680i troubles

[jratzo]

I've had the 680i since January and it has been flawless up until 2 days ago. I woke up and tried to turn on my computer and it wouldn't post. Nothing was changed the night before.

I let it just sit there not posting and after about 5 min it finally posted. Then I got to my boot options (because I've been dual booting with vista and XP for months) and nothing happened when I selected either one. So I tried again, after waiting the 5 min for the bios to post i chose XP and just let it sit there. Finally after between 5-10 min it booted into XP. Once in XP it runs perfectly fine.

I decided to flash my bios and still the same thing happens. Could it be the sata port? Possibly something wrong with it that it takes a while for it to be recognized? Also my temps are fine once I'm in XP. When I flashed the bios the cd i was flashing from took forever to start.

I'm thinking that my board may be dying?

My Specs:
Evga 680i
Evga 8800GTX
e6600 (was slightly overclocked but not anymore)
2gb Crucial Balistic pc 6400 (changed back to original timings)


Thanks for any help.

 

[Dan_D]

I've seen plenty of EVGA 680i SLI motherboards freak out after awhile and do things like you've described. On a couple of them the south bridge started to fail by the look of things. I've also seen voltage regulators go out on them and I've also seen the north bridge basically cook itself stupid causing all kinds of memory related problems.

I would do more diagnostic testing if you are able to make sure you narrow things down to the motherboard but I've seen enough of these things go bad to have a fairly grim outlook on your situation.

 

[jratzo]

Thanks, yeah I really don't think it is anything else but I will play around for alittle and then end up RMAing it.

 

[Dunan]

I've seen plenty of EVGA 680i SLI motherboards freak out after awhile and do things like you've described. On a couple of them the south bridge started to fail by the look of things. I've also seen voltage regulators go out on them and I've also seen the north bridge basically cook itself stupid causing all kinds of memory related problems.

I would do more diagnostic testing if you are able to make sure you narrow things down to the motherboard but I've seen enough of these things go bad to have a fairly grim outlook on your situation.

this doesnt sound like a good board, i'm looking for a board also to house a qx6700 possibly - i done see how it won customer choice awards they give out at newegg 4x

 

[jratzo]

When it works it works great, and the OCing ability is also great.

 

[Dan_D]

When it works it works great, and the OCing ability is also great.

That's the thing. They are hit or miss. I've seen a number of these things DOA. I've owned 10 of them personally and I've only got three of them now. (1 I sold to a friend and even with a broken capacitor it still works like a champ.) I've had three or four DOA and the rest died prematurely. Granted some of them due to me pushing it too hard. Another I had fail after three months because the north bridge cooked itself retarded. A couple of them were of the first run AR boards and they were simply defective from the start and returned prior to the supposed BIOS fixes that came out for them in version P23 on up.

this doesnt sound like a good board, i'm looking for a board also to house a qx6700 possibly - i done see how it won customer choice awards they give out at newegg 4x

Again they are good boards, but there seems to be some QC issues with them. Too many of them are DOA from what I can tell. I will say this: if you want one to last, ditch the stock cooling.

 

[jratzo]

I will say this: if you want one to last, ditch the stock cooling.

What type of cooling do you recommend?

 

[Dan_D]

What type of cooling do you recommend?

Well water blocks are what I'd recommend. As far as aftermarket air cooling for motherboards, I haven't payed attention to those in some time and I have no current recommendations.

 

[jratzo]

Oh your talking processor, im set with that. I thought you meant for the chipset

 

[Dan_D]

Oh your talking processor, im set with that. I thought you meant for the chipset

I did mean the chipset.

 

[Hurin]

I built two eVGA systems. One for me and one for a friend.

My system ran great for about six months. Then I started getting freezes and blue screens. There were various inexplicable behaviors I won't recount here.

I RMAed for the A1 revision to the board. . . and found that while things had improved, stability still wasn't 100%.

So, I switched to the Asus P5N32-E SLi PLUS, and haven't had a single problem since.

My friend's computer? Until two days ago, it was 100% stable. But he just let me know that he's sending the computer up to me because it's getting blue screens.

Obviously, I can't really say what the problem is with his system yet. But let's just say I'm preparing to buy another Asus P5N32-E SLi PLUS.

In my own limited personal experience, these boards are prone to a long, slow downhill slide to eventual death. So, for anyone with these boards, I'd counsel them to always consider the motherboard first whenever trying to diagnose a stability issue.

 

[Dan_D]

I built two eVGA systems. One for me and one for a friend.

