evga 680i weird booting issue

Arcane · 27 Aug 2007 at 10:08

I've had a strange error pop up on my 680i. When I reboot I get the infamous -- code on the readout. I power down, unplug from wall, reset cmos, remove battery, discharge power, leave a while then put reset cmos back in original position, put battery in and voila! it boots, (FF) However, if I go into bios (DEL) and change anything the same error (--) happens on reboot and I have to do it again, if I go F1 it'll boot straight into windows and will run all day UNTIL I attempt to reboot. I've done nothing to it recently that I can pin it down to, it's very frustrating!

Thanks in advance.

w3bbo · 27 Aug 2007 at 10:48

What bios are you using and by 'changing anything' do you mean changing overclocking options or basicly 'anything'?

Arcane · 27 Aug 2007 at 14:04

Using P30. Basically anything at all would cause it not to boot, (date and time for example). I've just reflashed it to see if the bios has got corrupted somehow and now it'll boot intermitently but I'm getting a CPU safe mode error. What I don't get is that there's been no changes made since I flashed to P30 (weeks ago) but that it's just started to play up now, I can't pin down anything that would have caused it.

w3bbo · 27 Aug 2007 at 14:14

Have you got another motherboard battery you could try? It's a long shot but it might just do it.

Also after flashing to P30 bios MAKE SURE you do a full cmos clear directly after flashing. If your clocks(time) reset then you did it right, if not then take out the battery and leave it for 5 mins, sometimes the jumper is not enough.

Arcane · 27 Aug 2007 at 14:31

Thanks, I'll give it a go.

Arcane · 27 Aug 2007 at 17:13

I flashed back to p28 as I didn't seem to be having any luck with p30, i removed the battery and got the full reset. Now I can boot in and out of windows ok and can set up everything as before except the two options for C1E and Virtualisation, if I disable those then the same issue reoccurs and I have to pull the battery. Thanks for the help, btw...at least I can play bioshock now!

Arcane · 11 Sep 2007 at 21:03

Ok, well I decided to try a new bios chip and replace the battery (thanks for the suggestion W3bbo)

. I can now do everything in the bios that I used to be able to, so it looks like it was a dodgy flash or dead battery, i'm hearing mixed reports on p30, (though how much is user error is anyone's guess), quite a few people claiming all kinds of problems, of course just as many saying all is well. My Samsung DVD drive appears to have died on me at the same time...not a great week, if this board can survive until x38/ nforce 7's are out then i'll be happy.

w3bbo · 12 Sep 2007 at 09:50

Glad you got it sorted in the end.

P30 is best for quads - P28 was best for Duals in my experience.