Key Takeaways
- NZXT H1 cases were catching fire due to a badly designed PCIe riser.
- Gigabyte PSUs were exploding while the company tried to downplay the issue.
- EVGA exiting the GPU market and ending its partnership with Nvidia was unprecedented.
The PC industry is no stranger to shooting itself in the foot, especially when it comes to launching inconsequential or downright terrible products. But, some scandals go beyond disappointing products into the realm of unbelievably bad decisions, drawing universal ire from the community and industry, entering the record books in the most infamous of ways.
If we look at just the past five years, there have been multiple high-profile blunders by PC hardware manufacturers that have drawn “fire” (oh yes, we’re going there) from everyone and their grandma. Some of them landed with a thud of finality, while others ended up being only a bump in the road for the companies at the root of them. Regardless, each of them has something to teach us about what not to do when things go wrong.
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6 NZXT H1 riser fire
Classic case of fanning the flames
Near the end of 2020, NZXT became aware of a potential safety issue with its H1 case, prompting it to offer a DIY repair kit to case owners that they could install themselves to fix the issue. Sales of the case continued, as NZXT waited for users to request the repair kit when needed. The “issue,” as it became clear in the next few months, thanks to a series of videos by the YouTuber Gamers Nexus, was a misplaced metal screw on the PCIe riser causing a short and, in many cases, a fire.
This alarming issue then naturally caught the attention of the community as people became aware of NZXT’s lackluster and frankly irresponsible response to multiple emails by Gamers Nexus informing them about the severity of the faulty configuration of the product. The nylon screw replacements the company had earlier chosen to send out to customers didn’t really “solve” the problem.
NZXT eventually issued a complete recall of the H1 case, but that was too little, too late.
This is because those who were unaware of the issue or the root cause behind the issue, or perhaps chose to revert to the original metal screw later, could still face the possibility of their case catching fire. NZXT eventually issued a complete recall of the H1 case, but that was too little, too late. The poor handling of the issue by the company had already made headlines, showing once again how not to handle a PR nightmare. The best NZXT cases are long-time favorites of many PC users, so this scandal was particularly surprising.
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5 Gigabyte PSUs blowing up
How about a “killer” gaming PC?
Around the time Nvidia’s RTX 30 series GPUs came out, several users started reporting faulty units of Gigabyte’s GP-P850GM and GP-P750GM power supplies, with many even claiming their PSUs exploded and took out their precious PC hardware with it. Naturally, such an explosive issue had to be investigated, and that’s exactly what Gamers Nexus did (yes, again).
Gigabyte was doubling down on a bad product rather than taking responsibility for it.
After these investigations, Gigabyte responded (rather poorly) that the exploding PSUs were subjected to testing that wasn’t “typical of real world usage.” They lowered the Over Power Protection (OPP) rating of both models in question to improve their load-handling capabilities. But, all this did was make it seem that Gigabyte was doubling down on a bad product rather than taking responsibility for it.
After all, even before the Gamers Nexus investigation came out, these Gigabyte PSUs had terrible reviews consisting of DOA and failing units. Furthermore, the internal components used in these PSUs were unheard of, casting doubt on the quality of the units to begin with. Gigabyte should have accepted the bad design and quality of the power supplies, and gotten ahead of the problem as soon as they became aware of it (which was months before its eventual press release).
The lesson:
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4 EVGA exiting the GPU market
When you’ve had enough
EVGA was one of the most prominent and trusted AIB partners for Nvidia, producing some of the best GPUs for gaming. So, it came as a shock when the company decided to stop manufacturing graphics cards after the RTX 30 series, essentially abandoning the GPU market and ending a two-decade-old relationship with Nvidia. The community saw this as a huge loss — most PC users loved EVGA’s generous warranties, seamless RMA policies, and graphics card designs.
The reasons for this were manifold — EVGA felt disrespected by Nvidia, as they were the last to find out the MSRP of new products, were undercut by Nvidia’s Founder’s Edition cards, and weren’t allowed to sell flagship models above a certain price. A decreasing profit margin and a bleak outlook for the graphics card market at the time might also have contributed to EVGA’s exit. There were also rumors that the CEO also had some personal reasons to quit the graphics card market in general.
The exit of one of the mainstays and, according to many, the gold standard of graphics card production, was one of the biggest news stories in the PC hardware space. The lesson: respect and appreciate those who support you.
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3 Nvidia 12VHPWR connectors melting
Nvidia in hot water yet again
As the launch of Nvidia’s RTX 40 series graphics cards was coming closer, users were prepared to see higher TGPs than ever on the newest cards. But what no one anticipated was for the power connectors on these cards to suddenly start melting without any apparent reason. What began as a handful of reports, seemingly grew into a fundamental problem with the new PCIe 5.0 12VHPWR connector (Nvidia had actually introduced it on the RTX 3090 Ti).
After weeks of investigation by both tech YouTubers and Nvidia, it was agreed that in almost all cases, the root cause was improper insertion by the user. If you didn’t plug in the 12VHPWR connector all the way into the graphics card power slot, the connector was likely to encounter high temperatures and start melting.
Nevertheless, the blame fell on Nvidia for not properly educating users ahead of time about the new connector, especially since AMD decided to famously ditch it in favor of the good ol’ 8-pin connectors. Nvidia offered replacements for the affected connectors, but there was no official recall.
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2 Asus motherboards killing Ryzen 7000 CPUs
How was this even an option, Asus?
Early last year, users of Ryzen 7000X3D processors started reporting cases of dead CPUs and motherboards, seemingly without any signs of physical damage. AMD quickly traced the problem to certain Ryzen 7000X3D chips operating at unsafe voltages, and released new firmware to be used by motherboard partners. This is where things started getting really bad.
Asus released updated beta BIOS updates for users to supposedly fix the problem, but neither did these beta BIOS updates work on default settings nor did they actually fix anything. Even after implementing the beta BIOS, Asus motherboards allowed Ryzen 7000X3D CPUs to cross 1.3V, which was the maximum safe voltage according to AMD. To make matters worse, Asus declared to users that using beta BIOS versions would void their warranty.
The horrible handling of the entire scandal by Asus left a bad taste in users’ mouths.
Asus users were now stuck between a rock and a hard place — either use an older BIOS that could kill their CPU, or one that would void their motherboard warranty. After massive outrage, once again spearheaded by Gamers Nexus, Asus backtracked on its beta BIOS policy, assuring users that it would honor warranties irrespective of stable or beta BIOS status. But the horrible handling of the entire scandal by Asus left a bad taste in users’ mouths.
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1 Intel 14th Gen CPUs crashing unexpectedly
The result of “in-spec” behavior
A few months back, several owners of Intel Core i9 (both 13th and 14th Gen) processors reported crashing and BSODs during both gaming and non-gaming applications. Motherboard manufacturers like Asus and Gigabyte were quick to release BIOS updates with an “Intel Baseline Profile” that users could switch to and get rid of the stability issues. These baseline settings seemingly fixed the crashing issues, but a lot of performance was left on the table.
Intel doesn’t really enforce strict specifications with its motherboard partners when it comes to power limits for its processors. It suggests a rather broad range of power limits that the motherboard manufacturers are free to play around with. This is exactly what was happening — in a bid to outdo the competition, everyone was trying to max out the power being supplied to the high-end Intel chips.
Passing the blame to the motherboard manufacturers doesn’t sit well. If anything, Intel is the one to blame for not setting the right precedent for safety limits over the years.
Once this issue came to light, Intel recommended all of its motherboard partners stop tweaking its recommended CPU settings on their motherboards. However, in the past, Intel had publicly claimed that these “tweaks” are completely within the specifications. Hence, passing the blame to the motherboard manufacturers doesn’t sit well. If anything, Intel is the one to blame for not setting the right precedent for safety limits over the years.
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PC hardware scandals and the response
Faults in PC hardware are unavoidable. No company can promise completely defect-free products, irrespective of the complexity involved. That’s why returns and warranties are in place, to protect consumers in the worst-case scenarios. In these cases, the bigger issue was the response by certain companies to situations that began as stray incidents and snowballed into full-blown scandals.
A careless, ignorant, or malicious response can severely damage the reputation of the brand. This is why manufacturers should act proactively to get ahead of the situation before it becomes a PR nightmare.
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