NVIDIA nForce 680i Chipset Problems

My EVGA 680i came with P23 Beta 2 installed. I had intermittent problems with that, mainly SATA related. Then I installed P23 final. After a day or two I lost all my BIOS settings and USB stopped working. I re-flashed to P23 Beta 2 and everything worked (mostly). I tried P24 and that has fried one memory stick and won't even post at all now so it's going to be RMA'd.

Next motherboard may be a Striker (I know), or Abit IN9 32X-MAX or the P5N32-E Plus SLI.

Bah.

I'd go with the P5N32-E Plus over the Striker Extreme. The Striker has been problem free for me, excluding the sound issue and failed BIOS flash, but it simply isn't worth the extra cost compared to other 680i solutions.
 
So far I have not had any problems what so ever. Love this board. Running my 6400 at 3.4ghz at 46°C....
 
I'd go with the P5N32-E Plus over the Striker Extreme. The Striker has been problem free for me, excluding the sound issue and failed BIOS flash, but it simply isn't worth the extra cost compared to other 680i solutions.

Cheers Dan, the only thing that concerns me slightly with the P5N32-E Plus is that (apparently) it's using a different revision of chipset - C55 as opposed to the C55XE on the Striker. I've no idea if this is significant or not but it does make me wonder.. (Someone's asked the same question here but no reply as yet.. http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=84440)

edit darktiger I envy you! :) It does seem that people are either getting 100% stable boards or complete dogs. Odd.
 
Cheers Dan, the only thing that concerns me slightly with the P5N32-E Plus is that (apparently) it using a different revision of chipset - C55 as opposed to the C55XE on the Striker. I've no idea if this is significant or not but it does make me wonder.. (Someone's asked the same question here but no reply as yet.. http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=84440)

edit darktiger I envy you! :) It does seem that people are either getting 100% stable boards or complete dogs. Odd.

I am not sure what the impact of using the C55 chip vs. the C55XE will be exactly. It may be that the Plus is an additional board that won't actually replace the older one. It might be that it's intended for OEM use primarily.

On the last part, it really depeonds on luck, but it does also depend on your system and what parts you are using. Chaning memory, memory settings, and other things can cause a huge laundry list of problems where there were none before. The 680i is just a flaky design it seems.
 
I am having problem with automatic shutdowns after couple of hours. What could be the problem, it is EVGA 680i motherboard?

VCORE = 1.4
FSB = 1.5
MEM = 2.4
SPP = 1.5
MCP = 1.6
MCP->SPP = 1.55
 
I have the Asus Striker extreme and I have had major corruption issues. Tonight I had to reinstall all OS and software over. I stress tested it out only to find it would reboot and crash every time. I spent too much money on junk. I wish I could sue nvidia and asus for selling a defective product!

Return RMAs cost 15% !!!
 
and that is why I keep recommending the 965/975 over the 680i.

corruption problems are a MAJOR pain in the ass!
 
RMA'd the Striker and ordered an Abit IN9-32X. Hope this one is stable.

Only time will tell...

Wish I went 965 however I already have non-returnable nvidia 8800 gtx cards for SLI.
Those other boards are crossfire or rather no support for nvidia. Wish they would just let you the consumer decide which video card you want to put in. This crap makes me sick!
 
Return RMAs cost 15% !!!
If it's Newegg, and you're getting your replacement alternative board from them, give them a call and they'll most likely waive the restocking fee. They have for me on several occasions.
 
I already have non-returnable nvidia 8800 gtx cards

why are they non-returnable?


I'm planning to buy a 680i (I want to do SLI eventually)...if it kills my RAM (Crucial), am I able to return it for working RAM? and will I be able to return the mobo for a working one? I'll probably buy the eVGA mobo
 
Yes they waived the restocking fee. Decided to go with Abit IN9-32X Max instead. Not as pretty, but my last board was an Abit IC7 Max. I just wonder if the noise cancelling padding raised my temps to raise the board temps??
 
