NVIDIA nForce 680i Chipset Problems

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
Staff member
Joined
May 18, 1997
Messages
55,601
NVIDIA nForce 680i Chipset Problems - Out of the gate, the nForce 680i chipset from NVIDIA seemed to be the best Core 2 Duo overclocker going, that is of course when your system is not plagued with BSODs and data errors. You need to read this if you are considering a 680i motherboard.

We have been holding off a week or so on addressing this in hopes that we would have some solutions or answers for you, but those have not come forth. Some of the nForce 680i motherboards have some serious storage issues that can render a system build useless. Not all nForce 680i boards exhibit this problem. The problem does not seem to be confined to certain system configurations as some motherboards will work with a specific configuration while others will not. The problem also seems to spread across all 680i motherboards regardless of brand judging from feedback across Internet forums.
Click to expand...

Please Digg our story here. Thanks for the support!
 
The 8800GTX/680i launch was a half baked launch at best from Nvidia and its a shame to see them rush this product to market in this state. My previous AMD/7900GTX SLI platform is far far more stable than my new 680i build.

When people are dropping close to $2K on 2 GPU's and a new Motherboard alone and getting flaky results its certainly difficult to remain excited about Nvidia. Its a shame because Nvidia is not doing the Intel platform justice.. as my other 6700 build with my Asus 975X/ATI Crossfire setup performs wonderfully.

To be fair my EVGA 680i with 2 150GB Raptors in Raid 0 and 2 750GB Sata drives for storage does not have BSOD or IO errors but the crackling sound and low GPU performance is enough of a disappointment.
 
Maybe I am just lucky, but I haven’t had any problems with my new build (knock on wood).
-no soud issues
-no bsod's
-no locking up

fully stable maybe I am just lucky!

Here are my specs...

XP Pro (slipstream sp2 and updates with mb drivers)
E6600 @ 3.4ghz (infinity heatsink)
Corsair 8500c5 2gb
EVGA 8800gts
EVGA 680i
ocz gamestream 700
creative labs xfi plat
1x 150gb raptor sata - might make an image of this..
1x 250gb seagate sata
*no raid*
 
New eVGA 680i build here for the past week and have not had any issues. This bums me out though. I have not had an Intel based build in about 5 years and I hope no issues arise. $250 for a motherboard is not cheap.
 
mmm so glad Im waiting until tax refund to build a new system. Plenty of time for all the kinks to get worked out.
 
ASUS P5n32-E SLI here.
Set-up:
[email protected] (so far)
Corsair 6400C4 SLI memory set to "optimal"
8800GTX x 2 97.44
X-fi extreme music
one 250GB WD SATA II drive
XP Home SP2
original bios so far.
Not one single problem to date. I had an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe and this board compares very well. I find it very easy to work with and very stable so far, but I haven't pushed it too far yet.
 
TheGameguru said:
The 8800GTX/680i launch was a half baked launch at best from Nvidia and its a shame to see them rush this product to market in this state. My previous AMD/7900GTX SLI platform is far far more stable than my new 680i build.

When people are dropping close to $2K on 2 GPU's and a new Motherboard alone and getting flaky results its certainly difficult to remain excited about Nvidia. Its a shame because Nvidia is not doing the Intel platform justice.. as my other 6700 build with my Asus 975X/ATI Crossfire setup performs wonderfully.

To be fair my EVGA 680i with 2 150GB Raptors in Raid 0 and 2 750GB Sata drives for storage does not have BSOD or IO errors but the crackling sound and low GPU performance is enough of a disappointment.
Click to expand...

I had every reported 680i problem all at once on one board. Stability issues, storage issues, performance issues, sound issues.
 
I have the eVGA, a BFG 8800GTS, Crucial Ballistix, e6600 and a BFG 800W PS coming by tomorrow. Now I am scared to build it. I haven't used Intel since the 90's, now I'm not sure what to do. I use my system for work and I can't afford errors.

Maybe I'll build it on a testbed and see if I get errors, if not, I'll throw it in my case.
 
Well good Kyle has balls to say when something is wrong.

Well no wonder nvidia has IDE and SATA problems. They have had it allways.

There is a though a post in Our forum of some one having this SATA problems and lot's of BSOD's. He changed HDD's and tryed everything and situation was just a same. He said with new BIOS it seams to work now for Him though it might be that it just takes longer time to corrupt data. Well we need some pations to see how is it going to work out.