My system ran great for about six months. Then I started getting freezes and blue screens. There were various inexplicable behaviors I won't recount here.

I RMAed for the A1 revision to the board. . . and found that while things had improved, stability still wasn't 100%.

So, I switched to the Asus P5N32-E SLi PLUS, and haven't had a single problem since.

My friend's computer? Until two days ago, it was 100% stable. But he just let me know that he's sending the computer up to me because it's getting blue screens.

Obviously, I can't really say what the problem is with his system yet. But let's just say I'm preparing to buy another Asus P5N32-E SLi PLUS.

In my own limited personal experience, these boards are prone to a long, slow downhill slide to eventual death. So, for anyone with these boards, I'd counsel them to always consider the motherboard first whenever trying to diagnose a stability issue.

Unfortunately I agree. I have had some of these boards die in 30 days or last about a year. It really is luck of the draw with these things. As for the ASUS boards I've found the ASUS 680i SLI boards to be just as bad if not worse than the reference boards.

 

[Gambit]

Any recommendations on a motherboard then?

 

[Tazman2]

Check out the info below on ways to save these wonderful boards and yourself headaches!

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=78381&mpage=1&key=%F0%93%88%AD

http://evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=61145&mpage=1&key=

 

[Dunan]

there's no way i'm even looking in this boards direction

hope its not the same way with the EVGA video cards

 

[Tazman2]

there's no way i'm even looking in this boards direction

hope its not the same way with the EVGA video cards

I bought mine and did the above that i posted. No big deal. Great board! And i'm pretty sure their video cards don't have this "issue". I just ordered the evga 8800gt so hopefully not. But from all the posts i've seen of people testing them there is no mention of anything like the mobo paste goes. Worst case just take it off and change it!

 

[Hurin]

Check out the info below on ways to save these wonderful boards and yourself headaches!

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=78381&mpage=1&key=𓈭

http://evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=61145&mpage=1&key=

Actually, suspecting heat as the cause of my first board's slow death, I did replace the NB and SB heatsinks with a Thermalright for the NB and a little copper orb (fit under the 2nd vid card) for the SB.

Dan, I've heard some bad things about the full-680i Asus boards too. But I think the "Plus" version (the 680i/650i hybrid) has a better reputation for longevity and stability. It certainly does with me!

As to those who say: "My eVGA works fine!". . . I was one of you too for my system's first six months. My friend was one of you until last week. Though, it might turn out that his problem is something other than the board, at this point, that's what I plan on ruling out first when I get my hands on it.

That's not to say that there won't be folks with eVGA 680i boards that last a good long while. . . I just wasn't one of them. Nor was my friend. Nor has Dan been (apparently).

 

[drpeppir]

Nor have I, I went through 3 A1's and 1 Striker Extreme... The 680i in my opinion is a failed chipset, and as soon as intel finalizes what x48 is going to be, i am ditching this 680i. I no longer trust nvidia with their mainboard solutions.

 

[Tazman2]

Actually, suspecting heat as the cause of my first board's slow death, I did replace the NB and SB heatsinks with a Thermalright for the NB and a little copper orb (fit under the 2nd vid card) for the SB.

The voltage regulators have to be redone too or its another spot for slow failure. I think the 1st link i posted has that part.

 

[snaggletooth]

having to watercool the nb is WHACK, homie.

werd?

*two-steps into the darkness*

 

[Tazman2]

having to watercool the nb is WHACK, homie.

werd?

*two-steps into the darkness*

I'm on air. But then again i followed that guide before even firing up the mobo the 1st time and only have had it for about 4 weeks now sooo....

 

[Flash445]

I had a similar problem just this evening. I updated my graphics card drivers and then my computer wouldn't post. First, I tried connecting to my monitor with VGA instead of the DVI and it wouldn't work. Next, I realized that since my computer was slightly overclock, I should try to reset the cmos. I did and it worked. The thing I am not sure about is whether or not it was my graphics card or motherboard which was the problem. I'm not trying to thread jack, but I just wanted to share my experience which seemed similar to the OP's....

FYI I have a evga 680i LT a1 and a evga 7600gs for a graphics card

 

[Dan_D]

Any recommendations on a motherboard then?

Unfortunately no. If you need or want SLI then the nForce 600 series is the only game in town. Unfortunately all the 680i SLI boards are at least a little quirky though all the other boards other than the reference designs seem to have better longevity. Again they are not without their own issues as I said before.

 

[jratzo]

I just noticed that the whole time its sitting there waiting to post the error code on the Mobo is 50 which is USB. After it goes to FF and works, all of my USB devices seem to be working fine though once its up.

