NVIDIA nForce 680i Chipset Problems

WaXmAn said:
Nvidia and Evga just released new Bios P23:) BETA VERSION

http://www.evga.com/community/messageboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=21626&whichpage=30

NVIDIA would like to thank all of EVGA's customers who have purchased the NVIDIA-designed nForce 680i-based motherboards and who have patiently been waiting for a fix to the SATA issue.

Together with EVGA we are testing a new BIOS that fixes the SATA issue that some readers were experiencing. In the meantime, we are releasing a beta version for you to use. If you feel that your BIOS needs to be updated, we will be posting a link to download the new BIOS and instructions how to flash your motherboard.

Maintaining the integrity of our brand is important, however, it is more important for us that all of our customers have the best possible experience with our products. We wanted to send a big thank you to everyone who posted messages and technical information in the EVGA forums. We reviewed the message boards daily and the sheer level of information you provided was a huge resource in helping us resolve this issue.

We plan to release the final BIOS in a few days. Please use the BETA version in the meantime.

On behalf of the entire NVIDIA nForce engineering team, thanks for being patient with us while we investigated the issue. We hope that all future experiences with the NVIDIA nForce 680i will be a positive one.

Thank you,

Joe Darwin
[email protected]
Marketing


AWESOME :D :D
Click to expand...


Hopefully it resolves some of the issues people have been having with this board. I would have liked to have tried it, but I really do suspect that my motherboard was defective as my problems went away as soon as I replaced it with the Striker.
 
EVGA and NVIDIA are dedicated to making sure that everyone having the SATA issue gets resolved. Please make sure you try out the BETA 23 BIOS and continue to provide us any feedback that you have.

Please note that this is a BETA BIOS, it is not a final release. This BIOS flash is ONLY for the EVGA mainboard part number 122-CK-NF68.

Floppy Method
• Download the following file: ftp://ftp.evga.com/BIOS/nf68_p23beta.exe
• Insert blank floppy disk into drive and run executable
• Restart your PC and set the floppy drive as the primary boot device
• The BIOS will automatically be updated, after the update restart your PC and clear CMOS

NVIDIA System Update Tool
• Download the following files:
http://us.download.nvidia.com/downloads/evga/updatecenter.exe
and
ftp://ftp.evga.com/BIOS/p23beta.bin
• Select update boot block, and click apply
• Select browse and locate NF68P21.bin
• Select load bios
• Power off PC completely, on reboot load defaults in BIOS


Thank you again for all of your patience.

Joe Darwin
[email protected]
 
I wasn't having any problems with the P21 bios ..so I updated to the beta P23 bios and now I am having SATA issues and Raid problems and for some reason I can't seem to drive my car as fast anymore, and now it seems that I will be getting large lumps of coal for Christmas ...


eVga ..you ruined my life!




..of course I am lying out my buttocks ..

Thanks for for making a great product even better and being a part of the community here Mr. eVGA guys ..!

incidently , this 680i is working fabulously here



:)


[F]old|[H]ard
 
Knock on wood!

I have not had one nvata.sys error or crash since updating the BIOS this morning and am usually good for four to five crashes a day.
 
R1ckCa1n said:
Knock on wood!

I have not had one nvata.sys error or crash since updating the BIOS this morning and am usually good for four to five crashes a day.
Click to expand...

I've been using as per my sig for the last 9 weeks without an error/shutdown
:rolleyes:
 
alpha0ne said:
I've been using as per my sig for the last 9 weeks without an error/shutdown
:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
That's because of that Anus P5B Dlx motherboard your using in your sig
:p


[F]old|[H]ard
 
I just wanted to chime in and post that I got my P5N32-E SLI set up on Friday (12-15-06). It has run Prime for almost 48 hours without a hitch and I went ahead and shut Prime down, satisfied that it's stable. Gamed on it tonight for about 3 hours also without any trouble.