BTW, nice mainboard magoo. I'm thinking of getting it my self. It's a Striker without of onboard switches and LCD basicly. It costs like min 100$ less then Striker here in Netherlands and has same 8 phase design. It shares same PCB as striker to. Well it has less complicated and smaller cooling sysem then striker although I have been hearing Strikers heatpipe design has some heat issues?

Well anyways I can wait.

Anyways I have to wait for new drivers for GTS anyways. BTW what happend with a driver lounch that was specualted for this week?






MD
 
I've been using nVidia chipsets since the original nForce (LOVE Dolby Digital Live). I currently have systems running on nForce 1, nForce 2, nForce 4 SLI, nForce SLI X16, and 680i boards. The X16 and 680i are both new builds with an FX55 and E6400, respectively. So far I have had no problems with the nVidia chipsets or the storage controllers on nForce boards.

The X16 has a Seagate 7200.9 250 GB SATA with XP Pro 32 bit, and the 680i has 2 x 36 GB Raptors (16MB cache) in RAID0 with XP Pro 64 bit. With both of these new builds, there is often a period of about 30 seconds after the desktop comes up where the system is unresponsive, then everything is normal. On the 680i, when I tell the system to shut down, it hangs with an hourglass cursor and I have to power down manually. The 680i is currently stress testing with 3 instances of Prime95 with the CPU at 3.4 GHz and the RAM at stock speed. I have had no bluescreens, crashes, or other evidence of data corruption; just the delay at desktop initialization and the hang at shutdown.

I use a 7900GTX SLI setup, so I either stick with an nVidia board for my main system or dig up the hacked Forceware drivers. I am hoping I can fix my startup/shutdown delays by fiddling with the software, but now I have to wonder if I'm getting my first taste of nForce woes. The fact that it's suddenly happening for me on 2 different boards still makes me think there's something with the software, but I have to consider the possibility that it's not.
 
Is anyone also seeing CPU heat issues on the 680i? I am wondering if its reporting wrong or they are running hotter.
 
Any idea if these problems will be happening on the 650i boards that are showing up?
 
Alpha pre9060
Intel E6600
Evga 680i mb
Evga 8800gtx
SilverStone ST75ZF
WD sata 120Gb wd120jb

Right now I am testing system on vista rc2 untill winxp pro comes in. I have noticed that on the mb the the top right hand side the caps are really loose to the point I don't want to get near them for fear of breaking off.

site1053.jpg
 
Crimson said:
Maybe I am just lucky, but I haven’t had any problems with my new build (knock on wood).
-no soud issues
-no bsod's
-no locking up

fully stable maybe I am just lucky!

Here are my specs...

XP Pro (slipstream sp2 and updates with mb drivers)
E6600 @ 3.4ghz (infinity heatsink)
Corsair 8500c5 2gb
EVGA 8800gts
EVGA 680i
ocz gamestream 700
creative labs xfi plat
1x 150gb raptor sata - might make an image of this..
1x 250gb seagate sata
*no raid*
Click to expand...


Likewise, my system is stable running at the specs in my signature. The only issue is with the PS/2 KB. It beeps and skip characters once in a while. I have yet to try a USB KB board.
 
You might think about updating the 2006 Holiday build guide. I just had my little brother use that as his starting point for his machine, and I know for sure he got that eVGA 680i motherboard from the $2800 system. I've been an AMD guy for a quite a while, so I deferred to the guide when it came to what mobo and proc to get.

He's pretty damn excited about building his own PC for the very first time, and having a machine that isn't stable would be a pretty big letdown for him. Oh well, I'm sure not every one of these mobos has the issue, so hopefully we'll get a good one.
 
My eVGA wouldn't even fucking post. I've been looking forward to getting a nice PC for years, get done with finals, then when I try to build my PC it won't even post. I tried everything I could think of/read and just had to RMA the damn board.

So much for enoying my break. By the time I get this POS to work I probably won't have any time to enjoy it.
 
JBark said:
You might think about updating the 2006 Holiday build guide. I just had my little brother use that as his starting point for his machine, and I know for sure he got that eVGA 680i motherboard from the $2800 system. I've been an AMD guy for a quite a while, so I deferred to the guide when it came to what mobo and proc to get.

He's pretty damn excited about building his own PC for the very first time, and having a machine that isn't stable would be a pretty big letdown for him. Oh well, I'm sure not every one of these mobos has the issue, so hopefully we'll get a good one.
Click to expand...

