- Someone bought an MSI RTX 5090 Lightning Z, which is a $5,000 GPU
- They then practiced their soldering skills on the board and broke out the graphics card.
- Because? It’s probably because they wanted to implement a hardware mod that allows you to run an extreme BIOS on the GPU.
MSI’s RTX 5090 Lightning Z is a rare limited edition graphics card that costs $5,000 (or thereabouts) in the US, so what better way to practice soldering than to test your iron skills on said board?
Reckless? Well, that doesn’t even begin to really cover it, but VideoCardz uncovered this unlikely-sounding story about GPU nonsense, which was posted on YouTube by NorthridgeFix, a California-based hardware repair shop.
The broken card was sent to the repair shop with a description of the problem revealing that the owner wanted to “learn how to solder small 0402 resistors” and that they were “practicing” with their expensive GPU.
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“Attempted to ‘learn to solder’ on an extremely rare MSI 5090 Lightning Z GPU of which only 1,300 were made worldwide,” NorthridgeFix notes in its YouTube ad, adding, “I’m speechless.”
Me too.
As expected, the soldering lesson went very wrong and ended up breaking one of the resistance pads, leaving the RTX 5090 non-functional and requiring a delicate repair.
The repair is actually not completely complete in the video clip as it still needed more testing, but it looks like NorthridgeFix managed to rescue the expensive graphics card.
Look
Analysis: welding to cry
Why did the RTX 5090 owner even think about playing with solder resistors like this with such an expensive piece of hardware? This is probably because they were trying to get the MSI XOC (‘extreme performance’) BIOS to work so they could do extreme overclocking.
That BIOS apparently had limited distribution and was only given to professional overclockers, and MSI RTX 5090 Lightning Z graphics cards purchased at retail stores cannot be updated with it. However, the BIOS was leaked, and what happened is that some people found a way around this restriction, adding an extra resistor that apparently allows the XOC BIOS to be used. And apparently this is what the GPU owner was trying to do.
There’s a reason, of course, why MSI hasn’t freely released the XOC BIOS: namely, because if it did, there would probably be quite a few destroyed RTX 5090 GPUs (and warranty claims). Remember, this extreme version of the BIOS is designed to allow 2500W of power, a truly ridiculous amount (intended for world record overclocking attempts powered by liquid nitrogen).
In any case, extreme BIOS aside, and to state the obvious: if you’re a newcomer to soldering, don’t start your journey with any functional graphics card, let alone a cutting-edge flagship model, and a limited edition effort. Frankly, this case is mind-blowing.
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