P5N32-E SLI
TWIN2XP2048-6400C4 running in Dual Channel np with stock Corsair recommended settings.
Thermaltake Toughpower 650 PSU
E6600
eVGA 7800 GTX
WDC WD1200JS SATA HD
WDC WD3000JD SATA HD
I'm using the onboard NIC and Soundboard so far.

I've not played with the RAM/FSB/CPU at all other than setting the Corsair settings yet as I'm an absolute noob to OC'ing and have read that this board might not be the best place to cut my teeth. I'll be reading a lot more and hopefully learning from you guys and then see what I can do.

I did install XP with a single stick of RAM just to cut possible troubleshooting down at the start. But it posted and installed without a hitch.

Essentially, I've very happy so far. I'm sorry to read about everyone else having problems. Best of luck!
 
For the gaming rig I'm building this Christmas, I've already ordered all the parts of my new PC except the motherboard.

As someone who plans to overclock his memory (2x1GB Xtreem 4-4-4-10 800Mhz) and CPU (e6600), and doesn't plan on going SLI, I'm still torn between the P5B Deluxe and eVGA's 680i.

And, as someone relatively new to overclocking, is there any real reason I should wait, instead of just buying the proven P5B?

P.S. for me, "ease of use" isn't a quality that adds to the value of a board -- if the exact same results can be achieved with the P5B Deluxe, and the only difference between it the 680i is the fact that 680i is simpler to use, then I would be wholly content with the P5B.

So is there any advantage, other than SLI, that eVGA's 680i has over the P5B that would justify my waiting for it?

Some expert advice on this would really be appreciated.
 
uberwurst said:
For the gaming rig I'm building this Christmas, I've already ordered all the parts of my new PC except the motherboard.

As someone who plans to overclock his memory (2x1GB Xtreem 4-4-4-10 800Mhz) and CPU (e6600), and doesn't plan on going SLI, I'm still torn between the P5B Deluxe and eVGA's 680i.

And, as someone relatively new to overclocking, is there any real reason I should wait, instead of just buying the proven P5B?

P.S. for me, "ease of use" isn't a quality that adds to the value of a board -- if the exact same results can be achieved with the P5B Deluxe, and the only difference between it the 680i is the fact that 680i is simpler to use, then I would be wholly content with the P5B.

So is there any advantage, other than SLI, that eVGA's 680i has over the P5B that would justify my waiting for it?

Some expert advice on this would really be appreciated.
Click to expand...

i would just go with the intel board. even maybe just get the non deluxe version and save a few bucks.. but thats just me
 
update for me on my poor gpu performance and crackling sound..

Flashing to P21 (havent tried the latest beta bios yet) with the floppy method and doing a CMOS clear with the Jumper removed the crackling sound... Thus I would avoid doing Windows BIOS flashes with this board and stick to floppy.

Uninstalling Ntune make my 3D Mark scores jump 5000 points.. and cleaned up a great deal of stuttering and hitches I was seeing in Source games.
 
I am still experiencing the crackling sound in most games with SLI enabled. It doesn't seem to matter if I use the onboard sound, or my Creative X-Fi.
 
Dan_D said:
I am still experiencing the crackling sound in most games with SLI enabled. It doesn't seem to matter if I use the onboard sound, or my Creative X-Fi.
Click to expand...
Huh? On your Striker? I thought your eVGA was gone!
 
Hurin said:
Huh? On your Striker? I thought your eVGA was gone!
Click to expand...

Yep, the problem occurs in some games on my ASUS Striker Extreme. Mainly BF2 is screwed up, and BF2142 screws up with SLI enabled. UT2004, Flatout 2 work fine. But NFSMW doesn't. It crackles like hell. Or the sound just won't work at all.
 
...if it would have taken care of the problems you encountered on the two eVGA boards you had...and it's interesting that you're having this problem with the ASUS build given that, from what I understand, ASUS deviated from the reference board build and struck out on their own a bit. Maybe P23 is just for build problems with the eVGA 680i boards?
 
coachjohn said:
...if it would have taken care of the problems you encountered on the two eVGA boards you had...and it's interesting that you're having this problem with the ASUS build given that, from what I understand, ASUS deviated from the reference board build and struck out on their own a bit. Maybe P23 is just for build problems with the eVGA 680i boards?
Click to expand...