Quad-Core issue resolved, all countries are now getting cross-ship RMAs.

My 680i here is awesome. Only problem is the quad-core one, but VM says they'll RMA the board if I buy the quad-core from them and the board refuses to accept it. (Woot!)
 
The first three 680i MoBos I had were factory defective. After assembling my gaming rig, I would get the " -- " Double Dashes of Death on the LEDs upon powering up. According to Tech Support, that was either a grounding problem, or, the board was defective. I checked the outlets and case with my voltmeter and that revealed there was no grounding issue. I assumed maybe it was one of my components that were defective, so I invited one of my freinds who has the same 680i board and we cross tested our equipment. My components with his 680i board in my case worked fine, no problems even after letting the thing run for a week non-stop. My mobos were all RMA'd and I am still waiting for #4 to arrive. For now I am using my freinds 680i with my components on it.

I've put together several gaming rigs in the past ever since the old VooDoo days before they were bought out and eaten by nVidia. I have never had such problems with mobos in the past until I decided to go with the 680i.

While at a Warcraft LAN party in Toronto, I asked a few fellow guild members about their own experience with the 680i. Apparently, it's all about luck. Many of the boards are factory defective and one just needs to keep RMA'n the things until they get a good one.

When you buy a 680i board, have a rabbits foot, horseshoes, four-leaf clovers, and don't walk under any ladders. :rolleyes:
 
Well I had just ordered the EVGA board for $160. Then I read the contents of this thread, and managed to cancel in time. Instead i ordered the P5N32-E from Newegg open box for $150.

Did I do the right thing, or should I get a more sure thing in the Intel BOXDG965WHMKR?
 
Well I had just ordered the EVGA board for $160. Then I read the contents of this thread, and managed to cancel in time. Instead i ordered the P5N32-E from Newegg open box for $150.

Did I do the right thing, or should I get a more sure thing in the Intel BOXDG965WHMKR?

If you aren't going to use SLI, then go for an Intel chipset. Note I said Intel chipset, not Intel motherboard though. P965 is old and outdated, P35 is your best bet now if you're not going to be using Crossfire either. Two good ones are the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R and the abit IP35 Pro, but there are lots of other good P35 boards also. If you want SLI, the MSI P6N SLI Platinum or its little brother the P6N SLI-FI are popular (both have the much-less-troublesome 650i chipset instead of the dreaded 680i chipset), but the ASUS P5N32-E you ordered is good too as far as I know. I wouldn't get open-box for a motherboard though, but your choice if you want to gamble.
 
680i boards, or at least the EVGA one, definitely is all about luck. It took me 5 boards to finally get one that didn't have any problems, each one had it's own unique problem so it definitely wasn't a problem on my side
1st board - had a really annoying buzzing issue under load
2nd board- seems like they sent me an old AR board, couldn't do crap with my Q6600
3rd board- completely broken when I got it, had -:- right off the bat
4th - the first 3 ram slots just fried after a couple hours, didn't even overclock or anything
5th- finally seemed to have gotten a fully working one, although at one point my ethernet ports seemed to have stopped working, wasn't detected at all, but unplugged my power for awhile, and the next morning it starting working again...hopefully won't get a relapse
 
We got a victory as well from EVGA. After having 3 defective boards, they were going to rma and send us another refurbished board. I was able to get a brand new factory board from them and not another used one. I truly hope number 4 is lucky. Heck it is when i play horses lol
 
Yes they waived the restocking fee. Decided to go with Abit IN9-32X Max instead. Not as pretty, but my last board was an Abit IC7 Max. I just wonder if the noise cancelling padding raised my temps to raise the board temps??

I think the 32x-MAX is one of the nicest looking boards ever.... LED's are so cool and black PCB is a nice touch, too.