Not every board has these problems. The Striker I've got works fine, but my eVGA didn't work. That's what Kyle was talking about in the part of the article titled Some 680i suck, some don't.
 
magoo said:
ASUS P5n32-E SLI here.
Set-up:
[email protected] (so far)
Corsair 6400C4 SLI memory set to "optimal"
8800GTX x 2 97.44
X-fi extreme music
one 250GB WD SATA II drive
XP Home SP2
original bios so far.
Not one single problem to date. I had an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe and this board compares very well. I find it very easy to work with and very stable so far, but I haven't pushed it too far yet.
Click to expand...

I just picked up and mounted my P5N32-E SLI in my case last night. Waiting for the TWIN2XP2048-6400C4 to come in to POST for the first time. I have a new E6600 and an old 7800GTX for now along with a new SATAII HD and a new Thermaltake 650 PSU to round out the system.

Is that the exact memory you used by any chance? I'm a little nervous about the RAM since it's not on the QVL anymore (I'm a dummy and didn't recheck it before ordering) but Corsair said it's gtg for this board.
 
No problems here with the ASUS P5N32-E SLI board.

E6600 at 3.375 GHz (9 * 375)
Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 (4-4-4-12-1T) running at 800 MHz. SLI memory set to Expert.
2 x 320 GB Seagate 7200.10 (No raid)

The only problem I'm having is getting the chip to run at a 400 MHz bus, so I can run the E6600 at 3.6 GHz :)
 
Hey all,

Not sure about everyone else's experience outside of the posts here, but I have not touched this board subsequent to a week after I purchased it.

Very disappointed in the (lack of) stability this board provides.

I originally installed Windows XP in non-overclocked, 1 memory stick, no performance enhancing mode. Linkboost off, command queuing off. I generally do this for any build, then install all my other software, and "image" the PC. Then I insert more memory and play with overclocking settings.

The first WinXP install did not finish, as I received a blue-screen after the first re-boot. The second time was successful but occasionally didn't boot properly. Subsequent re-boots were hit-and-miss (mostly miss).

MemTest showed no problems after two hours. The sticks I used were OCZ, Elixir, and Kingston. All sticks are perfectly fine in at least two other boards. No combination of sticks (1, 2, 4, rotated in slots, etc...) was stable.

No overclocking was stable, with BSODs and general boot issues. I use a USB Saitek gamer's keyboard (Eclipse). The board lights up whenever the computer boots, It then goes dark during boot afterwards until Windows scans and "re-activates" the lit keyboard. Many times the keyboard would not light up at all until Windows started, and other times Windows would not even start and keyboard would remain dark. When this happened I needed to hard shut-off the system by using the power supply on/off switch.

Occasionally I end up with a check disk run during reboots for no reason. No Event Viewer entries prior to the boot, just entries showing disk corruption. Once I see disk corruption, the board is taken out.

My system is fairly good:

C2D e6400
Asus 8800GTS (non-sli, just one board)
Enermax Liberty 620w
Lian-Li PC-60 Plus case (with excellent cooling)
Seagate 7200.10 320GB hard disk
Auzentech HD-A Xplosion 7.1

Memory sticks tried:
OCZ PC-6400 Platinum, Special OPS-PC-5400 (1GB sticks x 2 each)
2x1 GB Elixir PC-5400 sticks
1x1 GB Kingston kvnr667/1G (5300 stick)

I am now happily back to my Gigabyte DS-3 with my C2D running perfectly at 3.00Ghz.

I also had to restore the DS3 image I had because the WinXP installed from the 680i was corrupted and would even blue screen on the DS3, which has been super-stable at 3.0Ghz since purchase.

I'm really hoping that the 680i problems are sorted out properly. Realistically, if it is a hardware bug, we should all be able to RMA these boards and get the updated design in return, on nVidia's tab.

I have used the Asus P5B-Deluxe WiFi, and the Gigabyte DS3, and both boards have been rock stable with this CPU (and others) at 3.0Ghz or higher. Both were at least $50.00 less expensive, but barring that, had this been my only system/motherboard, I'd feel cheated.

Sorry for the excessive "wind".

Best o' luck,

10e
 
Im really gutted about this, i had the money this weekend to go and buy one of these boards with e6400 and some gskill memory. I could take the plunge and gamble but too much arsing around when i have a watercool setup and the board maybe one of the dodgy ones. might settle for an asus p5b for the time being
 
Forgot to mention:

I have the Evga ck-122 board, and updated the BIOS.