P23 is for the eVGA board and probably would work on the BFG and other reference designs. The SATA issues with the eVGA boards are not something I am experiencing with my Striker. Those were issues I had with the eVGA boards to be sure. I agree it would have been nice to see, but I have already returned it as of about two weeks ago.

Additionally, the audio issues seem to be a video card driver problem with SLI enabled. Some people don't experience it while others do.
 
diableri said:
I did install XP with a single stick of RAM just to cut possible troubleshooting down at the start. But it posted and installed without a hitch.
Click to expand...

I've heard of people doing this, and I've heard of this being the solution to some installation issues, but I have NEVER had to Install Windows XP with one stick of ram installed on any dual channel capable motherboard. I've probably installed Windows XP more times than most of the people on this forum, being that I've built machines for a living and worked as a service tech in high volume service centers for 9 years or so.

I find it odd that I have never seen a need to do this. Just a random thought, that is all. :cool:

WaXmAn said:
Nvidia and Evga just released new Bios P23:) BETA VERSION

http://www.evga.com/community/messageboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=21626&whichpage=30

NVIDIA would like to thank all of EVGA's customers who have purchased the NVIDIA-designed nForce 680i-based motherboards and who have patiently been waiting for a fix to the SATA issue.

Together with EVGA we are testing a new BIOS that fixes the SATA issue that some readers were experiencing. In the meantime, we are releasing a beta version for you to use. If you feel that your BIOS needs to be updated, we will be posting a link to download the new BIOS and instructions how to flash your motherboard.

Maintaining the integrity of our brand is important, however, it is more important for us that all of our customers have the best possible experience with our products. We wanted to send a big thank you to everyone who posted messages and technical information in the EVGA forums. We reviewed the message boards daily and the sheer level of information you provided was a huge resource in helping us resolve this issue.

We plan to release the final BIOS in a few days. Please use the BETA version in the meantime.

On behalf of the entire NVIDIA nForce engineering team, thanks for being patient with us while we investigated the issue. We hope that all future experiences with the NVIDIA nForce 680i will be a positive one.

Thank you,

Joe Darwin
[email protected]
Marketing


AWESOME :D :D
Click to expand...

Two bad both of my eVGA boards were so BAD that they had to go back and get replaced. I would have loved to have tested this new BIOS. It would have been nice to see if it would have solved my issues.

Academically speaking, I actually like the eVGA board better than the ASUS Striker Extreme. Even though the resistor on the back of the CPU socket prevents the (easy) use of alot of aftermarket heat sinks. The BIOS, overclocking options, overclockability, and appearance make the eVGA one of my favorite boards. I just couldn't take it anymore and gave up on mine.
 
Dan_D said:
Academically speaking, I actually like the eVGA board better than the ASUS Striker Extreme. Even though the resistor on the back of the CPU socket prevents the (easy) use of alot of aftermarket heat sinks. The BIOS, overclocking options, overclockability, and appearance make the eVGA one of my favorite boards. I just couldn't take it anymore and gave up on mine.
Click to expand...

..have Kyle buy you another one for Christmas.

:)


[F]old|[H]ard
 
I have an eVGA 680i motherboard and 2 8800 GTXs. I flashed to the P21 BIOS using the windows method without any problems. I have zero issues with SATA that I know of. Unfortunately I was getting snap crackle pop from my X-Fi, that just irritated the hell out of me, so I decided to go the P23 beta bios (Before I saw the post that said if you use the DOS method of flashing to P21 you will have 0 problems with snap crackle pop).

