eVGA 680i cold boot errors

[Windfire]

Symptoms:
I get various errors on cold boot. If it boots correctly all software runs stable and I’ve had no lockups or other crashes when the system boots fine.

On cold boots I can get one of these three:

1 – C1 LED code
Long beep repeats forever until I turn it off or hit reset button

2 – 41 LED code
The following message is displayed:

BIOS ROM checksum error
Keyboard error or no keyboard
Detecting Floppy drive detected…

3 – No LED code, but post screen displays:
WARNING! Now System in Safe Mode
Please Reset CPU or Memory Frequency In the CMOS Setup

Press F1 to continue or DEL to enter Setup

Note: If I enter Setup and then F10 to save and reboot all is FINE.

Note: If I hit F1 I’ve found if I run Nvidia Control Panel the PC turns off(!).


Specs:
eVGA 680i motherboard (122-CK-NF68-A1) (flashed to P28)

CPU: Intel e6600 w/ Thermalright Ultra 120 w/ 74cfm fan

Memory: Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4 (2 sticks) running at 4/4/4/12 @2.0 volts

I’ve got the eVGA 8800GTS 320 Superclock (stock speeds)


I have DISABLED the following CMOS settings (standard stuff)
CPU Thermal control
C1E Enhanced holt state
Intel Speedstep
CPU Spread Spectrum
HT Spread Spectrum
PCIe Spread Spectrum SPP
PCIe Spread Spectrum MCP
Sata Spread Spectrum

I’ve also de-coupled memory from the FSB (no overclocking of memory).

I’ve got a mild CPU overclock: 2900MHz.
CPU Voltage: 1.281v
FSB: 1.30v
HT nforce SPP <-> MCP: 1.2v (stock)
nForce SPP: 1.25v
nForce MCP: 1.5v (stock)
Auxiliary: 1.5v (stock)

At 70F ambient temperature I get the following temps using TAT to measure:
Idle: ~28/26c
Orthos: ~41/39c
TAT:: ~45/43c
With most normal games I get around ~41-42c at peak.

In other words, it runs quite cool.


What is going on? Any advice? This is getting kind of irritating.

 

[Windfire]

Follow-up: I've removed the CPU OC and changed voltages back to [auto].

I get the "now in Safe mode" every cold boot. I have to go into Bios, hit F10 (save) and then reboots fine. Ugh.

Ideas?

 

[BillParrish]

CPU Voltage: 1.281v

Give it a couple of notches of Vcore and see if it helps. Thats a pretty low Vcore even for stock speeds. Something like 1.35 Vish.

 

[Windfire]

Give it a couple of notches of Vcore and see if it helps. Thats a pretty low Vcore even for stock speeds. Something like 1.35 Vish.

Thanks. I'll let you know if that helps.

I think I know what happened. The BIOS showed [Auto] and current setting was 1.27v. I assumed that was the stock speed. I probably wasn't. Thus, I thought going to 1.28v was giving it a bit more juice.

I'll try 1.325v (the best I could find for "stock") and see if that does anything with my cold boot problems. I'm not feeling lucky.

 

[silent-circuit]

Also, as stupid as this sounds, replace the BIOS battery. I've been seeing a lot of new boards with dead batteries lately, and it sounds like it's losing everything after reboot pretty regularly. It's like $0.75 or something. As they guy above me said, up your vcore to 1.35 or so in BIOS as well. That should give you around 1.32 real, assuming your vdroop is similar to mine.

If all else fails, call EVGA, RMA it. You paid for that warranty, and unlike many others, they seem willing to deliver. Hopefully won't come to that, though.

 

[Windfire]

Also, as stupid as this sounds, replace the BIOS battery. I've been seeing a lot of new boards with dead batteries lately, and it sounds like it's losing everything after reboot pretty regularly. It's like $0.75 or something. As they guy above me said, up your vcore to 1.35 or so in BIOS as well. That should give you around 1.32 real, assuming your vdroop is similar to mine.

If all else fails, call EVGA, RMA it. You paid for that warranty, and unlike many others, they seem willing to deliver. Hopefully won't come to that, though.

Well, I'm still getting the error. I've even reset my BIOS to defaults. Precisely, on a cold boot on LED status "C1" I get a long beep and then the Post comes up with the "Safe Mode" message and that I should "reset my CPU or memory frequency" or something like that. I go into BIOS and exit and reboot and it works fine.

Regarding the battery... What is ironic is that it ISN'T losing the settings, it just thinks something is amis. As I stated before, it remembers all of my settings, I just have to tell it to reboot and all is well. If it lost the settings I would suspect the battery (thanks for the tip though).

I've also tried changing the CPU to 1.325v and this doesn't fix it either.

What is weird is that I got perhaps 10-20 cold boots working fine and now I'm getting this problem every boot.

I've opened a question at evga support. I'll keep working on it.

Let me know if you (or anyone) has any other ideas? Is the evga 680i incompatble with Corsair 6400 C4 memory????? That would be stupid.

 

[silent-circuit]

Ask them, though I seriously doubt it. I'm almost certain Corsair is on their supported memory list.

 

[Dataplague]

Well, I'm still getting the error. I've even reset my BIOS to defaults. Precisely, on a cold boot on LED status "C1" I get a long beep and then the Post comes up with the "Safe Mode" message and that I should "reset my CPU or memory frequency" or something like that. I go into BIOS and exit and reboot and it works fine.