 

[Dan_D]

there's no way i'm even looking in this boards direction

hope its not the same way with the EVGA video cards

The board is fine when you get a good one. It's really luck of the draw with these things.

Actually, suspecting heat as the cause of my first board's slow death, I did replace the NB and SB heatsinks with a Thermalright for the NB and a little copper orb (fit under the 2nd vid card) for the SB.

Dan, I've heard some bad things about the full-680i Asus boards too. But I think the "Plus" version (the 680i/650i hybrid) has a better reputation for longevity and stability. It certainly does with me!

Well there are some bad things to say about the ASUS boards. The Plus version indeed has a better reputation as does the 680i LT based EVGA boards.

As to those who say: "My eVGA works fine!". . . I was one of you too for my system's first six months. My friend was one of you until last week. Though, it might turn out that his problem is something other than the board, at this point, that's what I plan on ruling out first when I get my hands on it.

That's not to say that there won't be folks with eVGA 680i boards that last a good long while. . . I just wasn't one of them. Nor was my friend. Nor has Dan been (apparently).

Well I have a AR board that's in another machine. It's been solid for about 10 months or so. I had another A1 board that I broke because I was careless with a screwdriver. That board lost a capacitor and though it still worked I didn't trust it so I bought another. I sold that board for cheap to a friend of mine and he's been running it for months now. Mine is working ok and overclocks well, but it has the USB quirk. I've got the EVGA Black Pearl Edition motherboard that I'm probably going to install when I get some time. To do that I'll have to rework my cooling setup a bit. I'm not ready to do that just yet.

Nor have I, I went through 3 A1's and 1 Striker Extreme... The 680i in my opinion is a failed chipset, and as soon as intel finalizes what x48 is going to be, i am ditching this 680i. I no longer trust nvidia with their mainboard solutions.

I've got a Striker Extreme that I kept from my Striker Extreme Review. I had issues with it but the board does work. It's not a very good overclocker though. I have that board sitting in the closet right now. It's funny because it works awesome on the test bench with various pieces of test equipment but doesn't work worth a damn in my own machine. It also is highly unstable with all the memory I want to use with it.

The voltage regulators have to be redone too or its another spot for slow failure. I think the 1st link i posted has that part.

I believe you are right. The voltage regulators get super hot on this thing and I believe that may be the source of all the problems. It's quite possible that the 680i LT chipset simply puts less load on the VREG and therefore they end up being more reliable. I'm not sure if that's true but it sounds plausible. Either that or they did change the VREG hardware out on that board. I'd also like to point out that the rest of the 600 series is excellent. It's only the high end 680i SLI boards that are problematic.

having to watercool the nb is WHACK, homie.

werd?

*two-steps into the darkness*

Well you don't have to, but there is a ton of heat generated by the NB. It certainly bennefits from watercooling.

I just noticed that the whole time its sitting there waiting to post the error code on the Mobo is 50 which is USB. After it goes to FF and works, all of my USB devices seem to be working fine though once its up.

Mine does the same thing. I've now had two of them do this. When it started to happen to the first one it really signaled the board's demise. The second board is still running strong, but that's one of it's quirks now. I'm running an old BIOS on my board and I've been afraid to upgrade it. I'll probably do it now that I have another board I can throw in if it dies.

 

[jratzo]

Mine does the same thing. I've now had two of them do this. When it started to happen to the first one it really signaled the board's demise. The second board is still running strong, but that's one of it's quirks now. I'm running an old BIOS on my board and I've been afraid to upgrade it. I'll probably do it now that I have another board I can throw in if it dies.

I used to be running P23 i think but since the problem I am now running P30. So you think there is no saving this, and I should just RMA it? The thing that is driving me nuts is that once its up it works perfectly just like it did before.

 

[Dan_D]

I used to be running P23 i think but since the problem I am now running P30. So you think there is no saving this, and I should just RMA it? The thing that is driving me nuts is that once its up it works perfectly just like it did before.

Well the USB thing I just live with. My machine takes so long to boot anyway due to the RAID controller taking so long to do it's detection that I don't even bother trying to get on the machine for awhile when I start it up. Another thing is that I'm using the G15 keyboard and it lights up when the USB stuff starts working. So I just wait for it to light up and I know I'm good to go.

 

[jratzo]

Well the USB thing I just live with. My machine takes so long to boot anyway due to the RAID controller taking so long to do it's detection that I don't even bother trying to get on the machine for awhile when I start it up. Another thing is that I'm using the G15 keyboard and it lights up when the USB stuff starts working. So I just wait for it to light up and I know I'm good to go.

Well the thing is that mine Satiek keyboard lights up while its stuck on the usb for 2 min. Then it Posts and then I choose the OS and then its another few min until I see the OS.

 

[drpeppir]

I've got a Striker Extreme that I kept from my Striker Extreme Review. I had issues with it but the board does work. It's not a very good overclocker though. I have that board sitting in the closet right now. It's funny because it works awesome on the test bench with various pieces of test equipment but doesn't work worth a damn in my own machine. It also is highly unstable with all the memory I want to use with it.

Yea, did you try that with the q6600, b/c q6600 would give me all kinds of corruption problems. In addition the max oc on it was only 3ghz i took the same chip threw it in my evga 680i i have now with p31 bios and its goes 3.51 easy, just has long term stability issues once in a while common to all 680i mobos of course.

 

[Dan_D]

Yea, did you try that with the q6600, b/c q6600 would give me all kinds of corruption problems. In addition the max oc on it was only 3ghz i took the same chip threw it in my evga 680i i have now with p31 bios and its goes 3.51 easy, just has long term stability issues once in a while common to all 680i mobos of course.

My Q6600 wouldn't do above about 2.8GHz on the Striker Extreme if I recall correctly. I can do 3.6GHz on the EVGA 680i, but I have some heat issues. Typically I run 3.4GHz or 3.2GHz depending on the ambient temperature in the room where the machine resides. I'll be putting the CPU and motherboard on a seperate loop and hopefully that will help address that problem.

 

[MrWizard6600]

this was my A1 board. my 680i board was probibly one of the first off the line:

SB cooler underside:

SB itself:

NB cooler underside:

and thats something about this, those little rubber gasgettes... who was the moron who decided to instate those? the provide a force against the pressure on the chip maximizing the amount of crap that has to fill the gap. Useless... I peeled em off.

NB itself:

My cats reaction to seeing such a site:

and, in no small part due to my overclock, I love 680i. It was an excellent chipset, it just runs hella hot! You gotta be careful with your heat management.

 

[MrWizard6600]

Nor have I, I went through 3 A1's and 1 Striker Extreme... The 680i in my opinion is a failed chipset, and as soon as intel finalizes what x48 is going to be, i am ditching this 680i. I no longer trust nvidia with their mainboard solutions.

At this point I'd start testing that PSU.

I don't believe PC P&C is any more reliable then anything EVGA is willing to put their hands on. Everyone fails at quality control once in a while, and considering the amount of components that go into a computer, if 95% of the products off the lines are reliable, ~1 in 2 builds will contain a dead/dieing product.

 

[Dan_D]

At this point I'd start testing that PSU.

I don't believe PC P&C is any more reliable then anything EVGA is willing to put their hands on. Everyone fails at quality control once in a while, and considering the amount of components that go into a computer, if 95% of the products off the lines are reliable, ~1 in 2 builds will contain a dead/dieing product.

Well in my case I have used multiple power supplies, multiple sticks of ram, multiple CPUs, video cards and everything else with some of the 680i's I've had issues with. Personally I think the real problem is that the 680i SLI boards are inadequately cooled. Even after reseating the stock coolers and re-applying thermal paste of your choice they still run freaking hot. In my experience they are really sensitive to temperature conditions.

 

[drpeppir]

Well in my case I have used multiple power supplies, multiple sticks of ram, multiple CPUs, video cards and everything else with some of the 680i's I've had issues with. Personally I think the real problem is that the 680i SLI boards are inadequately cooled. Even after reseating the stock coolers and re-applying thermal paste of your choice they still run freaking hot. In my experience they are really sensitive to temperature conditions.

Heat is not the issue with the stability problems, believe me, look at my rig.

http://mysite.verizon.net/drpeppir/

Ive got water blocks all over this thing and I still have all kinds of stability issues, the problem imo is nvidia making intel solution mainboards.

 

[sd11]

I wouldn't say the evga is less reliable then the other options.

I've run through multiple strikers and am currently in the market for another 680i board debating between the DFI and the Abit.

I've heard stories about all the 680i boards failing, eating ram, and other catastrophic issues. On the other hand the evga board seems to have less compatibility issues.

Given that any of these boards can be a ticking time bomb evga's customer support is the best bar none, and the board is the easiest to get working.

 

[jratzo]

By the way if anyone cares my problem seems to be fixed. I had a ready boost drive in one of the usb slots which was causing the problems. I havn't yet tested to see if is the usb slot or the flash drive