I flash to the P23 beta bios using the DOS method (and CMOS clear) and I have nothing but headaches and heartache - my system was pretty much crashing every time it got into windows. 3d games were an impossibility to run. I prayed that I could flash back to P21 without any problems, and thankfully all of it went away. I'm staying away from P23 =)

I have 0 issues now thanks to P21 and the "DOS method" of flashing. But P23 scares the hell out of me.
 
infospace said:
Any one know where to get the 0508 bios for the striker board
Click to expand...

Nope. I am sure it can be found if you search hard enough though.
 
ThreeDee said:
..have Kyle buy you another one for Christmas.

:)


[F]old|[H]ard
Click to expand...
.
Well, I got to keep the first [H] Striker review board and I am happy with that. :cool:
 
redpriest said:
I have an eVGA 680i motherboard and 2 8800 GTXs. I flashed to the P21 BIOS using the windows method without any problems. I have zero issues with SATA that I know of. Unfortunately I was getting snap crackle pop from my X-Fi, that just irritated the hell out of me, so I decided to go the P23 beta bios (Before I saw the post that said if you use the DOS method of flashing to P21 you will have 0 problems with snap crackle pop).

I flash to the P23 beta bios using the DOS method (and CMOS clear) and I have nothing but headaches and heartache - my system was pretty much crashing every time it got into windows. 3d games were an impossibility to run. I prayed that I could flash back to P21 without any problems, and thankfully all of it went away. I'm staying away from P23 =)

I have 0 issues now thanks to P21 and the "DOS method" of flashing. But P23 scares the hell out of me.
Click to expand...

I have never gotten the ol floppy flash method to work with my EVGA board. I've had to use the nforce utility every time.

On the flip side I did not experince any differences from P22 to P23 beta. I had no issues before and I have no issues now, I just did it for kicks (bad idea, I know).

OC'ing seems solid on the new bios as well; I keep upping and upping.



Tonight I will try two instances of prime just to be sure.
 
BIOS updates will just mask the issue and hide performance settings in the BIOS.
At the end of the day, this chipset is marketed on overclocking potential.
If you remove this potential with a bios update to 'fix' instability, WHY buy this board?!
 
Squuiid said:
BIOS updates will just mask the issue and hide performance settings in the BIOS.
At the end of the day, this chipset is marketed on overclocking potential.
If you remove this potential with a bios update to 'fix' instability, WHY buy this board?!
Click to expand...

I can understand what you are trying to say, but really, the BIOS fix for SATA issues, shouldn't take away from overclocking, and even despite some options being disabled, there are still MANY boards making it to over 500FSB. The holes are an inconvenience and don't seem to stop you from getting past 500MHz FSB in most cases and you are assuming that performance and potential are taken away with a BIOS update. That isn't necessarily the case. The fixes could help ensure compatibility with specific hardware.

We do not know, and probably will never know what the actual BIOS code changes actually do.
 
Squuiid said:
BIOS updates will just mask the issue and hide performance settings in the BIOS.
At the end of the day, this chipset is marketed on overclocking potential.
If you remove this potential with a bios update to 'fix' instability, WHY buy this board?!
Click to expand...
That's uninformed conjecture. We're talking about processes taking place at the nanosecond level. If they have identified a situation where things need to be "tuned" (in the BIOS code) a little looser in order to compensate for variations among the 680i chipsets, we're probably talking about something at the engineering level that will have a miniscule (if any) effect on what performance we see.

This isn't about RAM timings or FSB speed or other "coarse" adjustments that we are able to do via the BIOS.
 
Hurin said:
That's uninformed conjecture. We're talking about processes taking place at the nanosecond level. If they have identified a situation where things need to be "tuned" (in the BIOS code) a little looser in order to compensate for variations among the 680i chipsets, we're probably talking about something at the engineering level that will have a miniscule (if any) effect on what performance we see.

This isn't about RAM timings or FSB speed or other "coarse" adjustments that we are able to do via the BIOS.
Click to expand...

Agreed 100%.
 
I agree as well, however I must disagree with the comment on most everyone being able to surpass 500mhz FSB with this board.

Scouring about 4 different message boards for 680i threads to compare with other owners, I seem to find end users are maxing between 430-480, with 500+ being the extremely rare exception.

