Just days ago, Seasonic recommended that users use a hair dryer to bend GPU power plugs, but now its 12VHPWR manual has been scrubbed of that suggestion (via HotHardware). It's unclear when Seasonic revised its page about 12VHPWR cables, but it seems it happened on December 25 or 26, the day the removal was first noticed.
The 12VHPWR cable first debuted in Nvidia's RTX 4090, one of the best graphics cards, and it's impressive for its 600-watt power draw and trim profile. However, that was undermined by the cable's susceptibility to catching on fire if not inserted just the right way, which is why Seasonic created a manual just for a single cable. Although Seasonic's manual had some standard advice, recommending a hair dryer to make bending the 12VHPWR cable easier was unusual.
Per an archived version from the Wayback Machine, the manual had five steps to ensure users didn't bend the fire-prone 12VHPWR cable more than necessary. Step two said, "Carefully use a gentle heat source (such as a hair dryer) to carefully heat the area of the cable where you wish to make the bend." Not only has the reference to hair dryers been removed, but step two is gone. Seasonic recommends that users disconnect and carefully reconnect the power cable at both ends.
The immediate cause for the removal was likely news coverage, which brought attention to the obscure support page. This presumably brought the manual's contents to Seasonic's attention and triggered a review.
Seasonic hasn't commented yet on why it removed the hair dryer recommendation, but it's probably due to safety concerns. Although a seasoned PC builder would probably be able to bend a 12VHPWR cable without much issue using a hair dryer or a similar device like a heat gun, novices could easily make a mistake that may end up ruining a cable, an expensive GPU, or even a whole PC.
Additionally, today, there are much better solutions for making a 12VHPWR cable fit inside a tight space. CableMod, Cooler Master, and Corsair have angled adapters for easier cable routing, and the 12VHPWR connection itself has been revised. There might have been a time when taking a hair dryer to a 12VHPWR cable made some sense, but it's probably best not to recommend that to users anymore.