I have had mine for almost two months now. My quad core runs great at 3.33GHz on a $21 air cooler, and I've got 8GB of ram that runs stock at 800MHz overclocked to 1000MHz, linked. 2 SATA drives and only one 8800GT for now, but plan to SLI a second in the future. I'll need a bigger monitor to take advantage of that though. I'm happy for those of you that have had good luck with the 680i's but also sorry there have been so many bad ones. I would acquiesce to say that, "oh I just must be lucky" but I have a hard time calling it luck when this is my 5th abit board I've built a system with, and all four of the others are still kicking strong without problems. This is the first board I've overclocked, and the experience has been excellent. It wasn't problem free by any means, but the problems were minor. For example, I had to raise the SB voltage two notches up to have maximum stability at my current speeds. This was making my PWM's hit warning temps and above when testing with Prime95. After a 10min heat pipe mod with some inexpensive AS5, I never even get close to warning temps now. Granted, Abit should've mounted the heatpipes on right in the first place, or maybe gone with something better than silent pipes altogether. But the 10 min $5 price I paid was worth it for the performance I'm getting now. This board gives you total control over everything. You can really push and tweak your system to the max.

It's a non-reference board ... maybe that has something to do with it. Anyways, Abit's working on making their 1.4 BIOS support quad Penryns. Some are already running them with mixed results, but this is another thing that makes me glad I bought this board. Just my two cents worth.
 
Ok so I bought an EVGA 122CK NF63-TR 680i SE Board, applied the TIM Mod (ArticSilver5) (Ceramique on the VRM), and everything seemed fine, until last weekend I noticed the Computer starting to Reboot all by itself, repeatedly. I said that sure seems weird, to myself, and a couple of Days Later I started getting BSOD's. THought it might be my Hard Drives, as they were Salvaged from my Abit IC7 Max3 and it appeared to be either memory or HD's. I swapped out the 2 60 Gig Maxtor SATA's for a 250 Gig SEAGATE 7200.10 16 and installed an XFI Sound Card. While I was at it, I thought I might as well bump the Voltage on the Mem to 2.1v and see if the Board would become more stable.

I reinstalled the OS on the New Drive, installed Drivers, and have been watching the System Closely for any signs of Failure or Anomylies. So far so Good!

One 1/2Baked Alaskan
 
Ok so I bought an EVGA 122CK NF63-TR 680i SE Board, applied the TIM Mod (ArticSilver5) (Ceramique on the VRM), and everything seemed fine, until last weekend I noticed the Computer starting to Reboot all by itself, repeatedly. I said that sure seems weird, to myself, and a couple of Days Later I started getting BSOD's. THought it might be my Hard Drives, as they were Salvaged from my Abit IC7 Max3 and it appeared to be either memory or HD's. I swapped out the 2 60 Gig Maxtor SATA's for a 250 Gig SEAGATE 7200.10 16 and installed an XFI Sound Card. While I was at it, I thought I might as well bump the Voltage on the Mem to 2.1v and see if the Board would become more stable.

I reinstalled the OS on the New Drive, installed Drivers, and have been watching the System Closely for any signs of Failure or Anomylies. So far so Good!

One 1/2Baked Alaskan

Hard drives are a cheap fix anymore. I hope it's not the mobo. That's some high voltage ram ya got there. I might lower the speeds/voltage just to extend its life a bit. up to you. Even memory that's spec'd to run at higher voltages will last longer if lower voltages are used, generally speaking. I like to keep mine under 2.0v just for good measure. Running a nice overclock at 1.95v with respectable timings. Let us know how your reinstall goes. Do you test with Prime95 or Orthos?
 
I've had a BFG 680i board since they launched and have had 0 issues with it. I keep my bios up to date and no crashes. I get the occasional BSOD once every few months. It's usually while i'm doing a lot of things (gaming, extracting, watching a movie on the 2nd monitor).

Current setup is running E6600 @ 3.4ghz stable. Getting a 2nd BFG 8800GTX this week to try SLI out.
 
