bad 680i eVGA?

M

maximus1284

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 18, 2007
Messages
179
so I did my PC build recently and have been using my eVGA 680i A1 w/ P26 BIOS for about a week. everything has been working fine until now. I've had a few BSODs today, my first instinct was to think I got one of the bad boards I've been reading about for weeks. but I'm wondering if it could be something else? software? heat? I dunno. I definitely haven't OCed anything, all I did was change my SmartFan settings...I recently installed some video codecs (divx) and I've noticed java programs (frostwire, azureus) don't work. frostwire won't load at all and after when I installed azureus (which works) is when I first started noticing more frequent BSODs. I may have had 1 or 2 prior to that. anyway I really don't want this problem to be the dreaded bad 680i mobo problem, I'd hate to take my PC apart, RMA, then wait and build again :\ How would I know for sure that this is a bad 680i? what are the tell tale signs other than BSODs?

other specs:
e6600 c2d
2GB Corsair 8500 Dominators
3x 320GB Seagate Barracuda's w/ 16MB Cache (raid 5)
Soundblaster X-fi Xtrememusic
1x Geforce 8800 GTX
PC Power & Supply 750W Silencer
 
Some people have been able to fix issues with their eVGA 680i boards by replacing the thermal paste which comes on NB and SB heatsinks. Although, i'm not sure how this would effect warranty.
 
I think it voids the warranty, and I don't see how that would affect how the mobo performs other than slightly reducing some temps, which aren't a problem

anyway, I've got XP and Vista in a dual boot, and I've been using XP for a few days now. these BSODs started occuring yesterday. if the problem is related to software or drivers then my PC shouldn't BSOD in Vista, correct? I won't be able to test this for a couple days though, but I'll keep my fingers crossed that at the most all I'll have to do is a reformat...


anyone know how I can be sure that my board is actually causing the problems? (other than what I just posted). is there a key message in the BSOD screen I should look for?
 
Mansize_tissue said:
Some people have been able to fix issues with their eVGA 680i boards by replacing the thermal paste which comes on NB and SB heatsinks. Although, i'm not sure how this would effect warranty.
Click to expand...


You can can replace the thermal paste and it wont void your warranty.
 
What is the BSOD error?

Do you have Nvidia Network Access Manager installed? It was causing my comptuer to reboot (auto reboot after bsod). Uninstalled and now its been running great 24/7 oced and 2x folding when I'm not using it.

Download driver cleaner as well and you will need to reinstall your video drivers (uninstalling it removed my nvidia control panel as well :rolleyes: )
 
I recently had a problem with my EVGA mobo (but not related). If you suspect it is your mobo, you can RMA it - they will provide cross shipping as long as you registered your mobo within 30 days of your purchase date.

Also, RAM has also been a problem with BSODs in my experience.

I think there's a a P27 reivsion of the BIOS - could try flashing.
 
great feedback, thanks guys. more feedback is appreciated of course

yeah I definitely want to try and rule out everything before I go through an RMA. RMAing would be a complete pain, and I don't want to resort to doing that as my first option. I definitely want to see if I can find something thats causing problems and fix it myself. I want to point out again that this just happened Thursday night and I've only been using my PC for about a week...some of the nvidia drivers have been on there the entire time, so I don't know. testing this out in my Vista partition should tell me a lot. if it crashes in Vista, P27 will be the first thing I try

can someone post instructions or a link on how to remove/apply thermal paste to my NB/SB? I'd look for it but I'm actually at work right now lol...

also what is the recommended voltage for my corsair 8500 dominators? right now my mobo has it set at 800MHz btw, I haven't moved it up to 1066 yet
 
jmackay said:
What is the BSOD error?

Do you have Nvidia Network Access Manager installed? It was causing my comptuer to reboot (auto reboot after bsod). Uninstalled and now its been running great 24/7 oced and 2x folding when I'm not using it.

Download driver cleaner as well and you will need to reinstall your video drivers (uninstalling it removed my nvidia control panel as well :rolleyes: )
Click to expand...

I've seen at least 2 of them, one of them definitely had "NV" in it, so it would be nvidia related. I can't remember the other. btw are BSODs hurting my PC in anyway?
 
maximus1284 said:
can someone post instructions or a link on how to remove/apply thermal paste to my NB/SB? I'd look for it but I'm actually at work right now lol...
Click to expand...

I've been reading up a lot on the eVGA forum lately about problems with their 680i board. Reading through a 13-page RAM compatibility problem thread, it didn't really give any conclusive solutions. Not there are relevant here, anyway.

Have a read through this thread.

Also, here's a link to a thread which illustrates how to redo the thermal paste on the NB and SB. It's lucky i was looking through these the other day, huh?
 
maximus1284 said:
great feedback, thanks guys. more feedback is appreciated of course

yeah I definitely want to try and rule out everything before I go through an RMA. RMAing would be a complete pain, and I don't want to resort to doing that as my first option. I definitely want to see if I can find something thats causing problems and fix it myself. I want to point out again that this just happened Thursday night and I've only been using my PC for about a week...some of the nvidia drivers have been on there the entire time, so I don't know. testing this out in my Vista partition should tell me a lot. if it crashes in Vista, P27 will be the first thing I try

can someone post instructions or a link on how to remove/apply thermal paste to my NB/SB? I'd look for it but I'm actually at work right now lol...

also what is the recommended voltage for my corsair 8500 dominators? right now my mobo has it set at 800MHz btw, I haven't moved it up to 1066 yet
Click to expand...
I recommend against the P27 BIOS, your call though. the RAM seems to work best for me at 1066mhz or faster(unlinked at a 2:3 fsb/memory ratio) with the voltage set at 2.15 in BIOS.

