RTX 5090 owner faces two burn incidents with MSI yellow-tip power adapter
Source: Reddit
I still remember writing about MSI’s new yellow-tip design for their power adapters. At the time, it looked like a good idea since the issue was believed to be caused by users incorrectly inserting power cables (I can already see your comments: “Yeah, right”). Little did we know that the yellow tip would end up being more useful for spotting burns than for preventing them.
On Reddit, two users reported similar cases of burned MSI power adapters, both using the official yellow-tipped version. Note that the adapter is not a complete cable; it still requires a PSU connection to work. MSI offers full native yellow-tip cables but only with their own supplies. This wasn’t the issue here.
In these new cases the yellow tip is just the end of the 12V-2×6 cable that attaches to standard 8-pin wiring. Melting or burning issues are often linked to improper setups, such as using unsupported daisy-chained 8-pin cables or older PSUs. Still, this should not happen. After the RTX 40 series melting connector problems, this design should have been improved to prevent such cases.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t. One user said his RTX 5090 Gaming Trio started showing black screens and reboots , the usual early signs of a failing connection. Unless it’s clearly a software issue, it’s best to check the cable first. Since RMAs can take weeks, the user has already ordered a replacement GPU, though not everyone can afford to do that.
A more concerning case appeared on the PC Master Race subreddit, where a user named Deja reported the same issue happening again since July, another melted cable on RTX 509 0GPU. Other Redditors argued that users should react sooner by replacing their PSU or using tools that detect such faults, like WireView or the new Ampinel accessories .
The only good news is that users seem to have little trouble with RMAs so far. We sometimes receive messages from readers who encounter similar hardware failures, and some do get denied support. Unfortunately, we can’t help everyone directly, but by keeping you informed about these cases, we hope to help you spot warning signs early and avoid further damage.