I've had a BFG 680i board since they launched and have had 0 issues with it. I keep my bios up to date and no crashes. I get the occasional BSOD once every few months. It's usually while i'm doing a lot of things (gaming, extracting, watching a movie on the 2nd monitor).

Current setup is running E6600 @ 3.4ghz stable. Getting a 2nd BFG 8800GTX this week to try SLI out.

The only time I get BSOD's is when I'm messing with overclocking. My 680i board is remarkably stable. I'll run it for three or four days straight without a restart, gaming, editing, printing, photoshopping, etc. and won't see a single error, lockup, or BSOD. I don't think I've ever had a more stable system, even with all every single thing overclocked: north bridge, southbridge, hypertransport, 25% overclock on quad core processor, 25% overclock on cheapo ram, and a hefty overclock on my GPU. Can I overclock my hard drives?? LOL, jk. :p
 
The only time I get BSOD's is when I'm messing with overclocking. My 680i board is remarkably stable. I'll run it for three or four days straight without a restart, gaming, editing, printing, photoshopping, etc. and won't see a single error, lockup, or BSOD. I don't think I've ever had a more stable system, even with all every single thing overclocked: north bridge, southbridge, hypertransport, 25% overclock on quad core processor, 25% overclock on cheapo ram, and a hefty overclock on my GPU. Can I overclock my hard drives?? LOL, jk. :p

There is no such thing as a hyper-transport on Intel processor compatible motherboards. In any case I know what you mean. I have one EVGA 680i SLI (122-CK-NF68-AR) board out of 11 total 680i SLI reference boards I've owned and the survivor in question is overclocked and has always been overclocked. No matter what it is remarkably stable and it has never given me a BSOD or crash of any kind.
 
I'm am guessing that this only happens to most people that have OCed there PC's? Or are these problems just on the board with out any user error(or OCing) going on? I have a Evga 680i SE SLI and when i first build it, it kept restarting and shutting off then my bro did something to it when i was out and it was just working with the OS installed any everything. I don't know if i should be worried if i what to switch out my CPU or OS that it might corrupt my HDDs or something.
 
There is no such thing as a hyper-transport on Intel processor compatible motherboards. In any case I know what you mean. I have one EVGA 680i SLI (122-CK-NF68-AR) board out of 11 total 680i SLI reference boards I've owned and the survivor in question is overclocked and has always been overclocked. No matter what it is remarkably stable and it has never given me a BSOD or crash of any kind.

How come it lets you set hyper transport voltage in the bios? Now that you mention it I though hypertransport was an amd thing... but nevertheless the option is there.
 
I'm am guessing that this only happens to most people that have OCed there PC's? Or are these problems just on the board with out any user error(or OCing) going on? I have a Evga 680i SE SLI and when i first build it, it kept restarting and shutting off then my bro did something to it when i was out and it was just working with the OS installed any everything. I don't know if i should be worried if i what to switch out my CPU or OS that it might corrupt my HDDs or something.

Some people report that they are just problematic by nature. Others run them at stock with no problems whatsoever. I'm got decent overclocks on everything connected to mine and it runs like a charm. BSOD's and lockups are extremely rare. This thing is more stable than my mac!
 
I've had problems since I purchased my 680i. :mad: Heat issues from day 1, but I eventually smoothed them out. CPU runs a little hotter than I'd like but still far below critical temps. After I started getting blue screens, I determined the board was faulty then got RMA replacement. Month later I checked my 2 Corsair Dominator RAM sticks and determined they were faulty. Replaced with 2 brand new sticks. Now getting more blue screens after another month. My PC is "usable" at this point, but crashes pretty regularly. I have NOT overclocked this board at all.

I tested my 2 hard drives (RAID 0) and they both passed manufacturer tests. My temps are low. So I think my board is screwed up. Again.