I installed P27 and my system locked up the first time I tried to play a game, flashed back to the proven P26 and it works fine again now.

If you are running dual boot from the same partitioned HDD, you could be getting driver conflicts.
 
really interesting...I've been in Vista now about 2 hours today, no BSODs, no errors what so ver

I'll load into XP and see what happens, if it BSODs I'm going to uninstall some of that nvidia garbage
 
XP has been running fine for about 20-30 minutes now, no problems, odd. if I get any BSODs I'll uninstall the NVIDIA Forceware Network Access Manager. I recall not having any problems before I started changing those settings, maybe I'll also try putting them back to default before uninstalling.

anyway, I have noticed my keyboard won't respond for about 2-3 seconds now, or sometimes repeats the same key for awhile. this was happening in Vista too. my keyboard and mouse are both logitech USB products
 
Any updates to your errors?

I started getting BSODs, random lock ups and delays, and then my machine wouldn't POST with a C1 error (was getting some 1d errors as well). It appears that that the memory controller has died and in the process of RMAing it now (RMA approved in one day, now waiting for them to cross ship, says it can take up to two business days).

In my case the BSODs appeared very randomly, orthos, 3dmark06 and games would work fine. I'd click a Internet link and then my machine would crash. Then it had problems POSTing sometimes, and then nothing.

EVGA thought it was the ram that died (I was underclocking it thanks to the thread on the evga forums about it being a ram killer), but the ram works fine in another machine... so hopefully it is the memory controller and I will be back up and running when my new board gets here.
 
my random BSODs I think mostly went away when I turned off all of the NVIDA Network stuff that I had enabled. I think I may still have a couple random ones.

actually I came back to this thread because I'm getting similar problems now that you are having. at first I thought it was my mouse or keyboard, or a combo of the two. they are both logitech products so I don't know. the keyboard definitely started having problems in the USB slot. keys would repeat 2-3 seconds. then I thought it started causing my PC to freeze and hang on boot, sometimes freeze while booting. usually unplugging it from the USB would appear to fix it. I tried using it in the PS/2 slot. that cured my randomly repeating keys issue, but it still would randomly freeze or hang...so I thought it was my mouse. because I was still having the hang/freeze issues with the mouse plugged in. finally yesterday I tried testing with the keyboard no mouse, with mouse no keyboard, and with nothing, and I believe it froze in all 3 situations. pretty sure my mouse/keyboard aren't the problem, but I may try to RMA them just in case. it felt like the computer was more problematic with them in, but I still had problems without them so who knows. that repetitive key issue was most likely the keyboard acting up too, and not mobo-related

this has all happened this week. in the past day or two there have been times where I would try to boot with no peripherals plugged in after a few freezes in windows and while booting, and if I let it sit there long enough there have been a couple times I've received the error: "Warning! Now System is in Safe Mode! Please reset CPU or Memory Frequency in the CMOS setup." this happens on the first boot screen right after CPU/memory are detected, and I think IDE/SATA. the problem is I didn't change any settings, and I can't access CMOS when this error occurs. all the CPU/Memory settings are on default, and my 1066 memory is still running at the default 800. memory tests show no errors. my mobo LED has the "75" on it, I'm going to check the manual to see what that means. I'm thinking of updating the bios today just to see what happens. I'll probably have to RMA though :mad:
 
haven't tried that yet. the freezes generally occur after being on for awhile, and then I get the freeze that won't let me boot past the first CPU/Memory screen after a couple freezes in windows. so there might be a window where I can reset to default from the BIOS Screen or update my BIOS. it doesn't sound like there is much I can do though
 
hmm, so I've been messing with some things tonight and it seems like it is peripheral related. I haven't tried resetting my BIOS or updating it yet

so before I was using my logitech (latest SetPoint drivers) keyboard and mouse as USB devices, but I began using my keyboard as a PS/2 device because my keyboard would randomly repeat a key for 2-3 seconds. I think switching my keyboard to PS/2 was about the time I started having freeze issues. I'm not sure if it happened with both in USB plugs...I wonder if I was running into the PS/2 error that initially plagued these boards? or maybe some peripheral or driver conflict? I don't know

I've tested a couple scenarios with/without my mouse/keyboard connected and had some mixed results, I'll test this out some more. freezes occured, but I can't remember under which specific scenarios such as using a mouse no keyboard, keyboard no mouse, etc. I'll test with the keyboard in the PS/2 and USB as well

it might not be that old PS/2 problem, because I'm running my keyboard/mouse now as USB devices and have had a couple hangs, but unplugging the keyboard and mouse have solved it and returned my PC to normal operation. I'll test a few different things for sure tomorrow and do some reading on this...maybe its just a crappy keyboard that is causing my pc problems?

btw, I'm using a logitech G7 wireless gaming mouse, and a logitech media elite USB keyboard
 
can anybody tell me about USB or PS/2 peripheral problems with this evga 680i SLI mobo?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top