Nvidia RTX 5090 owner practices soldering skills on a $5,000 GPU — and the result is predictably disastrous

The perfect way to learn how to solder tiny resistors

09 Apr 2026, 15:55 by https://www.techradar.com/uk/author/darren-allan · TechRadar

News By Darren Allan published 9 April 2026

(Image credit: NorthridgeFix on YouTube)

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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 the graphics card
Why? It's surely because they wanted to implement a hardware mod that allows for an extreme BIOS to be run 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 your soldering than to test out your skills with the iron on said board?

Reckless? Well, that doesn't even begin to cover it really, but VideoCardz spotted this improbable-sounding tale of GPU foolishness, which was posted on YouTube by NorthridgeFix, a California-based hardware repair shop.

The broken card was sent into the repair outlet with an issue description which revealed the owner wanted to "learn how to solder tiny 0402 resistors" and that they were "practicing" on their pricey GPU.

Article continues below

"He tried to 'learn soldering' on an extremely rare MSI 5090 Lightning Z GPU of which only 1,300 units were ever made worldwide," NorthridgeFix observes in its YouTube blurb, adding: "I'm speechless."

Me too.

Predictably enough, the soldering lesson went badly wrong and ended up ripping one of the resistor pads, rendering the RTX 5090 non-functional, and requiring a delicate repair.

The repair isn't actually fully completed in the video clip, as it still needed further testing, but it seems like NorthridgeFix was successful in rescuing the expensive graphics card.

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