Strongly recommend the following C2D MBs:

1) Asus P5B Deluxe (with latest BIOS)
2) Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 with F7 BIOS
3) Asus P5W-DH

The only distinguishing factors are feature-set. Just in case someone reads this thread and is also looking for alternatives.

Cheers,

10e
 
Dan_D said:
Not every board has these problems. The Striker I've got works fine, but my eVGA didn't work. That's what Kyle was talking about in the part of the article titled Some 680i suck, some don't.
Click to expand...

Right, but even a heads up would be good. I had absolutely zero idea until today that there were any possible issues with the 680i motherboards. If I had known about it, I would have at least researched a bit into the problem.

Heck, I think I would have went with a 680i motherboard anyway, but knowing about the issue sure saves me a lot of debug time if something does go wrong.
 
System:
C2D e6600 @ stock
BFG 680i SLI
Corsair PC6400C4D 2GB
BFG 8800GTX
Soundblaster XiFi XtremeGamer Fata1ity Pro
WD Raptor 150GB
Thermaltake 850W
WinXp x64

I had severe stability issues when I first started building my system. Constant freezes and bsod stop errors (different every time). After upgrading the bios I still had the errors. Realized that the memory command rate was being detected and set as 1T, changed to 2T and the freezes stopped but the bsod still occured. Moved the raptor drive to a different SATA slot, mb has 4 in a line then 2 by the floppy connector. I originally was using the ones near the floppy, switched to one near the memory modules and reinstalled everything. Memtest86, prime95 stable. Computer hasn't froze, locked, bsod or anything in over 2days that I've beat on it.

My recommendations:
1) fix the damn bios so it detects memory correctly.
2) probable error with the other sata ports as I think those are on a different chip.
3) fix nTune & monitor for x64, doesn't work for me.
 
JBark said:
Right, but even a heads up would be good. I had absolutely zero idea until today that there were any possible issues with the 680i motherboards. If I had known about it, I would have at least researched a bit into the problem.

Heck, I think I would have went with a 680i motherboard anyway, but knowing about the issue sure saves me a lot of debug time if something does go wrong.
Click to expand...

That's why I've been posting all my issues and progress on my own 680i horror story in the forums. This is also why Kyle wrote that article on the front page, and why we are now working on a follow up article to the Striker Extreme Review.

I recommend always researching every computer purchase to a degree before actually buying anything. If you had done enough research, and read enough forum posts you might have been aware of these issues earlier. My issues have been the subject matter of many forum discussions for over two weeks now.
 
Taodragon00 said:
System:
C2D e6600 @ stock
BFG 680i SLI
Corsair PC6400C4D 2GB
BFG 8800GTX
Soundblaster XiFi XtremeGamer Fata1ity Pro
WD Raptor 150GB
Thermaltake 850W
WinXp x64

I had severe stability issues when I first started building my system. Constant freezes and bsod stop errors (different every time). After upgrading the bios I still had the errors. Realized that the memory command rate was being detected and set as 1T, changed to 2T and the freezes stopped but the bsod still occured. Moved the raptor drive to a different SATA slot, mb has 4 in a line then 2 by the floppy connector. I originally was using the ones near the floppy, switched to one near the memory modules and reinstalled everything. Memtest86, prime95 stable. Computer hasn't froze, locked, bsod or anything in over 2days that I've beat on it.

My recommendations:
1) fix the damn bios so it detects memory correctly.
2) probable error with the other sata ports as I think those are on a different chip.
3) fix nTune & monitor for x64, doesn't work for me.
Click to expand...

I had the same problem (and same memory) with it detecting the command rate as 1T, but so far it's been running stable at this setting for me. Maybe I should change it to 2T though? Hmm ...
 
JBark said:
You might think about updating the 2006 Holiday build guide. I just had my little brother use that as his starting point for his machine, and I know for sure he got that eVGA 680i motherboard from the $2800 system. I've been an AMD guy for a quite a while, so I deferred to the guide when it came to what mobo and proc to get.

He's pretty damn excited about building his own PC for the very first time, and having a machine that isn't stable would be a pretty big letdown for him. Oh well, I'm sure not every one of these mobos has the issue, so hopefully we'll get a good one.
Click to expand...

That was done this morning already.
 
I'm glad I didn't jump the gun this time, learned my lesson from the past. People call it the bleeding edge for a reason; wait to see how issues with new hardware are handled by the manufacturers first before droping my hard earned $$$.

I wish you luck with your board peeps, evga has been kind in the past I'm sure they will get the problems resolved ASAP. Hang in there. :)
 
diableri said:
I just picked up and mounted my P5N32-E SLI in my case last night. Waiting for the TWIN2XP2048-6400C4 to come in to POST for the first time. I have a new E6600 and an old 7800GTX for now along with a new SATAII HD and a new Thermaltake 650 PSU to round out the system.

Is that the exact memory you used by any chance? I'm a little nervous about the RAM since it's not on the QVL anymore (I'm a dummy and didn't recheck it before ordering) but Corsair said it's gtg for this board.
Click to expand...
Yes I believe you have the right memory......Twin2X 2048-6400C4 (corsair xms2 memory with EPP and SLI ready) I put it in and the computer booted right up, no problems.
 
jfreund said:
With both of these new builds, there is often a period of about 30 seconds after the desktop comes up where the system is unresponsive, then everything is normal.
Click to expand...

I've experienced this, try this, unplug your network cable while the system is booting. I've got a theory that it is either A.) the system negotiating with the DHCP (some kind of lag there) or B.) the video card when the drivers are installed. If you boot without video card drivers being installed for example boot may be faster, or, if you unplug your network cable, so experiment with that. It isn't a major problem, just a minor issue.
 
3NF said:
No problems here with the ASUS P5N32-E SLI board.

E6600 at 3.375 GHz (9 * 375)
Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 (4-4-4-12-1T) running at 800 MHz. SLI memory set to Expert.
2 x 320 GB Seagate 7200.10 (No raid)

The only problem I'm having is getting the chip to run at a 400 MHz bus, so I can run the E6600 at 3.6 GHz :)
Click to expand...

Dude, maybe we got the only two good boards in the US???? :eek:
 
I used Alienware's configurator and they use 680i motherboards in their computers. I'm sure they do a hefty volume. I tried to view their forum for 680i problems, but I can't get in without an Alienware account number.
 
jweller13 said:
I used Alienware's configurator and they use 680i motherboards in their computers. I'm sure they do a hefty volume. I tried to view their forum for 680i problems, but I can't get in without an Alienware account number.
Click to expand...

While the problems with the 680i are very real, I'd imagine that the bulk of the problems are isolated to a small percentage of boards sold and that people like me who have experienced problems are in the minority.
 
Purchased and put together last week the following PC-

Intel Core 3 Duo E6700 4Mb
EVGA 680I Sk 775 MB
EVGA 800GTX 768Mb
WD 150Gb Raptor
WD YS Series 400Gb SATAII
OCZ XTC SLI Certified PC8000 2Gb DC Kit (1024Mb x 2)
OCZ 850W GAMEXTREME PSU
Artic Cooling Freezer 7 CPU Cooler
ANTEC 900 ATX PSU

Did not have any problems after I upgraded the BIOS from EVGA, what so ever....
CPU OC'd to 3750Mhz- 1.50v Core- And have successfully run Prime 95 for 22hrs, with 3dmark 06 looped for that period. Max temp 42 C.

Being a AMD guy until this rig, I'm very pleased with the stability of the board and the overclocking ability is nothing short of amazing.

Saying this I'm leery on the RAID side, I've always stayed away from onboard RAID and went with a PCI raid controller until my A8N-SLI Premium, and I ended up doing a stripe set on 2 74Gb Raptors. But every once and a while the set would stop for unknown reasons until I rebooted. My expirence with onboard RAID has been less then satisfying.

Maybe the issue is related to RAID...... 1st gen chipset, new hardware, new bugs......
You kind of have to expect it....

But my expirence to this point has been nothing short of amazing. I love the Chipset, Board, CPU and obviously the VC!

Whippingboy
 
I guess I am one of the few lucky people with a board that has had zero problems from day one. Mann I feel very fortunate, I would say. :D
 
Well during the Striker Extreme review, I never had any issues with the board. Once I put it in my machine, it's been great. I've had no issues outside of those created from overclocking.
 
dR.Jester said:
mmm so glad Im waiting until tax refund to build a new system. Plenty of time for all the kinks to get worked out.
Click to expand...

Me too. Even if i didn't have to wait for the money, I'm not likely to jump on the new technology for this reason too.
 
I hate to sound like a fanb0y here.

But there is a reason I've stuck with Intel.... IE: their motherboards.

My few experiences with non-Intel boards have soured me forever.
Ok, not forever, but before I give any other board a chance it needs to prove itself rock solid for many months from MANY people.

I was very tempted by the NF4 & X2 combination, but ultimately my Pentium D @ 4Ghz held me over until Core 2.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top