Regarding the battery... What is ironic is that it ISN'T losing the settings, it just thinks something is amis. As I stated before, it remembers all of my settings, I just have to tell it to reboot and all is well. If it lost the settings I would suspect the battery (thanks for the tip though).

I've also tried changing the CPU to 1.325v and this doesn't fix it either.

What is weird is that I got perhaps 10-20 cold boots working fine and now I'm getting this problem every boot.

I've opened a question at evga support. I'll keep working on it.

Let me know if you (or anyone) has any other ideas? Is the evga 680i incompatble with Corsair 6400 C4 memory????? That would be stupid.

Almost positive that it supports said memory, you wouldnt happen to be able to test that memory in another system would you? check the voltages on the memory, and just leave 1 stick in.

If youve already done that, i would consider RMAing the board, as it appears a lot are just plain turning up dead.

 

[Windfire]

I'll let you know how it turns out.

One thing that is odd though... Other than the cold boot errors, I have >NO< problems with software/games in Windows so far. I've played HL2 ep1, Oblivion and samples of other games with no lockups, BSODs or otherwise. FYI, I'm using hi-def textures (add-ons) with both HL2 Ep1 and Oblivion too.

If the memory was bad, I would assume I would hit problems in games, not just in the cold boot-up.

Also, why would it fail on cold boot up and then when I get in the CMOS I simply quit (save or no-save is no difference) and it boots fine? This seems like a CMOS bug of some kind that is tripping up incorrectly.

 

[Windfire]

UPDATE: Thanks for your input. As we've discussed, it appears to be a RAM issue. I did some experiments.

First, I removed the second Corsair stick. It booted fine (problem gone).

Second, I replaced the first stick with the second stick. It booted fine again.

Third, I placed the first stick in the second slot (both in black slots)... It worked FINE!


My question: Is it more likely the RAM was not connected "perfectly" before or could it be that the motherboard was picky enough to only want the RAM in this specific order???

I'm going to do some RAM tests to make sure one of the sticks isn't bad.

Has anyone heard of this before?

 

[Dan_D]

UPDATE: Thanks for your input. As we've discussed, it appears to be a RAM issue. I did some experiments.

First, I removed the second Corsair stick. It booted fine (problem gone).

Second, I replaced the first stick with the second stick. It booted fine again.

Third, I placed the first stick in the second slot (both in black slots)... It worked FINE!


My question: Is it more likely the RAM was not connected "perfectly" before or could it be that the motherboard was picky enough to only want the RAM in this specific order???

I'm going to do some RAM tests to make sure one of the sticks isn't bad.

Has anyone heard of this before?

While I haven't heard of your specific issue before, I have found that faulty memory or incompatible memory can cause a myriad of problems that can easily be mistaken for something else.

 

[Windfire]

While I haven't heard of your specific issue before, I have found that faulty memory or incompatible memory can cause a myriad of problems that can easily be mistaken for something else.

Yeah, I'm hoping they'll fix this issue over time. I'm in the profesional IT field and this appears to be a CMOS "check" bug of some kind. If I could somehow talk to someone that knows the inner workings of the CMOS initialization he/she could probably have a pretty good indicator of what the bug is (happens on cold boot, but going into CMOS and exiting (no save) doesn't generate the error on the next boot).

Again, fortunately Windows/game stability seems great (no issues) so hopefully this is a closed issue (crossing fingers).

FYI, I ran a MemTest86+ battery of tests and the memory passed with -0- errors. At least it shows there is no obvious defective RAM.

 

[silent-circuit]

Are you running the P28 BIOS? If not head to the EVGA forums and grab it.

 

[Dan_D]

Are you running the P28 BIOS? If not head to the EVGA forums and grab it.

I think the original poster said he was running it already.

 

[Windfire]

Yes, I'm on P28 (part of original post details).

Take a look at my most current message to eVGA (below). What do you recommend I do? I really don't want to RMA if I can help it.

=======================================
I’ve experimented with the Corsair 6400 C4 DIMMs. I tried booting with a single DIMM and it works fine—in fact, with either of the DIMMS.

Here is the strange part: I reversed them from the original order (both in black slots) and it now boots fine. No errors of any kind. In other words, if I labeled the DIMMS “A” and “B” I was getting errors if installed A+B but they work if I go B+A. Strange???

I also ran MemTest86+ a full pass and received no errors.

So, I’m now booting without errors and have both DIMMs (2GB) installed. I have a couple questions:

1 – Is this a sign I still have a motherboard that should be RMA’d?

2 – If I decided to wait (because I really don’t want to RMA it if I don’t have to) how long is the warranty good for me to RMA it?


My concern would be if this looks like a bad MB then at a later time if/when I upgrade the RAM I could get into trouble again.

Your suggestion?

 

[Windfire]

Also, as stupid as this sounds, replace the BIOS battery. I've been seeing a lot of new boards with dead batteries lately, and it sounds like it's losing everything after reboot pretty regularly. It's like $0.75 or something. As they guy above me said, up your vcore to 1.35 or so in BIOS as well. That should give you around 1.32 real, assuming your vdroop is similar to mine.

Clarification. I actually don't lose values in CMOS. If the battery was bad (didn't work properly) wouldn't I lose the values completely?