This was a surprise to me, as most reviewers of this board seemed to have boards reaching 500+

Hand-picked boards sent specifically for reviews in most cases? Pure coincidence or dumb luck in the other cases? I don't know, I can only speculate.


As a side note, 430-480 is still not "bad" by any stretch of the imagination. And sorry if I'm off topic :cool:
 
Hy guy's. I'm new here.

I read this thread from the beginning and I've noticed that the posts stopped the 20th.
The reason for me to open it again is with this simple question.

Is it safe now to buy the Asus Striker?

I'm in to buy a complete new system. It's gonna be a quad-core cpu, Corsair 8500 2GB RAM and two nVidia 8800GTX cards in SLI. Normally I wanted to buy the Bad Axe 2 mobo but because this can't do SLI, I need another one.

The most logical I thought was a mobo based on the 680i. The Asus Striker Extreme. But reading more threads like this one made me scared. Because this post stopped I guess it is safe now for the evga cars, but also for the Asus Striker?
 
Kibosh said:
Hy guy's. I'm new here.

I read this thread from the beginning and I've noticed that the posts stopped the 20th.
The reason for me to open it again is with this simple question.

Is it safe now to buy the Asus Striker?

I'm in to buy a complete new system. It's gonna be a quad-core cpu, Corsair 8500 2GB RAM and two nVidia 8800GTX cards in SLI. Normally I wanted to buy the Bad Axe 2 mobo but because this can't do SLI, I need another one.

The most logical I thought was a mobo based on the 680i. The Asus Striker Extreme. But reading more threads like this one made me scared. Because this post stopped I guess it is safe now for the evga cars, but also for the Asus Striker?
Click to expand...

Buy an ASUS P5N32-E SLI, cheaper and does all the same stuff, just no fancy on-board lights or a key ring, or that little LED on the back. Same board. Stable. Overclocks very well and 150 bucks cheaper. BTW, buy yourself a big PSU to drive that thing. Make sure it has 4 PCI-e connectors. The ASUS boards have not, to the best of my knowlege, had the problems of the eVGA board.
 
magoo said:
Buy an ASUS P5N32-E SLI, cheaper and does all the same stuff, just no fancy on-board lights or a key ring, or that little LED on the back. Same board. Stable. Overclocks very well and 150 bucks cheaper. BTW, buy yourself a big PSU to drive that thing. Make sure it has 4 PCI-e connectors. The ASUS boards have not, to the best of my knowlege, had the problems of the eVGA board.
Click to expand...

I agree :) I have the P5N32-E, couldn't be happier.
 
...the latest BIOS update seems to have taken care of almost all of the problems (based on the HUGE drop in posts about problems on the eVGA forum and here)...ASUS board had some different issues, but seems to be addressing them with BIOS updates as well. New boards, new technology, it takes a while for the BIOS to mature, but the both eVGA and ASUS seem to address these things fairly quickly.
 
I got the board now I wish i hadn't but anyway I get a media disk error message and can't install window the driver or anything. But I was wondering how would I go about updating the bios to see if it will work? Also if I get a IDE hard drive caus ethe one I am using now is a SATA will it work you think?
 
...and switching from the 680i. After posting early on the 26th, I've had nothing but problems with my build. Running P23 BIOS since it was released, I started having VERY flaky issues...devices connected to USB ports would disappear on one boot, reappear on a reboot...but not always functioning...hard freezes started happening sporadically and become more and more frequent by the evening of the 27th..all on stock speeds, no overclocking. Did two different clean installs of Windows, and inevitably hit a road bump before I could finish installing apps; finally, about 9 pm last night it froze and, on reboot, would get past the logo screen. Initially couldn't even get into the BIOS. Gave up after two hours, tried again this morning, and it booted into a safe BIOS mode, asking me to reset the CPU and memory timings (I had never adjusted/changed them to begin with). A quick check revealed they had not been changed, saved settings and rebooted again...finally booted into Windows but with a lot of disk access (more than usual) and quickly gave me another hard freeze. A quick call to Velocity Micro, a good conversation...long story short I'm ditching the 680i board and going to the Intel Badaxe2; less bling, no SLI, but, from everything I've read, VERY stable. I was tempted to have another 680i put in...I really wanted to like this board...but I don't need the aggravation or headache. If it werent' for so many issues reported (even though P23 seems to have solved them for many) I'd have been less hesistant...but too many problems with too many builds; not sure if it's a case of a major design fault or technology that was simply rushed to market to fast, but something ain't right in NVIDIA land, at least IMHO.
 
