THE CRUNCH
A reader's $5,245 prebuilt gaming PC, unopened in a box for more than a year, developed melted and fused power cables two weeks after he finally started using it, according to Tom's Hardware. The system, a Digital Storm Corsa with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 from PNY, was delivered in May 2025 and tested at the time. Anthony DeMarco received it from his father in August 2026 when he started his first job, and says he noticed a burning smell, then a flickering monitor, before finding the cables badly melted. The damage hit both ends of the power cable, with the worst at the 1,000-watt power supply, where the connector fused in place with bare wires exposed.
DeMarco had two avenues of recourse. Digital Storm offers a one-year warranty on parts and three years on labour, and the parts coverage had lapsed by the time the damage appeared. PNY, meanwhile, warranties its GeForce RTX gaming cards for three years, so he filed a support ticket with Digital Storm on 26 August and then approached PNY directly.
Both companies pointed elsewhere. A Digital Storm ticket summary, which Tom's Hardware says it reviewed, acknowledged a faulty melted 12VHPWR cable but closed the case on 31 August, noting the system was far out of warranty. PNY's support team told DeMarco that every PNY card needing a 16-pin connector ships with a PNY-approved cable, and that this is the only configuration covered under warranty. Because Digital Storm used its own sleeved cables, PNY said it could not process an RMA and that damage from non-PNY cabling is the cable or PSU maker's responsibility. PNY later told Tom's Hardware it is reviewing the case and will engage the customer directly.
DeMarco has since filed a report with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission's SaferProducts.gov database. The episode highlights a gap in the prebuilt PC market: when a system builder's parts warranty expires but a component maker's warranty runs longer, the customer can be caught between two companies, each saying the other's hardware caused the damage.