All-in-all, it has been a real pain working with the 680i. Pretty disappointed as it's my first Intel-based build in years. And I've always been an nVidia fan, too.

__________________________________
Core2 Quad 6600
Tuniq Tower 120 Cooling
eVGA nForce 680i SLI
eVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W
Cooler Master Cosmos
 
well i have a xfx 680i lt first got it had a few probs updated bios problems gone i also run this with an xfx 8800gtx
 
real cheapo case motherboard and graphics only just fit cheapo 750watt psu with 60 amp on 12v rail rock soolid including windows 7
e8500 cost £190 when i got it
2gb if ram forgot what make cheap stuff anyway cost £30
xfx 680i lt cost about £50
8800gtx cost me about £50
oryxx hercules 750watt psu £40
 
I've had problems since I purchased my 680i. :mad: Heat issues from day 1, but I eventually smoothed them out. CPU runs a little hotter than I'd like but still far below critical temps. After I started getting blue screens, I determined the board was faulty then got RMA replacement. Month later I checked my 2 Corsair Dominator RAM sticks and determined they were faulty. Replaced with 2 brand new sticks. Now getting more blue screens after another month. My PC is "usable" at this point, but crashes pretty regularly. I have NOT overclocked this board at all.

I tested my 2 hard drives (RAID 0) and they both passed manufacturer tests. My temps are low. So I think my board is screwed up. Again.

All-in-all, it has been a real pain working with the 680i. Pretty disappointed as it's my first Intel-based build in years. And I've always been an nVidia fan, too.

__________________________________
Core2 Quad 6600
Tuniq Tower 120 Cooling
eVGA nForce 680i SLI
eVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W
Cooler Master Cosmos

NVIDIA chipset based designs just weren't up to par with their Intel counterparts. Given what you've said about your board, I'd check the MCP/MCH temperatures. If you are seeing temperature ranges idling around the high 40's or in the 50c+ range your board is toast.
 
NVIDIA chipset based designs just weren't up to par with their Intel counterparts.

Can you shed any light on the reasons why nVidia and AMD chipsets perform worse than Intel's products?

From a layman's view (ME) there's been enough development time that every manfg should be able to have the same speeds and compatabilities as the next guy but in the real world it's not coming down like that.

Would AMD/nVidia/whoever have to pay a royality to Intel for complete AHCI compatability or is it just that Intel has deeper pockets to make it's chipsets better?

Does AMD/who ever think they're doing just fine and further improvements aren't needed?

Do they think nobodys watching and it's a moot point?

What's the scoop?
 
Can you shed any light on the reasons why nVidia and AMD chipsets perform worse than Intel's products?

From a layman's view (ME) there's been enough development time that every manfg should be able to have the same speeds and compatabilities as the next guy but in the real world it's not coming down like that.

Would AMD/nVidia/whoever have to pay a royality to Intel for complete AHCI compatability or is it just that Intel has deeper pockets to make it's chipsets better?

Does AMD/who ever think they're doing just fine and further improvements aren't needed?

Do they think nobodys watching and it's a moot point?

What's the scoop?

Truthfully, no one outside Intel and potentially it's rivals know for sure. All I can do is speculate on the matter. There some fairly obvious reasons why Intel chipsets are better. One is that Intel does have deeper pockets for R&D and can afford to make products better than their competition. The second comes from them being the designers and manufacturer of their own processors. The chipset design teams get to work alongside the CPU design team during the development process. This no doubt yields better results then trying to manufacture compatible parts or reverse engineer Intel's designs at the CPU or at the chipset level in order to produce compatible products in the form of alternative chipsets.

What I've heard is basically the following: Intel very strictly controls what the board partners do with their chipsets. They ensure that any board using Intel chipsets follow certain design guidelines. Board makers using NVIDIA or AMD chipsets have no such guidelines to follow. Other chipset makers may also just cut corners and do less hardware validation and testing in order to make launch deadlines. Also bear in mind that other semi-conductor manufacturers are almost always years behind Intel in manufacturing capabilities and technology. This creates additional challenges for chip makers at the very least.

