BIOS to extreme overclockers , and leaked copies were later pulled after MSI reportedly ‘requested’ their removal.
NorthridgeFix recently received a broken MSI RTX 5090 Lightning Z with damaged resistor pads near the GPU area, and the board showed signs of prior work. The repair note mentioned that the user tried to learn how to solder and decided to practice on a $5000+ graphics card.
© NorthridgeFix So why is a resistor even needed?
Modders can’t flash the 2500W BIOS on a retail retail Lightning Z cards. Apparently somebody has found a workaround that requires a physical change to the card, an extra resistor.
MSI is clearly trying to keep its 2500W XOC BIOS within a small circle of established extreme overclockers. That relationship is mutually beneficial, as those users often receive multiple cards and, in return, provide MSI with public benchmark runs and visibility in the overclocking scene.
For people outside that group, access is extremely limited, which likely explains why some are trying to bypass the restriction with hardware mods. Imagine you want to become an overclocker, but you can’t even get access to the most OC-friendly cards on the market. Well, someone thought that doing the resistor mod and trying the 2500W BIOS will help.
© NorthridgeFix 
© NorthridgeFix NorthridgeFix attempted to power the card on, but ended the session before completing full testing and said it would be checked again later. Based on the initial boot attempt and voltage measurements, the repair appears technically sound so far.
It is always impressive how quickly they can deal with this kind of damage. Hopefully the card still works. If MSI does end up seeing this, it may be worth giving newer overclockers a simpler path into the scene, so users do not feel pushed toward risky hardware mods in the first place.
Source:
