A user reported that a triangular cooling component detached from their NVIDIA RTX 4090 Founders Edition graphics card after moving the PC. The incident exposed the heat pipes and solder joints of the Ada Lovelace architecture flagship.
The owner purchased the hardware in August 2023. NVIDIA declined to provide repair or replacement services because the three-year warranty period had expired. Media reports suggest this is the first publicly documented case of such a failure for this model.
Technical analysis indicates the detachment occurred near the PCI-E connector due to fatigue from long-term thermal cycling. The PCB and the core of the graphics card remain undamaged. Experts quoted a repair cost of approximately $400 for the unit.
Community members suggested alternative solutions, including undervolting the card, applying new thermal paste and pads, or using thermal epoxy to reattach the component. The user considers the professional repair quote to be excessively high.