Given what I know about the NVIDIA 600 and 700 series chipsets I'd say the above statements are probably right on the money. The chipsets in question were plagued with early compatibility problems with audio cards and storage devices. Given that I've watched more than half a dozen 680i chipset based boards die in virtually the same way with the exact same symptoms I have to conclude that the 680i SLi, and 780i SLi chipsets are flawed silicon. Now whether or not this is a quality control issue or a design issue, I can't say for sure. To clarify on that point, I've seen many of these things run within a specific temperature range just a few degrees higher than other samples of the same model of board and chipsets. (High 30c range instead of mid to low 30c range.) Then out of no where, and nearly at any time they'll start idling at 50c+ (MCH/MCP only) then die shortly there after. This isn't a cooling situation as it happens suddenly, and only on some boards. Given how many I've seen do this, I've got to call the silicon flawed in one way or another. Initially I thought it was poor electrical design but the ASUS, MSI, and DFI boards are all subject to the same problems as the reference boards are. Though they seem a little better in that regard, the problem is consistent enough that I feel confident in my assessment of the chipsets in question.
 
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Thanks for the response.

I've always heard that the draw for AMD/nVidia is that the gamers like 'um but with the ability to choose video cards seperately from the HD controller's manfg, I just don't see why anyone would buy something other than Intel.

What am I missing here?

My first desktop board was an Asus A8N-SLI and although the NF4 never gave me major problems, I noticed the real world HD tests were definately in Intel's favor.

Unless there's a major change I'll probably never buy anything other than Intel based chipset.

I'd really like to hear from some AMD/nVidia fans to try and convince me otherwise....or at least why they didn't purchase Intel. :)
 
Thanks for the response.

I've always heard that the draw for AMD/nVidia is that the gamers like 'um but with the ability to choose video cards seperately from the HD controller's manfg, I just don't see why anyone would buy something other than Intel.

What am I missing here?

My first desktop board was an Asus A8N-SLI and although the NF4 never gave me major problems, I noticed the real world HD tests were definately in Intel's favor.

Unless there's a major change I'll probably never buy anything other than Intel based chipset.

I'd really like to hear from some AMD/nVidia fans to try and convince me otherwise....or at least why they didn't purchase Intel. :)

You have to understand that no new chipsets are being made to support Intel processors by anyone other than Intel right now. AMD has no licensing agreement to do so, and neither does NVIDIA. Since the introduction of the X58 chipset enthusiasts have been able to run one motherboard and choose any multi-GPU technology they wanted. X58 supports Crossfire/CrossfireX and SLI/3-Way SLI/Quad-SLI. In the Core 2 days this wasn't the case. NVIDIA wouldn't license SLI to Intel for use with thier own chipsets thus locking you into buying NVIDIA chipset based boards. AMD didn't really make chipsets for Intel so much and instead licensed Crossfire to Intel. So virtually all Intel chipset based boards with two PCI-Express x16 slots going back to the i955x chipset support Crossfire. It isn't even that Intel chipsets were incapable of supporting SLI. It is that NVIDIA locked the feature out when the video card drivers failed to detect an NVIDIA chipset driver running on the system.
 
NVIDIA wouldn't license SLI to Intel for use with thier own chipsets thus locking you into buying NVIDIA chipset based boards. AMD didn't really make chipsets for Intel so much and instead licensed Crossfire to Intel. So virtually all Intel chipset based boards with two PCI-Express x16 slots going back to the i955x chipset support Crossfire. It isn't even that Intel chipsets were incapable of supporting SLI. It is that NVIDIA locked the feature out when the video card drivers failed to detect an NVIDIA chipset driver running on the system.

Ahh Yes...now I remember that boondoggle.

I guess it's a lot simpler not being a gamer! :D
 
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