after recovering from a botched bios flash (my fault) .. running the P23 bios and everything is running super smooth with my e6600 @ 3.4ghz .. transferring data between my 3 hard drives seems faster now .. no hard numbers to prove anything tho

I was getting random display driver glitching with my 8800gtx once in great while when trying to launch a game it would just take forever and then eventually would give a blue screen indicating a display driver problem ... havent seen one since I recovered from my bad flash over a week ago

... beep beep ..zip ..dang! ...

 
i had an EVGA 680i board

first thing it did on nthe first day was killed one of my CORSAIR Dominator 8500C2D it worked for about 5 minutes and then it died C1 error.

then it took me a while just to get in the Raid configuration

after installing XP several BSOD and freezes as well as rebooting

turned off the pc over night started up and [-][-] code nothing removed or installed


look in the Evga forums is a mess over there countless people having issues with this board

i have build several systems and i mean several this by far is the worst as far as issues and instability


E6600
Evga 680i
Corsair Dominator 8500C2D
Swiftech H20 220 cooling cpu and chipset
2 ea Raptors Raid 0
TT Armor Case
OCZ 700 PSU
 
Hey guys.

I'm picking this post back up because I just heard that the Asus Striker Extreme is discontinued on newegg because of to many problems. I still here off people having issues with all boards with the 680i chipset. Even that P5N32-E SLI. So I need feedback. And I need it fast if I still want to change anything.

I ordered the thing already but it still didn't arrive. I'm so worried at this time. :confused: Should I let it come or call the shop to see if they can still change it. And if I need to change it, change into what? :confused:

That P5N32-E SLI uses also the same 680i chipset? What's the difference exept the money.

I'm gonna run a quad-core extreme QX6700
two nVidia 8800GTX'n in SLI
2GB RAM Corsair Dominator 8500C5D
2 Raptors in Raid 0

I want good OC'ing but also very important a good stable mobo. My eye went first on the Bad Axe 2, but this can't do SLI. And I don't want to work with hacked drivers.

PS: If the only reason is money, I don't care, the rig is payed for, so... I just want a very good system. Not a trouble one. It's my first DIY.
 
Kibosh said:
Hey guys.

I'm picking this post back up because I just heard that the Asus Striker Extreme is discontinued on newegg because of to many problems.

I ordered the thing already but it still didn't arrive. I'm so worried at this time. :confused: Should I let it come or call the shop to see if they can still change it. And if I need to change it, change into what? :confused:

That P5N32-E SLI uses also the same 680i chipset? What's the difference exept the money.

I'm gonna run a quad-core extreme QX6700
two nVidia 8800GTX'n in SLI
2GB RAM Corsair Dominator 8500C5D
2 Raptors in Raid 0

I want good OC'ing but also very important a good stable mobo. My eye went first on the Bad Axe 2, but this can't do SLI. And I don't want to work with hacked drivers.
Click to expand...

The Striker Extreme has the LCD Poster, LED lights on the board surface, different chipset cooling, and the addition of two eSATA ports on the rear panel. Also the board comes with Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, different packaging, key chain with the Republic of Gamers logo, and that's about it. Otherwise they are basically the same. Additionally you couldn't use hacked drivers for the 8800GTX's as I don't believe there are any available SLI hacked drivers to allow you to use SLI on the Intel chipset based boards.
 
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